Prescott vs Bend vs Spokane vs Colorado Springs :) (Phoenix, Prescott Valley: 2014, HOA)
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I’m a single mom of a 9-year old big baby and work from home as an accountant. I’ve been looking for a place to put some roots down. My dad is close to needing dialysis. I want him to move close to us, so I need to find a permanent home.
I moved to Asheville last summer as you can see in my previous posts. Asheville is beautiful with friendly people and so many things to do, but I absolutely hate the Buncombe county schools. So, schools are a big deal breaker. I never knew it could be so bad. The school system here hardly gives homework because they say the kids work enough during the school day. Yeah…No. I want a school that believes in giving homework and expects the best from the students. I want above average work to be recognized, whether it's my daughter or not. I want her to strive for more, not to settle for mediocrity. So sorry I went off the rails for a bit. I have thought about finding a private school here, but I moved here based on other circumstances/family/friends, and I just want to make a decision based on what I want and think is best.
I have narrowed it down to 4 cities…Prescott, Arizona; Bend, Oregon; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Spokane, Washington. I’m going to post this in each of these state’s forums to reach the most people.
I have always loved the Pacific Northwest (in the summer). I've never been there in the winter. My Colorado Springs option is because I had a wonderful dream that we were there and we were loving it and happy. Then I looked into it and saw that it really is beautiful. I've read it has some of the best weather. I'd like to know if that's true. I think Prescott could be a good compromise, and my daughter was already accepted at a charter school there (BASIS Prescott).
I’d like to be able to get either a house or townhouse somewhere between $200-$300k in a good and safe neighborhood for myself and my 9-year-old daughter. I am very middle of the road politically and don’t want to feel judged by either side of the spectrum. One of my pet peeves is littering. I don’t want to see garbage lying around throughout my neighborhood. I’d like to be around people that care what their homes and neighborhood looks like. I have taught my daughter to choose her friends based on their character, if they are nice to you, if they have your same interests. My daughter doesn't see color or sexual orientation because of this. I don't want people's differences being pointed out to her in school.
So I'm not okay with "social justice" like a charter school here has as it's mission statement. On the other side of the coin, I don't want to be hounded into going to church on Sunday by people who want to "help" me. All I want to make clear is that I don't judge people based on their personal beliefs, and I don't expect it to be done to me.
I just want to give a good idea of who I am, what I want, and what kind of environment I want to be in. I desperately want to find this place. I hope there are people out there that can help me work through all this.
Here are some things I am most interested in knowing about:
1. What are the safest areas/neighborhoods/suburbs/etc.?
2. What are the ones I should keep away from?
3. What would you say the political atmosphere is like? Please give me as much information as you can on this one. I would like to know if an area is extreme left or extreme right? Who did most people vote for? Trump, Clinton, or even Gary Johnson.
4. Are people all in your business or are they friendly and laid back? Any personal experiences will help.
5. How much does it snow exactly? Like how many feet of snow can you expect to walk in and for how many days? I’m a bit skeptical of statistics I have found online.
6. How cold does it get in winter and for how long? Does it ever go below zero?
7. How hot does it really get? How high does the temp go in the summer? Does it get very humid or is it dry?
8. How are the public schools? Would a private school be preferable? Any input from other parents would be very appreciated.
9. How is the medical care? Is there a good hospital close by?
10. Do you think there is an area where I can find a house in my price range?
Thank you all for listening. I hope I haven't offended.
Here are some things I am most interested in knowing about:
1. What are the safest areas/neighborhoods/suburbs/etc.?
2. What are the ones I should keep away from?
3. What would you say the political atmosphere is like? Please give me as much information as you can on this one. I would like to know if an area is extreme left or extreme right? Who did most people vote for? Trump, Clinton, or even Gary Johnson.
4. Are people all in your business or are they friendly and laid back? Any personal experiences will help.
5. How much does it snow exactly? Like how many feet of snow can you expect to walk in and for how many days? I’m a bit skeptical of statistics I have found online.
