Good input, all. Thank you. My wife says we don't have the home buying budget for Gilbert. We'll see. If Mesa is a shithole, we'll find another place nearby. My wife hates a long commute, but in the last twelve years, I've consistently driven further than her for less money. Again, we'll see.

If your job is in that area you might want to consider perhaps moving a bit south to say the Queen Creek area - outside the cement block that is Phoenix and the surrounding areas.

I ended up in tucson rather than Phoenix because this is where I want to retire and die. One of my hobbies is astronomy and I did my best to escape the light pollution of the area. Not as dark sky as sone areas but orders if magnitude better than what I left on the east coast.

in late 2018 we sold our former residence in CA and did a 1031 exchange, looking for two rental houses in the East Valley. We ended up with one in Gilbert (Val Vista Lakes) And one in Chandler. Prices have gone up a lot since our purchases, and we are frequently getting cold calls from people asking about buying. So the market is hot, and with interest rates going up, financing might be an issue depending on your situation.

There are some nicer areas of Mesa, and older areas of Gilbert.

You might also look out to Apache Junction to the east of Mesa, it looks like it's largely newer construction and less expensive than Gilbert. As noted above, most of Mesa is older, more run down, and large areas are industrial, not true for Gilbert or Chandler.

There's nothing unusual about folks working in Mesa to live in zipcodes in Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Gilbert, South Mountian / Ahwatukee, Chandler, Apache Junction, and Queen Creek.

Depending on where the job in Mesa is, and which pocket of any of those municipalities you live in, and which direction you're traveling relative to rush hour traffic, they can be pretty close to one another.

"south Scottsdale may as well be north Tempe", and so on, and north Mesa has houses whose backyards border the Reservation (empty land).

Proximity to the 202 or whatever local roads will be important, obviously. Traveling in directions opposite of ASU and MCC will be helpful, where possible. Like, living in the eastern edge of southern Tempe and working in east Mesa is better commuting than living in Gilbert and working in the parts of Mesa next to MCC...

A little late to the party here, but I currently live in Mesa (202 and Guadalupe Area if you wanna look it up). I grew up in Gilbert and have lived in the South East Valley for most of my life. I worked as a Deputy Sheriff all over Mesa and Queen Creek so I have seen it all out here.

The key to finding a nice place to live in Mesa is to live in an area of Mesa that is covered by Gilbert Public School District. You get all the benefits of essentially living in Gilbert, but it's cheaper in every way because its technically Mesa. It's the secret to doing well out here.

I would be more than happy to chat with you about it all if you want, and if you need a place to stay for a day or two when you wanna come look around you are more than welcome to be our guests!

Please feel free to shoot me an email with any questions

Cheers

Alan


P.S. If things get more serious, I can also hook you up with the most honest, kind, hardworking realtor/Broker I've ever met or worked with. I grew up with his kids and he has a heart of gold.

While Mesa isn't bad there are better places in the valley to live even if you wife is working in Mesa. I'd look at Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, or Scottsdale which are all commuting distance to Mesa.

Let me know if you have any areas specifically in mind and I can do a quick drive-by to scout them out for you. We are in south Tempe and we love it. Convenient for everything.

Todd

I love this place, I really do. You guys are great.

She had her phone interview today and it went very well. They say we'll hear back by the end of the week, early next week at the latest. When she asked when they'd want the hire to start, they responded "We need somebody yesterday. So if this happens, it'll move very quickly.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Depending on where the job in Mesa is[...]

Northeast Mesa, by Apache Wells and Falcon Gateway.

quote:

Originally posted by amhaynie:
Everything.

!!

If we get good news, you will have an email from me immediately!

quote:

Originally posted by phxtoad:
Let me know if you have any areas specifically in mind and I can do a quick drive-by to scout them out for you. We are in south Tempe and we love it. Convenient for everything.

Todd

Thank you! If we get good news, you will also have an email from me immediately!

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Good input, all. Thank you. My wife says we don't have the home buying budget for Gilbert. We'll see. If Mesa is a shithole, we'll find another place nearby. My wife hates a long commute, but in the last twelve years, I've consistently driven further than her for less money. Again, we'll see.

Parts of Mesa are great… Other parts aren’t. Mesa covers a very large geographical area.

My advice - as someone who moved here in 2006, I would urge you not to buy a house right now. This is a boom/bust town, and we’re closer to bust than boom right now. I watched the value of the house we bought in ‘06 go from $300K to $100K. We eventually sold that place for $180K in 2014, but it was a long six years waiting for the market to come back to the point where the loss wasn’t horrible.

Buy a house here when nobody else wants one, and you’ll do well. If you need a realtor, PM me.

quote:

Northeast Mesa, by Apache Wells and Falcon Gateway.

Honeywell? That’s a pretty nice area of town, BTW.

quote:

Originally posted by amhaynie:
I would be more than happy to chat with you about it all if you want, and if you need a place to stay for a day or two when you wanna come look around you are more than welcome to be our guests!
Please feel free to shoot me an email with any questions. Cheers
Alan

Alan is one of the most honest, “good people” type of folks you will ever meet. Ask anyone on the forum that has met him.
He will *always* tell you the truth and I would trust him with anything I value dearly.

