Reviews & Comments
Sierra Vista, AZ
A place I dislike but somehow I keep moving back -
8/30/2021I moved to the Sierra Vista area in 2005 and have lived in almost all the surrounding towns since then. Key considerations for Sierra Vista: popular retirement destination, small town with a lot of seasonal fluctuations in population, not enough storefronts to support the amount of people shopping, homes are drastically overpriced, only one public middle school and one public high school, only two public schools in the district rated over 5/10, higher than average for the county in property taxes, lots of outdoor recreational activities for those that can do it, not enough youth recreation, the only hospital in the area is rated one of the worst in the state, and the job pool is limited to retail/food service unless you get a job with the city, county, or fed.
Sierra Vista is the largest town in SE Arizona and is also very close to the Mexican border. Closely surrounding towns include Hereford, Palominas, Huachuca City, Tombstone, Whetstone, Elgin, Sonoita, and Canelo. All of the surrounding towns depend on Sierra Vista for groceries and other basic necessities (unless you count any of the roughly 30 Dollar General stores that plague the area). We also get a large influx of "snow birds" (people that migrate South to escape the cold) that come in the Fall and stay until mid-Spring, as well as a large amount of people crossing the Mexican border to do their shopping. With all of these people, there are only three grocery stores, a small Super Walmart, and a Target that has a small grocery section with limited produce. Any of the mentioned stores above can have line wait times exceeding 10 minutes at any given time.
The public schools here are poor at best. There is only one middle school because the town closed the other school, and one high school unless you want to drive out of the way to Tombstone. Buena High School is rated 4/10, Joyce Clark Middle School is 5/10, and most of the elementary schools are rates 5-6/10.
Homes in the area are now drastically overpriced due to a massive influx of out-of-state buyers coming in with full cash offers over listing price. This is making it extremely hard for first time home buyers and lower income buyers to find adequate housing. Homes that used to cost $190k just a year or two ago are now going for $300k+.
There is very little to nothing for the younger population to do. Any attempts at bringing in activities such as mini golf and roller skating get squashed or they don't last long. There are a few recreational sports leagues and one or two travelling teams for certain sports, so that's a plus. The city just closed off all the sports fields unless you pay to use them. Something to do with protecting the turf they recently put in.
Ft Huachuca is the locally attached Army base that shares it's population with Sierra Vista and has a large amount of IT-related positions available that pay well, but most require a security clearance, bachelors degree, and 3+ years relevant experience. If you don't have or can't obtain one of the prereqs, you're most likely going to be stuck with retail, food service, or laboring.
Traffic in Sierra Vista is terrible in some areas, decent in others. Southbound on Hwy 92 you better expect to be going 10-20 mph slower than posted limits in both of the lanes. People like to lane camp and control the flow of traffic. Local police and sheriffs deputies don't seem to care that there is a state law dictating that traffic must flow in the righthand lane unless passing or turning left. Buffalo Soldier Trail and the Hwy 90 Bypass are the complete opposite. If you aren't going 10 over you better pucker up or move right because you'll get rear ended in a heartbeat. Loads of elderly drivers in the area that do not have the appropriate reaction times to drive and cause a ton a accidents.
Gas is more expensive here than it is in Tucson for some reason. You can expect gas prices to be 10-30 cents more per gallon on average. Cox is the only cable provider and is a money pit, but what do you expect from a cable provider? Electric and water are pretty cheap, which is nice during the summer when temps get 95+ (this year we had multiple weeks of 105+...) My electric cost about $120 to run a/c at 68 and have multiple tvs/computers/appliances all running throughout the day.
Overall Sierra Vista is an alright place as long as you're willing to get complacent with the negatives. Don't expect the mentality to change much here and you'll get along fine. Somehow this place has a weird pull on people that always causes them to come back. I've tried moving away four times and each of those times end up moving back within a year.