Nov 4th Escrow closes

[oldnotdead]

I never thought I'd have my own home again after I sold my house in San Diego. But here I am on the verge of being a homeowner. It's about 1,200 sq ft with 2 bedroom master suites and a den (my man cave). Brand new tile floor throughout for ease of cleaning, separate laundry room, central air, and heating, totally refurbished inside and out. It's a very nice upscale neighborhood not far from U of Az in the foothills of the Catalina Mtns. $143K with payments with the taxes and impound home insurance comes to about $630 per month.

Gotta love that VA Loan! No downpayment, and here in AZ as a senior I got 3% to go against the purchase price with no payments. If I stay in the home for 3 years the money is forgiven. I'm not the only Californian moving to AZ. The market is super hot with CA buyers and even with the price gouging, it's still so much cheaper than you can believe. My nephew whom I'm staying with has a gorgeous 2,400 sq ft view lot brand new site built 4 bdrm home for $280K (with upgrades) he bought via VA. He lives in upscale Vail, AZ.

Right now the sky is clear with a light breeze and it's 78 degrees outside which I'm told is their normal fall and winter weather. The heat and monsoon rain season is summer. My son is an EMT in San Diego and he's considering moving out here before the end of the year. California is a wonderful place, but the cost of living simply isn't realistic. He will make maybe 10% less but his cost of living will be 50% less. Oh, BTW gas today was $1.85 / gal which is why everyone out here is running around in full-size V8 powered SUVs and PUs.

My son went with his GF to Puerto Penasco on the gulf of Calif. which is about 3 hrs from Tucson and they loved it. So yeah it's not so bad I guess. LOL

My whole point of this thread is to tell my Ram fan bros there is an alternative to working your ass off to pay the rent or bank. I can still follow the Rams, Lakers and Dodgers from AZ. Or if you are retired this isn't such a bad place to be. Just picked up my Modelo Negro and my GF has made us a wonderful dinner of tacos birria de res (beef tacos the way the Mexican really eat them) and Mexican rice and elotes. Cheers, my Ram bros!!

 

[dieterbrock]

Congratulations!!!

 

[FaulkSF]

Might have to retire there. Sounds awesome and very affordable. One of the reasons I moved out of So Cal.

 

[Angry Ram]

Isn't 1200 kinda small? I had an apartment that size and I felt so cramped. But it works for you thats all that matters.

 

[VegasRam]

Can you sees stars at nite?
Was thinking Reno, but always liked the Tucson area.
Rode down to Tombstone quite a few times.

 

[oldnotdead]

1200 sq ft is fine depending upon the floor plan. Two master bedrooms are nice at my age I don't do stairs. It's only me and my GF so who needs more? Like most backyards in AZ, it's pavers and gravel making it like one big patio. The brand new hot tub is nice. The main thing is it's in a very nice part of town, very upscale. No HOA is also nice. The lot is about 7,000 sq ft with space between the homes like the old days not this zero property line crap in CA. You want stars? 10 min drive further up into the hills and it's all the stars you want.

The local supermarket is very close, and it's a Fry's which is AZ's Ralph's. It's huge and extremely well-stocked. Starbucks is just down the street as are all the other services you normally need. What I love is there is no real traffic...not like LA or SD. Yeah, it will be nice to have my own place. Oh, and the exterior walls are all reinforced concrete blocks which is a very good heat insulator.

My last electric and gas bill in SD was almost $500 combined. My nephew pays less than $200 / mo combined. Food, gasoline, car insurance and things like that are much cheaper in AZ compared to CA. Hell, there's even a Bruegger's Bagel shop not too far away. LOL Hell even my friends in AL are thinking of moving out. Most places that are inexpensive to live, usually are out in the boonies, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere or have crappy weather. At 2,400 ft elevation, it doesn't get as hot as Phoenix. Heck, it was hotter in the San Fernando Valley where most of my family lives during the recent heatwave. I spent a summer in Palm Springs and that truly sucked. It never dropped below 115 during the day the whole damn summer and the humidity was horrendous. Since I've been here it's been 110 occasionally but it cools off in the evening, unlike Palm Springs where it never dropped below 90 most nights. Too hot just drive up into the mountains maybe 45 min and it's really nice.

