Is Prescott affordable? (Phoenix, Sierra Vista, Prescott Valley: fit in, for sale, real estate market)

[ngrome]

Hi, I'm still a few years from retirement (less than 10 put it that way), and just scoping out areas where my wife and I can settle. I saw Prescott so I looked up this forum. I also looked up Zillow and I do not see anything decent for under $400,000 Are all homes in Prescott this high priced? The climate seems perfect for retirement, and it will just be the wife and I, so we can squeeze into a 2 bedroom, 2 bath or even 1 bath worst case once we downsize, but is there anything in the mid-200's or around $300,000? Preferable less...Thanks

[Woody01]

Sure there are houses for $300k-ish. Depends on your desires, your needs and what you will accept. Do you need fancy? Do you have to be in the city of Prescott? It's the cool place to be, but will be pricier of course. Look at Chino Valley....one of the fastest growing little cities around here. Kinda redneck/cowboy, don't know if that is a plus or minus for you? And you'll find a lot of manufactured homes there - some people don't care for them, some like them because they're cheaper....like this https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2.../8756251_zpid/

[KurtAZ]

Prescott is being advertised all over CA and IL as the place to retire. All the real estate in AZ has shot through the roof but seems to be calming down again although I don't think we will see the "AZ is so affordable" moniker again anytime soon. Homes that were in the 300s back in 2018 are now in the 500s, etc. Same has happened in Payson and some of the towns along the Rim in the Eastern part of the state.

Short answer, and kind of what Woody01 alluded to, maybe look outside Prescott proper into Prescott Valley, Chino Valley...maybe a little farther away in Cottonwood/Cornville/Clarkdale? If you go North, the environment becomes more High Plains as compared to properties closer to Prescott National Forest or Mt Union side until you hit the Rim.

[AZgarden]

Don't retire here !! There is a very serious lack of medical personnel and doctors don't stay around here very long. Reason is many people have Medicare and the physicians do not like to practice here because of that. You will find you have difficulty finding not only a PCP but also specialists, and the hospital here isn't that great either. Be aware and look at other places. It's a beautiful area but lacks in basic medical care.

I live here.

[Hschlick84]

No, its not affordable for retirees, middle class or working class. Try New Mexico or Oklahoma.

[Ex New Yorker]

Housing prices are high, property taxes are low, overall cost of living is low. But then again I used to live in New York where the property taxes on my old 3bdr. 1bth. 1100 sq. ft. home with a 3 car garage in the semi run down City of Peekskill was $11,600 a year and that was over 12 years ago. Here my property taxes of which I just paid were $1,998 for a 4 bdr. 2bth. 2,000 sq. ft. home with a 3 car garage. Back then in New York the cost to heat our home was around $700 a month, here it's about half that along with the rest of our utilities. Food costs? I never did a direct comparison as our grocery bill would fluctuate from week to week depending on our needs. Same for out here.

Just like anywhere else affordability all depends on your financial situation. We sold our old home in Peekskill for $285,000 and bought our home out here for $250,000. The rest went for moving expenses and any repairs that our new home may need as it is an older home built in the 1970's.

Both my wife and I absolutely love Arizona and every aspect of living here. The people, gun laws, weather, our neighbors, neighborhood the landscape, EVERYTHING. Prescott and it's surrounding area is a desirable place to live coincidentally the price of a single family home will reflect that. We had no idea that the price of our home would rise so quickly in the time we've lived here and never considered it as a bank or investment, it's a place to live. If the real estate market collapses out here it won't affect our lives. We plan on staying here for the rest of our lives and have no desire to live anywhere else.

Indeed finding a personal care physician is next to impossible. However there are places where you can go where you will get treated. If diagnosed with a serious illness some can be treated here at Dignity Health Care formerly Yavapai Regional Hospital or you might end up in Phoenix. I was recently treated at Dignity Health Care and received excellent medical care.

[jgustav]

Dewey-Humboldt is an area you could look into for housing that is cheaper than Prescott. It is along the 69 about 30 minutes from Prescott and 20 minutes from Prescott Valley. It is at 4600 feet in elevation so slightly hotter than the other cities that are over 5000 feet. A link below shows you a townhouse for sale in Dewey listed for 320,000.

