Tell me about Northern Az. Flagstaff, an surrounding area.

[Ghost101]

I've retired an have been thinking of relocating to Northern AZ. Flagstaff, Williams, maybe on down as far as Prescott Valley.
I have spent way to many yrs. in the Los Angeles area an need to spend my tax dollars somewhere else. California has many great places, but you know how it goes. There are always some people that ruin it for the rest. Well there's a lot of them here. I don't know if I would be able to live in a small city or town anymore, but must find a place to enjoy the rest of my time.

[Doc65]

Havn't been there in ages, but liked it a lot when I was there early nineties

[cbrick]

I know exactly how you feel Ghost, I spent four years researching real estate, taxes, gun laws, demographics & more in most western states so I could make my escape from Commiefornia. A year ago only a few months after my retirement I moved to north central Arkansas & bought a house just out of town on an acre.

The purchase price of the house here would not come close to a down payment in CA, the yearly property taxes here would not pay one month property tax in CA. Electricity is more than 250% cheaper than in CA. Even things like groceries are cheaper here simply because the store isn't paying the state such absurd taxes. Wanna buy a gun here? Go to the store, pay your money and walk out the door WITH your new gun. I could go on but this should give you the idea. Rick moved back to America and is one happy camper.

Rick

[GRUMPA]

Something like this you would almost need to talk with someone on the phone about because there's just so much information to give. I live in a town called Concho and it's very rural here. Flagstaff is rather populated by my standards but to each there own and the wife and I just like our privacy. Yes I'm a Commiefornia transplant but I didn't bring the bad habits with me when I left there either.

I just like the wide open areas and it seems as though the hands of time got turned back at least a decade. Been to Prescott a couple of times and although rather nice it was still a bit on the crowded side for me. One thing I did notice living at that elevation though and that's you really do experience the change of seasons.

[winelover]

Northern Arizona is very pretty, however if you don't like snow, stay away! Property is high, unless you made a killing on real estate in California.

Like Rick, I researched southern states for 2 years before I retired. Narrowed it down to North Central Arkansas and Northern Mississippi. Upon retirement, we went and visited the chosen areas, to help make our decision. Fell in love with the Ozarks.

Found 26 wooded acres, built a home and relocated last year from Michigan. Now I can hunt and shoot my firearms in my backyard. Life is good!

Winelover

[Wayne Smith]

If you are up on the plateau realize you will be living in a New England temperature zone. Do an extended visit in the winter before you commit to buying. Visiting Big Bear will not prepare you for living in the temperatures.

[Edubya]

Northern Arizona is very pretty, however if you don't like snow, stay away! Property is high, unless you made a killing on real estate in California.

Like Rick, I researched southern states for 2 years before I retired. Narrowed it down to North Central Arkansas and Northern Mississippi. Upon retirement, we went and visited the chosen areas, to help make our decision. Fell in love with the Ozarks.

Found 26 wooded acres, built a home and relocated last year from Michigan. Now I can hunt and shoot my firearms in my backyard. Life is good!

Winelover

Winelover, you did what I wished I had done in '94. I moved into a sleepy little village of Pinehurst, NC. I could have bought some property and built outside of any residential area but no, I found a nice little house with surrounding vacant treed lots and very nice neighbors. After I bought the place and started trying to purchase adjoining lots I found that I had made a mistake. The owners of the lots had bought them back in the 80's and had paid way too much for them in order to become members of the Pinehurst Country Club. Their asking prices were about 3 or more times of what they were worth. Guess what... This use to be a quiet neighborhood of 4 homes, it is now too many to count. I don't have fifty feet in any direction from my property line!

EW

[ShooterAZ]

Flagstaff is a great place to live, and has treated me well for over 35 years. There is a lot of diversity here, mountains, canyons, lakes, and desert nearby. Good hunting and fishing too. We recently (finally) got a shooting range. The winters can be quite harsh, as previously mentioned. Summer more than makes up for it though, God's Country. Williams is much smaller, but growing too.

[ole 5 hole group]

I know a fella that relocated to a beautiful spot a little south of Flagstaff - not sure on the lot size but it's got a terrific view and the temps are damn mild compared to some area in some States but he has no water - none, nuca - can't drill a well, well maybe you can drill but you won't find water. He has water brought in a couple times a month - that to me, would be a deal breaker.

[TheGrimReaper]

Used to go to Yuma, AZ a lot in the military and I loved it. Wanted to move there but ex-wife said NO!

[McLintock]

I'm from Arizona originally and lived in Flagstaff, going to College, 59-64, and then back there from '72 to 2004 working for the Forest Service and it was a great place for all those years. But, the winters finally got to me and I now live in Prescott at about 5000 ft elevation and really like it better and will probably appreciate it even more as I get older. I wouldn't go below 4500' elevation, the winters aren't really bad and the summers aren't blindingly hot, best of both worlds.
McLintock

[Ghost101]

I'm from a little town in MO., Sikeston. Lived in IL, IN, MN. Remember that the winters were hard to ride in, but didn't get a car until just before moving to CA in 1973. Water is a big concern with living in any of the three states I've been looking at, AZ, NM, southern UT. Water can be hard to find here in so-cal also unless you live in town with a water system. Any place that I move to will take a lot of getting use to.

[marlin39a]

I'm in Paulden, 35 miles north of Prescott. Not far from Gunsite. It's a true paradise for the outdoorsman. Can register my ATV as a M/C and ride anywhere. Shoot my guns just about anywhere. Plenty of varmints. I come from Mass. (13 yrs prior), and don't mind the Winters here. Summers are long and beautiful.

[Artful]

http://www.flagstaff.az.gov/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagstaff,_Arizona

I live down the hill in Phoenix Metro Area - it's great to visit in summer but I don't drive up in winter much due to snow.

