How do I feel about living in PHOENIX after one year? (renters, hotels)
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Many people have made the same mistake. It’s not about “getting more education” to “get a better job” to be able to live there! My husband and I have Masters Degrees, bought a house for $197,000 and still were poorer than we’ve EVER been. I’m retired and he had a salaried position (with terrible benefits & no employee protections for salaried employees, which is state law. That means that the employeer can require the employee to work as many hours weekly as the employeer demands since the employee is paid by salary and not hourly. My husband worked 60-70 hour weeks and was forced into extra duties with no compensation. His health suffered dramatically and terribly. Also, I didn't know about the mold issue, but I can tell you that our otherwise healthy, 6-year old spayed female indoor-only cat contracted LUNG CANCER after we were in the Phoenix area for a few months. We had to have her let go peacefully at a vet’s office after spending over a thousand bucks on “inconclusive tests” trying to see what was wrong. BTW: Nobody in our house smokes. The incidences of indoor-only cats under age 12 getting lung cancer in a nonsmoking household are almost nonexistant. Try not to be angry at yourself your your mistake. I was angry for years after leaving there. Now I channel the anger into positive actions: forewarning others or letting others vent to me. One web site that’s an eye-opener and was so helpful in my recovery from my time in AZ is the following:
I am sorry for the loss of your cat, but how is that the fault of the state of Arizona? If the cat passed after just a few months here, I would assume the cancer started before you arrived...or that was the fastest moving cancer ever! Again, so sorry your kitty passed. I just think your blame is not aimed at the right place.
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hello, may I ask where you moved to after Phoenix, and are you happy there? I am currently in Kingman and thinking about moving somewhere fairly close by. Teresa.
Everyone is different. I grew up and lived in NYC most of my life. I left the rat race and moved to Florida 6 years ago.
After living in Tampa for 4 years, we had enough. Between the heat and humidity, hurricanes, and the bugs, it was time to go. We visited Phoenix a few times and love it here. We don’t mind the heat. We have air conditioning and use it.
Living in Midtown is great. We have everything here that we need within 5-10 minutes of our home. Just being able to walk to restaurants are a plus!
I had many romantic notions about Phoenix BEFORE I moved here. Even so, there are many reasons to think TWICE before you make that jump! I failed to listen to the warnings! I consider my failure a learning experience and one that will never be forgotten! If you're curious about my reasons, please read on...
Here are some of the main reasons that made me move away from PHOENIX ASAP!
1. HEAT - I was under the impression that it WOULDN'T BE A BIG DEAL!! What's a little heat, right? Just use the a/c, right? It is a VERY big deal! In July around the time it reached 120, I suffered what appeared to be a MILD heat stroke with my left side going numb followed by many nights waking up with the most SEVERE muscle cramps. The doc believed it was simply a pinched nerve in my neck but I believe it was more than that as my whole upper back ached for days on end. It felt like somebody was stabbing me in the back. I had never experienced anything quite like it and this was all while the heat was well over a 100 degrees. Again, never anything like it! I'm finally on the mend three months later and I moved to a cooler climate. I have seen major improvement in my overall health by doing so. Deaths related to the heat in Phoenix are no joke. The heat is a serious issue that I figured before moving here wouldn't be as bad as suffering through a cold winter and I'm originally from the Northeast. In my opinion, it's worse than any winter I've ever experienced!
2. COST OF LIVING. I had this misconception that my money would go far here. Stop laughing! That is so not true! IT IS BLOODY EXPENSIVE to live in Phoenix! First, the rent you see advertised is not the real AMOUNT. You need to add water, sewer, trash, and tax so it's NEVER the amount advertised! Even if you make around $17.00 you will be struggling to scrape by if you have a high car payment to manage along with your rent. I've heard more than one horror story of someone's rent going up over $200 after one year of renting. That's absurd but the landlords in PHOENIX will do it simply because they CAN based on Phoenix's popularity at the moment. It's a dirty business, but they don't care.
3. MOST JOBS PAY NEXT TO NOTHING! There are so many jobs in the Phoenix area that barely approach $15/hr. Where on earth are those people going to live on that kind of salary? The rents are rising and the pay is stagnant. I can see it working if the rents matched relative to what someone earns, but they DO NOT in Phoenix! It's a recipe for disaster with many in Phoenix struggling to get by. And yet you have these rentals and Extended Stay hotels in the Phoenix area that are loaded with criminals, drug dealers and ladies of the night so any decent 9 to 5 hard working American would be hard pressed to find a SAFE rental without living in a high crime area based on what they can afford. And this in all fairness could be said about rents across the nation.
4. NO ACCESS TO A/C IN A ROOMMATE SITUATION. This was my breaking point! No ability to control the a/c. If you do manage to rent a small room in order to save money, good luck! Especially if that room faces West! The one who owns the unit will kindly tell you that you may not touch the a/c. Their idea of a/c is 80 to 85 and maybe 77 sometimes if you're lucky. And then when they are not there and you're at work, they keep it at 90 so you come home to a boiling room! A/C is not a luxury! IT IS A NECCESSITY! People die in this city without proper a/c. It's a very serious issue and people that I've encountered get downright bitter and nasty over their electric bills here. Some having to pay upward of $300 to $400 a month during the summer months. There goes your monthly cushion. The electric will eat up every last dollar!
