Detroit Area to Phoenix Area? Good Idea?? (car insurance, construction)

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by Lovegun

I moved from Flint 3 years ago and hate it. Love it at first when everything was new but now tired of the heat, rude people, crazy drivers, and the sun. Yes I miss snow, clouds, rain, at times. Moving back to the mid west when my lease is up.

I would say what you are missing most is: HOME.

[JoePAz]

Originally Posted by Sunvixen

Stop laughing!!


We have been considering moving to the Phoenix area if we can sell our house up here. We have even thought about renting it out and moving since the outlook here isn't very good (understatement) and we've had enough of this cold, grey weather to last ten lifetimes.

My Parents moved from Orange County New York in 1981 to quit shoving snow. They have never dreamed of moving back. I grew up here in the Phoenix area and love it.

If you want to escape the cold Phoenix will work, but you MUST consider that you are tranding the "dreaded cold" of winter for the "oppressive heat" of summer. In most places people stay home in winter and don't do much outside. They wait for summer to do things. Here is it the opposite. Right now (Late Feb) is the best time of the year and we do all our outdoor stuff now. Come May we can hang out by a pool or stay inside with air conditioning. Now... depending on your personal tolernace the summers can be mildly hot or very nasty. I tend to like them alot more than the cold since even in the summer once the sun goes down you can do things out side. Sure it is still warm, but sun down takes the edge off an even 99F becomes ok for our door stuff. Plus the early mornings 5am to 9am or 10am are also not bad.

Now... the rest Phoenix is not that bad. Actually quite nice. Oh... rain does not happen much so expect lots of brown. Not much you can do about it.

[Sunvixen]

We've been out there in the summer...I think 112 degrees...and we loved it. A few hours a day confined to air conditioning compared to shivering for months on end in MI, that's an easy one!


There are VERY few things I didn't love, but it was "different" not to have icy cold tap water, like we get up here in MI and while I enjoyed the heat, it certainly DOES zap your energy at midday and you don't NOTICE being thirsty, which could get you into trouble if you're not careful to keep hydrated.

I have NOT been there during monsoon season, however, what is it like? I looked for some videos and it seems just like a very heavy downpour with lots of wind. Is it really a big deal like people say? Does it make things unbearable for very long?

I was also wondering how the auto insurance rates out there compare to here? Here, even with a PERFECT driving record, the rates inside Detroit are about 4xs as much as the burbs. We do not live inside the city of Detroit, but we were considering the northern part of Phoenix to rent for 6 months to a yr before we decide where to buy. Are insurance rates INSIDE Phoenix sensible? As I said, between auto Ins and the Detroit City taxes, up here it is really more sensible and economical to live in the burbs. Phoenix seems to have more, um...how can I put this..."common sense attitudes and fiscal responsibility" than I am used to from a big city, or is that just my uninitiated naivety talking?

Do you think an alarm with On-Star is good enough to protect your car from thieves? Is car theft as big a problem as some would have you think?

[sablebaby]

Originally Posted by Sunvixen

We've been out there in the summer...I think 112 degrees...and we loved it. A few hours a day confined to air conditioning compared to shivering for months on end in MI, that's an easy one!


There are VERY few things I didn't love, but it was "different" not to have icy cold tap water, like we get up here in MI and while I enjoyed the heat, it certainly DOES zap your energy at midday and you don't NOTICE being thirsty, which could get you into trouble if you're not careful to keep hydrated.

I have NOT been there during monsoon season, however, what is it like? I looked for some videos and it seems just like a very heavy downpour with lots of wind. Is it really a big deal like people say? Does it make things unbearable for very long?

I was also wondering how the auto insurance rates out there compare to here? Here, even with a PERFECT driving record, the rates inside Detroit are about 4xs as much as the burbs. We do not live inside the city of Detroit, but we were considering the northern part of Phoenix to rent for 6 months to a yr before we decide where to buy. Are insurance rates INSIDE Phoenix sensible? As I said, between auto Ins and the Detroit City taxes, up here it is really more sensible and economical to live in the burbs. Phoenix seems to have more, um...how can I put this..."common sense attitudes and fiscal responsibility" than I am used to from a big city, or is that just my uninitiated naivety talking?

Do you think an alarm with On-Star is good enough to protect your car from thieves? Is car theft as big a problem as some would have you think?

Car ins rates can be high, but they are in certain areas. You can have an agent look up different zip codes and tell you the difference. How much do you pay now? IT will also depend on your ins agency. My bf had a huge reduction switching from one agency he had for 14 years to another.

Car theft is very big here. There recently was a map posted of the highest areas, but you still can have your car stolen anywhere. I had my car broken into several times in N. Scottsdale, not even touched in central phx, and stolen in NE phx. Having your car in your garage will cut down on theft a lot. Since renting and buying a home and using the garage only for our cars we haven't had anything happen. Even my car parked at work in central phx I haven't had anything tampered with.

