COMMENT BY
Wendy from Tucson, AZ
COMMENT ABOUT PLACE
Tucson, AZ
COMMENT
Arizona: a mixed bag
I have been in Arizona for decades. I would say that it is wonderful in some ways and abysmal in others. In the lower elevations of AZ, there are no blizzards. We also have no hurricanes, few ice storms, very few earthquakes ( the ones we have are so small as to be imperceptible)...Spring and autumn are glorious, here. If you love outdoor recreation 6 months of the year, if you love visiting historical sites, if you love sunshine, AZ is the place to live.
But...
The summers are brutal. They last from early May through the end of October. The heat is brutal 24 hours a day, in summer. It’s so hot, the only humane time to walk your dog is between 11pm and 4am. The tar black top in parking lots melts. Your electric bill ( from attempting to cool your residence) is sooooo high from May through October. Municipal Water quality is poor; but there’s such a demand for it that your water bill will be outrageous.
And, lest we forget that Arizona is a border state: Arizona has one of the highest rates of vehicle theft in the U.S.... Guess where stolen vehicles end up? Yup. Mine was stolen from a parking area at a busy shopping mall. (Yes, I locked it). It was found 18 months later in Mexico, across the Rio Grande from Laredo. My aunts truck was stolen from the Douglas, AZ area.
And, if you plan to buy real estate here, be warned. You pay a lot more money for a smaller home on a smaller lot than compared to other locations in the U.S.! Enjoying these mild winters means that you will pay much more money for much less real estate.
But... the natural beauty is AZ is incomparable. Today, we’re enjoying sunshine and temps in the low 80s while much of the country is cold, soggy, flooded, snowy or having tornados. This is bar-b-que and sun tan weather.