5. BLACK MOLD. It's a serious problem in homes and apartments in the Phoenix area. Just google it! The shady owners use wallpaper or paint over it and hope you don't notice it. You can get serious health issues from mold. It can be devastating to your overall health if you don't get out sooner rather than later once you realize that it may be the CULPRIT as to why your health is suddenly taking a nose dive along with the heat. The MUSTY smell in your new apartment is a big warning sign! Of course when you looked at the unit, all the windows were kept wide open so you didn't smell it before you sign the dotted line. If you complain, they say that the a/c filter needed to be changed. It didn't change the fact that when my brother came to visit one of the first things he said was that my apartment smelled MUSTY and he could tell they painted over the mold on the ceiling as you could see black in the tiny cracks and crevices of the border. If you complain to your landlord about the issue, they will outright deny it and say they have never had a problem, but your health will tell you a different story!
6. TRAFFIC. When I came here in September of 2016, the traffic didn't seem that bad, but as of 2017, Phoenix has a rate of 88 people moving here a day. That's a lot of cars! And it will add a lot more pollution to this lovely city! Even my coworkers complain about how bad the traffic has become. And when the snowbirds arrive in October/November it's going to get even worse! The population is exploding in Phoenix and that's not necessarily a good thing! I'd be curious to see what Phoenix will look like in ten years with the increasing, traffic, heat and pollution.
On a positive note, if you make at least $20.00 an hour in Phoenix, you should be okay financially, but many jobs in Phoenix do not pay that well. There are many restaurants, shopping choices and beautiful parks and wildlife preserves to explore. A lot of desirable destinations are within driving distance too if you can AFFORD to drive to Flagstaff, San Diego, Vegas or LA for weekend trips. If you're struggling to get by, those destinations are really NEVER a feasible option.
Since moving away, my breathing is better and my health has improved big time, so it was the best decision I ever made. I NEED COOL FRESH AIR!!! Every city has problems, and I get that, BUT Phoenix has blind spots that you don't really get to encounter until you look past all the lovely opinions and pictures about this city from people who can actually AFFORD to live here. Phoenix is not for everyone and I failed to listen to all the warnings that were mentioned in previous posts and I paid dearly for it. My credit tanked. My job shattered into a million pieces because I could not take the HEAT or the MOLD and I lost pretty much everything. Listen and learn from others and save yourself a lot of heartache! Be careful! Pay attention! I am determined to rebuild my life one step at a time. I was thinking about Vegas, but didn't end up choosing it because the COL is even higher there and the HEAT there is a HUGE problem too! People say Phoenix is just like Vegas minus the Strip. Go figure!
I hope that my insight will help save someone from making a decision that they will later REGRET!
Finally! Someone who has eyes and isn't blinded by whatever beauty they see. I don't see any beauty here, everything is the same damn color everywhere you look. I moved here in 2014 and have wanted to leave ever sense I got here. The only good thing I got out of this place is getting work experience because where I lived prior to this city I couldn't get any work experience.
Now, to where I'm currently at. I'm homeless have been for 5 months with my mom after losing my father because the damn doctors didn't do a damn thing to help my dad and his pain. This city doesn't do anything for the homeless at all!!! There is so many homeless people it's unbelievable, the only thing they will do is give out a free bus ticket so you can go back to where you came from. Like that fixes the issue when most of the homeless are senior citizens on disability who can't afford the rising costs. People think that those of us that are homeless are drug addicts, that is simply not true!! I'm saying this to break that stereotype. Because I'm working, and so is my mom. Which just proves my point.
Also, those of you who said to go to school. Well, maybe they don't want to go back to school because they don't want all that debt!!! And even if you do have a degree, it doesn't mean anything anymore because I've met lots of people who got degrees and don't even work in that field. Plus, you people forget that you need people working in retail stores. Without us, who would serve you? Who would help you find what you're looking for?
Like others have said we are all different, I failed to listen to the warnings as well and that's on me. And not every city is for everybody.
I sense a bunch of people projecting their own circumstances on an inanimate object. It’s easier to blame the place you’re in than take a good look at why you are where you are in life.
Phoenix suits me because I’ve made it work. I don’t blame it for things. There are things I don’t like about it, but that doesn’t run my day to day.
If I remember correctly, the original poster has since returned to Phoenix.
The grass is not always greener on the other side. However, it may be a different strain of grass and one that you like better. You can escape everything and everyone but yourself.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by yukon
If I remember correctly, the original poster has since returned to Phoenix.
The grass is not always greener on the other side. However, it may be a different strain of grass and one that you like better. You can escape everything and everyone but yourself.
She did, but still complains. Me and a couple posters tried to warn her how cold ABQ can get in winter, but she learned the hard way (it was in fact one of the reasons she returned)
Phoenix suits me because I’ve made it work. I don’t blame it for things. There are things I don’t like about it, but that doesn’t run my day to day.
Too bad more people don't have this attitude about their lives in general...If you're not a happy person, you wouldn't be happy living here or anywhere else on earth!
She did, but still complains. Me and a couple posters tried to warn her how cold ABQ can get in winter, but she learned the hard way (it was in fact one of the reasons she returned)
I am surprised that MissMouse111 moved back to Phoenix. I hope we get an update from her.
If I remember correctly, the original poster has since returned to Phoenix.
The grass is not always greener on the other side. However, it may be a different strain of grass and one that you like better. You can escape everything and everyone but yourself.
Moving to Phoenix is one of the best decisions I've ever made. I love this city and I really resonate with it. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. However, it's also revealed a lot of personal issues that I'm now working through. Before I moved I was one of those malcontents that constantly blamed all my problems on my old city. The phrase "wherever you go, there you are" has a lot of truth to it. However, I personally believe that not everywhere is for everyone. Phoenix isn't for everyone just like OKC isn't for everyone. Everywhere has it's pluses and minuses. Different people thrive in different places and everyone needs to find that special place that they resonate with.
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You can escape everything and everyone but yourself. 