That said…
The general Phx area sucks. I lived there for well over 50 years and while I had a great time and career, once I moved 110 miles North, life has has been GREAT! Prescott is 20° cooler.
That and the population of Maricopa County is why I moved.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more gun friendly state and you will find that AZ is the most or one of the most diverse habitat states around.
Not many places can say that you can snow ski and water ski on the same day!

“Beat the heat” escapes are plentiful and the winter has Chamber of Commerce bragging rights.
Moving out of the PNW? That’s a no brainer. Do it!

Grew up in Chandler/Mesa. Graduated from Dobson High. Still consider it home. The biggest thing that keeps me from moving back is the traffic and congestion. I would keep that in mind when thinking about where to buy.

It's perhaps more helpful to think of the entire East Valley as one contiguous municipality. There's very little that distinguishes Chandler from Mesa from Gilbert from Tempe, etc. You'll find that all lack a truly distinct personality. There are only nicer neighborhoods and lesser neighborhoods.

I miss it, still, in many ways. Good luck to you.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Northeast Mesa, by Apache Wells and Falcon Gateway.

Right, so you could reasonably live anywhere from south Fountain Hills, to south / southeast Scottsdale to east / northeast Tempe, to east Mesa, to Apache Junction, to north / northeast Chandler, to Gilbert, and Queen Creek, and I'm probably forgetting something. Lots of options.

You may want to try to stay east of MCC, as a handy landmark. Thus avoiding most MCC and most ASU traffic and the Tempe tech sector traffic, also avoiding Rural/Scottsdale Rd and other key arteries.

But it's all doable, depending on your budget and tastes and desired commute times. Like someone else mentioned, it's all one giant contiguous grid of streets and avenues, anyway, both the East Valley and metro Phoenix in general, with loads of pockets all over the price range.

Well, my wife got the offer about an hour ago. We have a few days to respond and officially accept the offer. My wife wants us to decide tonight so she can go in to work tomorrow and inform her manager. We wouldn't know exactly when we would be moving if we accept, but it could be as little as thirty days, and up to ninety or so. Paid relocation, so that's nice.

Besides the heat, are there any really good reasons not to go?

As far as negatives, it would be a 5% raise, but we just found out that would get eaten by income tax, which we don't have here. Wife wasn't thrilled about that. Similar or even higher sales tax (10% here), so I'm not thrilled about that. With cirrhosis, I have bad edema in my legs, and last summer when it got up to 111 degrees, my lower legs swelled so bad it felt like the skin was going to burst like a microwaved hot dog. I figure I'll just have to be zealous about no salt in what I eat, and that's not a bad thing. Besides, air conditioning. I figured a trial weekend down there to see how I do wasn't a bad idea, but by then, it'll be a done deal either way.

The positives we would talk about on a gun forum almost aren't worth going into, as the political and legal stuff alone makes it a no-brainer for me, but if it's the best thing for the family, selling points for the wife would be helpful.

Line up your medical care before you move. Make appointments for a new PCP and Hepatologist.

Congrats on the escape

Now to find you a hideout.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Line up your medical care before you move. Make appointments for a new PCP and Hepatologist.

Will do. I have a friend I met through AA down there who had a liver transplant two years ago, I was just about to shoot him a text.

Good luck with the job and potential move; hope it works out for the best, whatever that might be. During the years I lived in the Arizona desert (albeit not Phoenix), I could tolerate the heat. What got to me though was the length of time it stays hot. If you think summer starts after Memorial Day and is over after Labor Day…uh-uh

Air conditioning is your friend. Make sure that wherever you move, wherever you work, and your car has functional a/c. "Swamp coolers" used to work in the Phoenix area, but the humidity there has gotten high enough that they don't work very well any more. It's not high by standards elsewhere, but high enough to make evaporative cooling less adequate.

flashguy

Thanks, guys. Yeah, it's going to be a massive adjustment. I'm not even going to pretend like I'm not going to hate the heat. I grew up in El Paso, and went to Phoenix once when I was about my son's age, and all I remember is thinking "this is too hot."

Well, after a few days of thought and soul searching, I told my wife I'm 100% on moving. She's really sad about losing her garden she's worked on for almost seven years. I'm going to miss the friends I've made, the job I lucked into, left, and found my way back to. But it's time to go. She's going to accept the offer Monday, and then the gears start turning. We're leaving Washington state.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Thanks, guys. Yeah, it's going to be a massive adjustment. I'm not even going to pretend like I'm not going to hate the heat. I grew up in El Paso, and went to Phoenix once when I was about my son's age, and all I remember is thinking "this is too hot."

I moved here in May, just before the hot season. The first summer I remember thinking I'd wait until it cooled off, then sell and move somewhere cooler.

Didn't get around to the move and the second year felt cooler, so I changed my mind. After the 3rd year, I quit using the mister system on the patio.

Essentially you get acclimated if you give your body a chance to do it. Now I don't think it gets all that hot. Cold does bother me, though, and I put on a wool shirt when the temp goes under 70 degrees.