Yeah, all things considered, it's not a bad place at all.

 

[-X-]

I know you just moved there, but have you experienced the summer weather yet? As in, visited there in the summer?

 

[oldnotdead]

I've been here since the beginning of April so yes I have experienced a summer. In all honesty, it was much like it was in LA on most days, i.e. upper '90s to low 100's. It's about 7-10 degrees cooler than Phoenix. I spent one summer in Phoenix and it was too hot for my liking. That was my impression of AZ until now. Heat wise Phoenix is like Palm Springs without PS humidity. Vail and Sierra Vista are truly high deserts at 3600 and 4600 ft respectively. I was actually looking in Sierra Vista because when it's over 100 in Tucson it's in the upper 90's in Sierra Vista.

IMO the key to living here in Tucson is having good AC. Most people still do swamp coolers which is ok because it's so damn dry out there so it works. But there is only so much cooling you can get from evaporative cooling. That's why I shopped specifically for a home with centralized heating and cooling.

In late summer is the rainy season which comes in the form of what they call monsoon season. These are fairly violent thunder & lightning storm cells that blow through. They are truly downpours but don't last more than say an hour. Then they are gone and the sun comes out again. At night if you drive up into the foothills you can see spectacular sights of multiple clearly defined storm cells with their lightning and it's much like watching fireworks.

In Sierra Vista, they will get an occasional dusting of snow in the winter. The snow doesn't linger long on the ground as the storms simply blow through then the sun comes out and melts it quickly.

If you ride a bicycle, run, or hike there are paths all over the city. If you are a gun owner, there are ranges and permissive gun ownership laws here, especially when it comes to open and concealed carry. If you like fishing there are lakes, offering everything from trout to bass, catfish, and crappie or you can go across the border to Puerto Penasco and fish the Gulf of Calif. No license is required if you fish from shore, a temporary license is required if from a boat.

Like CA there are reservation casinos in Tucson if gambling is your gig. My nephew likes Texas hold'em and goes 4-6 times a year. In that regard, it is much like SD only apparently the rooms are cheaper. My healthcare is VA and I am shocked how much better the care is in Tucson. They really stay on top of things. The interesting point is that the supermarket Fry's is offering free flu vaccinations just like it's offered in CA. But the difference is they will accept my VA card as my insurance and it cost me nothing out of pocket. Last year I was refused by these "free" offerings in CA citing that they didn't accept VA as insurance. CA is drowning in stupid regulations. I was born and raised in CA but I'm glad I no longer live there. My property taxes in SD was close to $6k annually adding about $500/mo to my house payments. My property taxes in will be less than $500 PER YEAR. My car insurance with the same car and coverage went from $300/mo in CA to $100/mo in AZ.

That's the thing, there are a lot of "hidden" costs people normally don't think about to live in LA or SD. I sold my home because the property taxes were about to go up to well over $6K when the loan payments on my principle were $1,100 so with all the impounds my house payments were a bit over $1,800/mo which actually was cheaper than renting. The downside in AZ is that renting is a loser in AZ as much as CA. In AZ it's much harder to qualify to rent than to buy. I was declined at 2 places when I tried to rent an $800/mo 2 bedroom apartment in a nice neighborhood. Yet here I am buying a bigger place only 2 miles or so from those apartments for $630/mo. If you don't have a minimum of $2K a month income with no debt don't even think about renting in Tucson.

 

[Pancake]

Your making me want to move their.

 

[Dz1]

Always great to see a post were someone's happy.

Btw to be short,bought a house 3 and a half years, in an area I thought was undervalued.

It's now very close to double what I paid for it. O"yeah even D's gets something right every now and then. Lol