Questions about Arizona

[adriver]

yes, tax and all. 13 year old Silverado.

"The fee to obtain a driver license is between $10 and $25. You can determine how much it will cost you at the Motor Vehicle Department website. The fee to register your vehicle is generally less than $15, but there is an additional vehicle license tax (VLT) assessed at the time of registration. This is the equivalent of the personal property tax charged by other states. The more valuable your vehicle, the higher the VLT will be. The VLT is based on an assessed value of 60% of the manufacturer’s base retail price reduced by 16.25% for each year since the vehicle was first registered in Arizona. The rate is calculated at $2.80 (new vehicles) / $2.89 (used vehicles) for each $100 of the assessed value. Naturally, it follows that you can expect a newer model, high end vehicle to have an annual fee of several hundred dollars. Each year that you own the vehicle, the value will decline, as will the amount of the vehicle license tax you will have to pay."

So, were talking mostly only for new vehicles, and only for the first time they are registered in Arizona. This is not the first time I registered it here, I don't recall what it was the first time. A

A new $30K vehicle will pay $504 for the first year, a year later $435, 2 years in $364.

[Prickly Pear]

1. 1. I can't comment on this as I don't really know in comparison to Washington. As others have stated, our registration is pretty ridiculous, but I feel that Arizona does pretty well in general in comparison to most states.
   
2. 2. I live in Downtown Glendale and I can be on the far side of the White Tanks in about 30 minutes. Out there you can go shooting and take your dirt bikes out. There are also some places to go shooting in North Phoenix by the I-17 and Carefree Highway which are pretty good (also some closer to Lake Pleasant as well). For dirt bikes there is also a really good track called Canyon that's near Lake Pleasant, along the Carefree Highway, that I recommend looking at OP. There are some other good dirt bike tracks out in Southeast Valley by Mesa and Gilbert. If dirt bike accessibility is a priority I recommend living closer to the outskirts, which will also favor shooting as well and lower rents. But even though I would say I live inside the metro fairly close in, I live only a few miles from an indoor shooting range and you will find a lot of these scattered around and it's easy for me to take my dirt bike out. When I go riding my dirt bike if I'm going to a track near Queen Creek (practically the complete other side of the metro from me) I can get there in about ~45 minutes on a Saturday morning. Phoenix might actually be the best city for both of these activities within proximity to the metro, especially dirt bikes for obvious reasons.
   
   East Valley has been subjected to more development than West Valley so the public land to go shooting and ride dirt bikes in has been taken up a little bit by private development. West Valley will be like this in due time if Phoenix keeps growing the way it does. However from my experiences, as an avid dirt bike rider and shooter, West Valley is a little more accessible for this. This isn't too say that East Valley is not easily accessible, no, but West Valley will probably be easier here for now. For shooting there is a multitude of indoor ranges as well so even being in the "middle of it all" won't prevent you from practicing the 2nd Amendment by any means.
   
   Even from Downtown Phoenix, assuming you aren't driving in rush hour traffic, you can pretty much be in the boonies by an hour in any direction if not even significantly less than that, which is good for most outdoor activities. There is a plethora of mountains within the metro too, that should satisfy your hiking and exploring needs. You can get to Flagstaff for skiing, hiking, etc. in about 2 hours. There is also the "Sky Islands" in Southeast Arizona by Tucson that are about 2 hours away that are great for hiking and snow as well. You can get to the Grand Canyon in about 4 hours and Monument Valley, Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon, Page, and everything else near the Arizona-Utah border (amazing hiking by the way at the northern border) around 4-5 hours. I think you would also like Sedona, a little less than 2 hours away.
   
3. 3. It's a good business, but as people have stated, outdoor work here is dangerous and not very fun. Make sure you have an employer who knows how to follow the laws and treats their outdoor-working employees like human beings who need water. I unfortunately had a bad employer when I worked outside.
   
4. 4. Most of the "ghetto" is in the West side of town, which is what I'm most experienced with. If I had to make a rudimentary outline of areas to avoid, I would dodge the I-17 corridor from Deer Valley Rd. down to maybe Buckeye Rd. from East of 35th Ave. and West of 19th Ave. I would also dodge living South of Bethany Home Rd. to again about Buckeye Rd. from the I-17 to the 101 on the West side. I hope this makes sense as I don't know how to draw it out on here for you besides explaining it this way.

If you're looking at certain neighborhoods for your apartment you should ask about the crossroads specifically to see if it is a safe area. I know what areas to avoid in West Valley as that's where I've lived for more than 20 years but East Valley... Not as much...

[KurtAZ]

CoL can be lower, depends on what your debt to income ratio looks like. Yes, homes and rent can be less expensive than other metro areas but fuel, insurance, registration, food, etc. can be higher. HVAC is a big business down here...but I wouldn't want to be crawling around in attics in the summer down here. You may...depends on what you want to do...residential or commercial.

As far as the outdoors...AZ has all 7 life zones so you can go from deserts to high deserts to pine forests to arctic tundra within the state. Granted the arctic tundra tends to only be on the San Francisco peaks...but it counts. All I will ask is that you subscribe to the "pack it in, pack it out" mantra and always leave your outdoors better than you found it. Too many people come here and just trash our state thinking someone else will clean up after them. Enjoy the outdoors responsibly.

[johnp292]

Originally Posted by KurtAZ

CoL can be lower, depends on what your debt to income ratio looks like. Yes, homes and rent can be less expensive than other metro areas but fuel, insurance, registration, food, etc. can be higher. HVAC is a big business down here...but I wouldn't want to be crawling around in attics in the summer down here. You may...depends on what you want to do...residential or commercial.

As far as the outdoors...AZ has all 7 life zones so you can go from deserts to high deserts to pine forests to arctic tundra within the state. Granted the arctic tundra tends to only be on the San Francisco peaks...but it counts. All I will ask is that you subscribe to the "pack it in, pack it out" mantra and always leave your outdoors better than you found it. Too many people come here and just trash our state thinking someone else will clean up after them. Enjoy the outdoors responsibly.

This.

I get so annoyed picking up other people's water bottles at the Grand Canyon.