6. How cold does it get in winter and for how long? Does it ever go below zero?
7. How hot does it really get? How high does the temp go in the summer? Does it get very humid or is it dry?
8. How are the public schools? Would a private school be preferable? Any input from other parents would be very appreciated.
9. How is the medical care? Is there a good hospital close by?
10. Do you think there is an area where I can find a house in my price range?
Thank you all for listening. I hope I haven't offended.
Isa
1, 2, and 10: Based on your desire to have neighbors that keep up their properties, you would likely prefer an HOA that mandates yard maintenance. Given your price range ($200k-$300K), that would put you in Granville, Viewpoint, or Pronghorn in Prescott Valley, which would also put you reasonably close to BASIS, which is near Hwy-89 and Willow Lake Rd. Your school commute would be about 15 minutes. All three of those subdivisions are well maintained. Granville and Pronghorn have gyms, pools, tennis, etc. Viewpoint has no amenities, but the dues are cheaper (~$80/yr vs $55/mo). You should probably stay away from non-HOA subdivisions.
3: The area tends to be predominantly conservative, but probably more libertarian than traditional conservative. It's more of a live and let live vibe rather than a my way or the highway vibe. I think the presidential vote was something like 70% for Trump. We also have a Freedom Caucus representative, Paul Gosar.
4: People are pretty laid back unless you are not. If you go around preaching your beliefs, then you will probably get some push back. If you don't, then you probably will never know the beliefs of who you are talking to.
5: It doesn't snow very much. Typically snowfall is exciting and melts pretty quickly - especially in Prescott Valley. We had a once in 20 year snow storm last year that dropped 27 inches. Usually we will get a handful of 1-2" snowfalls.
6-7: It is usually 40s-60s in the winter and 80s-90s in the summer. Occasionally it will get above 100 degrees, but not very often. It always cools down at night, so you can open the windows and cool down the house. The winter can dip down to the 10s-20s at night, but then warms up quickly when the sun comes up. The days are usually sunny, so the cold does not feel cold. It is definitely NOT gloomy here, like back east.
8: It sounds like BASIS is the best school based on your comments.
9: There are two hospitals, one in Prescott Valley and one Prescott. They are two campuses of YRMC. They split major functions depending on the location. E.g., Prescott Valley has the birthing center and breast cancer center. Prescott has the brain center and the heart center. I have never used their services apart from emergency, in which case, they were quite fast and not crowded at all. Regarding medical in general, it does tend to be crowded and you can expect to wait a week or two or three or more for an appointment if you are not already connected to the doctor that you are trying to see.
#s 5, 6 and 7: You can look up climate information easily on Wikipedia. Colorado Springs has hot, dry summers with some afternoon monsoon rains to cool things down and midwinter temps in the low-mid 40's during the day and teens at night with some below zero winter weather at night. Record low was -27; brrrr. Some years see a lot of snow some years not so much; it usually doesn't stick around for long. They have good hospitals (Memorial Hospital and Penrose; both have more than one location in the Springs and both are excellent). It's a city of 500,000 so a LOT bigger than Prescott and Bend.
Don't know much about the other places you listed but my boyfriend used to live near Spokane and he said it's colder than **** in the winter...
Last edited by bigdogmom13; 06-16-2019 at 01:00 PM..
Brian is correct on the politics but there is a strong liberal undercurrent as well.
Even though I probably don't agree with the politics of others, as long as that doesn't come up people are VERY friendly here.
We actually have 2 summers. In June it's the hottest and very dry, but once the monsoon starts in July it's not as hot, slightly more humid, with afternoon thunderstorms scattered about. I'm at 5500 ft elevation and don't have A/C and don't miss it. Prescott Valley is lower and you'll probably want A/C occasionally.
If you are interested in joining a church, they come in all flavors here, not just the ones that want to "help" you.