Water is very important in AZ - check that out before you buy.

Like Oregon, Colorado and other states that have a lot of California transplants it's changing from what it was just a few years ago.

If you move to AZ please don't try to Californicate AZ

[Ghost101]

Where ever I move, it will be because I like the people an their ways. I have my own values an ways which by the way never fit into the so cal mode. But because of my chosen work this is where I have lived for so many years yearning to be elsewhere. I'm divorced after 31 yrs. of marriage, but I take care of my Mother who is 93 yrs. of age. The times that I have been able to work in AZ, I have enjoyed the people that I've met. Didn't really like the area down southeast of Mesa. But have traveled thru parts of the north. I see myself becoming friends with a mule an going out to look around. I may never hunt again because of health issues, but its still in my heart.
God, Family, Friends an Country. Kind of where I'm at.



QUOTE=Artful;2097855]http://www.flagstaff.az.gov/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagstaff,_Arizona

I live down the hill in Phoenix Metro Area - it's great to visit in summer but I don't drive up in winter much due to snow.

Water is very important in AZ - check that out before you buy.

Like Oregon, Colorado and other states that have a lot of California transplants it's changing from what it was just a few years ago.

If you move to AZ please don't try to Californicate AZ[/QUOTE]

[elk hunter]

If it were me I'd carefully pick an area and then go there and Rent for at least a year. That would give you time to really look at the area and people and to check out the situation and give you a better chance of finding exactly what you are looking for before buying.

[Ghost101]

That was my plan. But this site has a whole lot of great people an advise. Just putting it out there for more info. I also have to find a place that would be able to handle any needs for my mother.

[oldgeezershooter]

Northern Az is terrible,you wouldn't like it.
Don't even think about it.

[leadman]

You could also check out the northeastern part of the state. Around ShowLow it is much like Flag as far as weather due to the elevation. There is alot of land around the Heber area that ranges from residential sized lots to 20 acres or more. My friend bought 40 acres north of Heber about 20 miles that was totally unimproved but has 4 wells in the area for residents to haul water from. He does get some snow in the winter but it melts off in a couple of days usually. Elevation is about 6,000 feet. Hauling water is not unusual in the rural areas and solar and wind power are big.

[sprinkintime]

That was my plan. But this site has a whole lot of great people an advise. Just putting it out there for more info. I also have to find a place that would be able to handle any needs for my mother.

Another thing to remember is California's source tax, once you retire and move out of state if that state does not have a law saying that they cannot charge source tax, they will come a hunting for you, they are very aggressive. I know I retired and left Calif. 22yrs. ago because of all the gun laws at that time, I had lived there since 52 when it was a state. Moved to Northern Nevada, they put a lean on my house for taxes I owed while living in NV. That has changed now with the NV laws. You would not like it here to cold in the winters, I'm in the Carson City Area.

Sprink

[Larry Gibson]

If you're going to come through or close to Lake Havasu City, AZ (this area is well worth looking at also) and have time give me a shout and we'll have coffee or I can show you around and explain why I moved here.

Larry Gibson

[oldgeezershooter]

Havasu is fine in the winter! Not so much in the summer.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Ghost101, I too was born and raised in Sikeston,MO. I left there in 1952 and returned in 1955 for Collage. One winter was enough. I beat it back to the Golden State and have been here ever since. I retired in 1993 and started to look for the ideal place to move. Never found it. The ideal place only exists if you are rich. Make that very rich. If you could buy a place in one of the western states for the sumer, say Montana, Idaho or Utah and another place in Arizona for the winter that would work, at least for me. In 1995 my wife and I toured Arizona looking for a place to move. We went to Prescot first. The place was already ruined by ex Californias. We owned a nice home in Whitter, Ca. and we couldn't sell and get enough money to buy in Prescot. I went to every gunshop in town and asked for places to shoot and at that time there was a rifle range but it closed a few years ago. A friend of mine moved there after the housing bubble burst in Arizona and he said the closest place to shoot was 45 miles away. We looked north to Paulden and Chino Valley and it was not much better. There is a road that connects to HWY 40 at Ashfork and goes south to Prescot. I was warned not to buy west of that road. I asked why the houses there had such high foundations and was told it is a flood plain and the ground is a fine dust. When wet it turns to grease. Also, water is a problem, or I should say, the lack of it. You can forget Phoenix or Tucson. An Arab couldn't live there in the summer. For weather southeren Arizona is not too bad. Places like Tombstone or better yet Sierra Vista. The country side is not much to look at, just rolling hills covered with sage. Very boring. If you can stand humidity then you should look at northwest Arkansaw. On our way back to California we stopped at Havasu. The heat was the worst I have ever experienced at 117 degrees. Yuma is as bad or worse. One area that showed promise was Clarkdale located at the southern end of Verde Canyon. All of this took place 18 years ago so the houses prices have changed but not the weather. As Mark Twain said, [nobody ever does anything about that].

[quilbilly]

Personally, my biggest concern would be droughts. After projecting salmon runs for my customers based on ocean conditions for the last 30+ years, one can not help making connections and more severe droughts for the SW are on the way ( the kind that destroyed the Anasazi Indian culture 700 years ago and the kind that lowered Lake Tahoe 250 feet at the same time). Look farther north, Central Oregon is nice (except the property taxes) and was not effected by those same droughts. Historically we are overdue.

[MT Chambers]

Land prices in AZ. are much better in the south, esp. around Casa Grande.....Flagstaff is nice but always snowing and cold in the winter. Buy a place in the south and with the money you save, you can buy an RV and spend the summers around Flagstaff, Prescott, and esp. Sedona......I Kinda like the town of Superior as well.