As far as medical care, it is hard to choose your own PCP here, but you likely can get one that is accepting new patients by going in person to one of the medical centers. For medical specialists, if that is needed you may need to drive to Phoenix which is about 90 minutes away.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9...82015441_zpid/

[Hschlick84]

Originally Posted by Ex New Yorker

Housing prices are high, property taxes are low, overall cost of living is low. But then again I used to live in New York where the property taxes on my old 3bdr. 1bth. 1100 sq. ft. home with a 3 car garage in the semi run down City of Peekskill was $11,600 a year and that was over 12 years ago. Here my property taxes of which I just paid were $1,998 for a 4 bdr. 2bth. 2,000 sq. ft. home with a 3 car garage. Back then in New York the cost to heat our home was around $700 a month, here it's about half that along with the rest of our utilities. Food costs? I never did a direct comparison as our grocery bill would fluctuate from week to week depending on our needs. Same for out here.

Just like anywhere else affordability all depends on your financial situation. We sold our old home in Peekskill for $285,000 and bought our home out here for $250,000. The rest went for moving expenses and any repairs that our new home may need as it is an older home built in the 1970's.

Both my wife and I absolutely love Arizona and every aspect of living here. The people, gun laws, weather, our neighbors, neighborhood the landscape, EVERYTHING. Prescott and it's surrounding area is a desirable place to live coincidentally the price of a single family home will reflect that. We had no idea that the price of our home would rise so quickly in the time we've lived here and never considered it as a bank or investment, it's a place to live. If the real estate market collapses out here it won't affect our lives. We plan on staying here for the rest of our lives and have no desire to live anywhere else.

Indeed finding a personal care physician is next to impossible. However there are places where you can go where you will get treated. If diagnosed with a serious illness some can be treated here at Dignity Health Care formerly Yavapai Regional Hospital or you might end up in Phoenix. I was recently treated at Dignity Health Care and received excellent medical care.

Not a fan of the new governor however.

[Hschlick84]

If you plan to stay in AZ, check Kingman or Sierra Vista. They have better price ranges you're looking for.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...87_rect/0_mmm/

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1.../7402977_zpid/

[Ex New Yorker]

Originally Posted by ngrome

Hi, I'm still a few years from retirement (less than 10 put it that way), and just scoping out areas where my wife and I can settle. I saw Prescott so I looked up this forum. I also looked up Zillow and I do not see anything decent for under $400,000 Are all homes in Prescott this high priced? The climate seems perfect for retirement, and it will just be the wife and I, so we can squeeze into a 2 bedroom, 2 bath or even 1 bath worst case once we downsize, but is there anything in the mid-200's or around $300,000? Preferable less...Thanks

Let's say you've got under 10 years before retirement. That should allow you enough time to figure out where you want to live? The real estate market could change drastically out here by then either way up or way down.
It's all a crap shoot. The same for your current home. The market could be good in your area and bad out here or visa versa. When we started looking at Arizona the market in Prescott was high and I had to have at least a 3 car garage to house my two antique cars that I've had straight out of high school and truck. So we started looking elsewhere in the state. Come hell or high water it was going to be somewhere in Arizona, Utah or New Mexico. Arizona was always our first choice and we focused most of our energies there.

Myself I could live practically anywhere in the state. My wife was laser focused on Prescott and it's surrounding area's. As luck would have it when we sold our home the market was down here. I have no idea why? Sure we could have taken out another mortgage and bought a much nicer home but figured that we'd be much better off with an older home that we could buy outright with money left over for moving expenses and then some for any repairs or things that may have to be replaced within the next few years. Most repairs I can do myself which saves a lot of money along with vehicle repairs.

We contacted real estate agencies, sent for brochures, went on-line and made several trips out here visiting places where we thought we'd want to live. We went to local business and restaurants that we'd frequently patronize and strike up conversations with some of the people just to get some idea if they seemed happy or not or just give us the cold shoulder. Most if not everyone seemed pretty friendly even after detecting my wife's New York accent, a dead giveaway. That kinda' gave us some idea of whether we'd fit in or not. Since we were moving to a state 2474 miles away and knew absolutely no one. Plus I own antique cars, a great way to meet people. Arizona is also a 2nd Amendment friendly state that also helped. On our trips we stopped at some of the gun stores just to strike up a conversation. We got a big "Welcome to Arizona" brother, we think that you'll love it out here from both the owners and patrons.

In the 12+ years that we've lived here we've yet to come across too many people that have anything bad to say about life in Arizona although there will always be some. If life in Arizona is not for them just as New York was not for us perhaps they should look into living elsewhere? Although sometimes that is not at all possible.