[Sunvixen]

I think we pay about a hundred bucks per month, per car. Inside any part of Detroit, it would probably be three times that. My hubby just switched ours, so I can't say offhand.

Doesn't Phoenix have that Police operation with planted cars? (I cannot think of the term right now! GRRR!)

[sablebaby]

Bait cars! Yeah they are great to watch on the news.

[steve22]

A few hours a day confined to air conditioning compared to shivering for months on end in MI, that's an easy one!

A few hours?? Are you a reptile? The daily LOW temps in the summer from June through August rarely drop below the mid-80's. There's nothing like waking up at 5 am to go for a jog, and it's a smothering 95 degrees already before the sun even rises. For me, being confined to the a/c in summer was basically 24/7, except when I was walking to my car. Like I said, visiting is one thing. Stay here in the summer for a few weeks, and see if you still feel the same. I used to think that was an "easy one", too- until I experienced it. Trust me, it's not so easy.

I have NOT been there during monsoon season, however, what is it like?

Unpleasant, to say the least. For about 6 weeks from July through early September, it's 100+ degrees and humid. That "dry heat" business you've heard about? Throw that out the window during monsoon season. It feels like being stuck in the everglades in July for a month and a half. Tucson tends to get a bit more actual precipitation out of the monsoons than Phoenix does, which is due in large part to the heat island effect. B/C the monsoons usually occur late at night, and it stays so hot in PHX overnight in the summers anymore, the radiating heat tends to dissipate the moisture before it hits the ground. So essentially, monsoons in Phoenix these days are usually very loud dust, wind, and lightning storms which will generally occur around 11 pm or later, ruining your night's sleep, causing a lot of damage and basically making a giant mess outside. Of all the things I don't miss about Phoenix, monsoon season is right up near the top.

[Ponderosa]

Just about everyone here looks forward to the monsoon season. For one thing, if it does not come (or fizzles like last summer) then the temps soar to over 110 with regularity. When it is humid the temps are restrained to the muggy mid-100s. Still the humidity is typically what would be considered very dry in most part of the US - dewpoints in the mid-upper 50s with an occasional jump into the very low 60s. It may feel muggy to us here but to outsiders, it is still bone dry. It's rougher if you are overweight.

Heat may be the thing that drives some like a prior poster mad, but in survey after survey, people name the weather as the best thing about living in Phoenix.

[Captain Bill]

Monsoons are simply thunderstorms with wind and dust that's picked up off the desert. They don't bother me at all.

One thing that you have to consider is that a wind/dust storm can bring visibility down to near zero. You may experience that once a year.

If you're on the highway and you see that coming, pull of the highway, stop, and turn your lights OFF, and keep your feet off the brake pedal. That is to keep someone behind you seeing your lights, and thinking you're on the highway, try to follow you and run into you.

If you see a semi on the side of the road, get in front of it and stop. It only happened to me once in the past 4 years.

[Sunvixen]

Originally Posted by steve22

A few hours?? Are you a reptile? The daily LOW temps in the summer from June through August rarely drop below the mid-80's. There's nothing like waking up at 5 am to go for a jog, and it's a smothering 95 degrees already before the sun even rises. For me, being confined to the a/c in summer was basically 24/7, except when I was walking to my car. Like I said, visiting is one thing. Stay here in the summer for a few weeks, and see if you still feel the same. I used to think that was an "easy one", too- until I experienced it. Trust me, it's not so easy.



Unpleasant, to say the least. For about 6 weeks from July through early September, it's 100+ degrees and humid. That "dry heat" business you've heard about? Throw that out the window during monsoon season. It feels like being stuck in the everglades in July for a month and a half. Tucson tends to get a bit more actual precipitation out of the monsoons than Phoenix does, which is due in large part to the heat island effect. B/C the monsoons usually occur late at night, and it stays so hot in PHX overnight in the summers anymore, the radiating heat tends to dissipate the moisture before it hits the ground. So essentially, monsoons in Phoenix these days are usually very loud dust, wind, and lightning storms which will generally occur around 11 pm or later, ruining your night's sleep, causing a lot of damage and basically making a giant mess outside. Of all the things I don't miss about Phoenix, monsoon season is right up near the top.

I may be part reptile, because I didn't even turn the air on in the car until it was into the 90s outside! I really like hot weather. Also, note my name. It was 110 and I was sitting in the sun. Only for 10 minutes, but still! (It's the SUN that is REALLY hot out there)

It was mid to upper 80s at night and opened a window and covered with a sheet.

I'm used to summers that become very humid. I find 90 and high humidity ten times worse than I found 110 and low humidity, but it could just be the way I am made.