I've been to all the places on your list to mountain bike or vacation other than Colorado Springs. Based on everything I've ever read, CS used to be a dream place to live with a great level of "separation" from big brother Denver. Now, CS is one massive metropolis of it's own that has swallowed up a few surrounding cities of it's own with a "metro" population exceeding 700,000!! I would imagine it has all the associated issues of an area with 700,000+ people but also great medical care that probably far exceeds the other areas on your list.
If I was in your shoes AND you could find a reasonable priced place to live, I'd go to Bend. Bend isn't perfect for sure. It can get HOT in the summer and that higher elevation heat is more intense. It also snows in the winter more than you prefer but it would be such a great place to raise a family. There is soooooo much stuff to do and the entire community is immersed with getting outside to take part in a myriad of activities and events. The biggest issue out there is it grew up too fast and there is too much traffic for their infrastructure in my opinion. That's the #1 reason I decided not to retire there; I hate traffic. Somebody is bound to comment about the traffic in Prescott and coming from SoCal, the "traffic" in Prescott is essentially non-existent in my eyes.
If I was in your shoes AND you could find a reasonable priced place to live, I'd go to Bend.
I’m curious why you recommend Bend to her but chose Prescott for yourself? Do you think Prescott is more suited to the retirement crowd? We considered all of those places when planning to move out of California. Bend was high on the list, but we decided it was just too far from everywhere else and hard to get to. Also, we weren’t into the cold winters. Prescott won out and so far we love it and the weather. Sky harbor and Phoenix are just 1 1/2 hrs away if you need to get anywhere besides LA and Denver via our little airport. I’ve heard the schools here are pretty good, but don’t know for sure. As far as affordable housing goes, I think you can find something better here in that price range than you could in Bend or Colorado Springs. So far I haven’t noticed any “terrible” areas here, but then again I haven’t gone looking for them.
I’m curious why you recommend Bend to her but chose Prescott for yourself? Do you think Prescott is more suited to the retirement crowd? We considered all of those places when planning to move out of California. Bend was high on the list, but we decided it was just too far from everywhere else and hard to get to. Also, we weren’t into the cold winters. Prescott won out and so far we love it and the weather. Sky harbor and Phoenix are just 1 1/2 hrs away if you need to get anywhere besides LA and Denver via our little airport. I’ve heard the schools here are pretty good, but don’t know for sure. As far as affordable housing goes, I think you can find something better here in that price range than you could in Bend or Colorado Springs. So far I haven’t noticed any “terrible” areas here, but then again I haven’t gone looking for them.
Traffic & Fu-Fu/Trendiness...
Bend was top on my list for a while because aside from mountain biking, we also ae involved in winter sports. I made a few trips up there. Each time I went, traffic was worse and it nearly drove me batty on my last weekend there. I'm talking 2-3 cycles of red lights to get thru an intersection as well as back-ups at all the round-abouts because nobody knows how to drive thru them. I'm sure it didn't help that I was there on a weekend every time but I left the last time saying "nope, nope, nope". I'm also not a fan of how the "scene" is going from cool mountain town to trendy/fu-fu as it relates as restaurants and shops. I have no desire to pay $18 for an omelette because the eggs came from chickens who received daily massages.
I was still willing to look elsewhere in Oregon (Grants Pass & Ashland come to mind) but my wife didn't want to deal with the rain. We came to check out Prescott and fell in love with the area as well as the locals we spoke with. A couple of the huge benefits of Prescott for us was the climate and relatively easy access to a major airport in PHX for my wife to travel for work in the future. I appreciate the laid back, smaller town mentality and wide open spaces...accentuated out in Williamson Valley were we're building.
If it matters to you...Prescott is one of the few places where in winter you are only a 1.5 hour drive to warmth if you need a break. Prescotts main strength and biggest selling point is location IMO. There arent many places like it.
From all the listed potential places to live, Colo Springs wins hands down when it comes to scenery and Rocky Mountains if that matters to you. I still miss it time to time in my home state, but the cost of living drove me out. Keep that in mind when looking for housing and employment.
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