Retirement home in Phoenix suburbs

[nebgirl]

My husband and I have recently returned from a week in Arizona and are considering purchasing a home in one of the Phoenix suburbs. Their real estate market is very depressed and it looks to me like a patient person could make a good deal on a winter home.

I would appreciate anyone else's insights into the Phoenix metro real estate market. We spent some time in the Queen Creek area and thought it was very nice.

Our back ground is: Husband has 3 years until full retirement at age 55. We are currently 52 and 47 years old. Our balance sheet made it to seven figures this past year. We have lived in South Dakota and Nebraska and would enjoy spending the winter some place warm. We have mutual funds that could be used to purchase a home. We have a 19 year old son in college with a great scholarship and a 22 year old son who has decided to work and maybe return to college later.
We own the home we live in now and are looking to downsize within 3 years.

I would appreciate any insight this board might be able give. Thanks

[Deleted]

Rent first! Phoenix is really spread out. You can spend a lot of time in a car if you're not careful.

We moved about 18 months ago but kept our house. (Very NE part of the County in a little town called Carefree). We will probably move back in 10 years.

The market won't be going anywhere fast so rent a couple of times and explore the area.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

Are pension monies and other retirement benefits like healthcare in the mix also? Will one of you or both continue some sort of work?

[souldoubt]

I don't really have much insight other than the fact that my grandmother and her husband (remarried after grandpa died) bought a house for cash out in the Phoenix area in the last year. They had bought a house in California a few years earlier but after visiting family and friends out there they decided that it was a little more laid back, cheaper and just simply better suited to them. Main thing I can say that you already know is that their money goes a lot further out there and they got a house bigger than the one they had in CA for half the price.

[nebgirl]

Pension is around 630,000 401k is around 300,000 the rest in Roth IRAs. Health care will be on us for 10 years. We are currenly healthy with no issues. We have opened a health savings account and will continue to put money in that to finance our health insurance premiums in the future. I work as a bookkeeper and can do that work most anywhere. Husband has an engineering degree, and would be able to work in a number of management/technical fields. We would like to have an inexpensive house in the midwest and a winter home somewhere warm. I would not plan to spend summers in the Phoenix house.

My concern about our retirement funds is that they are all accounts on paper. The only real estate we own is the house in Nebraska. I think it may be a good idea to buy a tangible asset with some of that money before the market decides these accounts are worth considerably less as has happened in recent history.

[thyme4change]

I agree with Bonnap - Queen Creek can be a great place - if that is what you want. But, if you want to go to any of the events downtown or you like to eat at fancy restarants, you might be in your car longer than you are at the game/restarant/theater, etc. Not a big deal to some, as all the would like to do is hang out at home.

[Deleted]

Phoenix may take 10 years to recover its real estate market. Our investments in stock have already recovered. I like real estate but that market is really depressed. Way, way too much inventory.

I'm not saying don't buy. But take your time to make a good decision.

[nebgirl]

We will take our time and choose the right property. We currenly live 35 miles from the nearest wally world and 70 miles to the big mall, so we are used to an hour in the car to do something we want to do. We do enjoy dirt bikes and 4 wheelers, so all the public access in Arizona is appealing.

[Lex Luthor]

I would suggest Peoria and Sun City areas. As well as the nicer areas of Buckeye/Avondale. They aren't Scottsdale, but they are pretty nice with major shopping and restaurant areas fairly close and they are near to several major venues like the Glendale area football arena and concert venue. And they are equally as close to downtown as Queen Creek.

If you don't care about being close to city venues, then you may also want to consider Tucson which is smaller in scope and size to Phoenix, but will still get you that warmth you are looking for.

[thyme4change]

I don't know much about the whole 4-wheeling world - but I will say that everyone I know that lives in the Queen Creek area is into it. I can see how you would be drawn to there. Everyone also seems to have a toy hauler and heads north to camp and ride - a lot!

[Urban Chicago]

The market in Phoenix is in such upheaval right now,so you also have to consider the neighborhood going downhill between now and whenever the market recovers. I'd wait for a while myself.

Personally, I'd never want to live in a place where I'd feel guilty every time I washed a dish.

[thyme4change]

After all the rains the last couple of years the reservoirs are back to normal levels and we don't really talk about that anymore.

[Urban Chicago]

Yeah, but lots of rain is not normal in Phoenix, and you just can't get around the number of people vs. amount of water vs. people who insist on having mid-west style lawns.

[thyme4change]

We get our water from the rivers - not Phoenix rain. We use mountain snow run off.

[Deleted]

The Phoenix area gets its water from two places; Colorado river which starts in Idaho and from pumping ground water.

The Queen creek area has some settlement issues because so much water has been pumped out from the aquifer that big sink holes have appeared where the ground has collapsed.

Water will continue to be an issue in both Phoenix and much of the West. The river is over prescribed and CA has priority over AZ. Las Vegas has the lowest priority of any city.

Although I love where our house is if I were to invest today I would look seriously at the older 1st tier suburbs near where Thyme lives. They were built along the old streetcar lines; some of those streetcar lines have be revived and turned into Valley Transportation's light rail line. Access to the airport is quick which is important if you plan on flying to and from your home in the Midwest. You will probably only have one car and I think it will be important to be able to walk to the grocery store and have access to downtown. As far as 4 wheeling goes; you can find spots in any direction from the city center; North, South, East or West.

I don't like the West Valley at all. Even though I love what DMB does for land use planning (They designed both Verrado outside of Buckeye and DC Ranch in North Scottsdale) I took a pass when we were looking to invest some other money in real estate. That whole West Valley is going to be one giant suburb all the way to CA someday. Sun City is just depressing.

I am not a fan of gated communities in general but one complex I'm starting to grow fond of is Terravita. Ironically it was built by the Del Webb company which built not only the afore mentioned Sun City but other Sun Cites around the country. But Terravita isn't an age restricted community It's about a half mile from my house and is located at the intersection of Scottsdale Road and Carefree Hwy. I have several friends who live there and they love it. I have another friend who would like to sell his big house someday and move there as well. It's truly lock and leave housing, a lot of amenities; e.g. executive desert golf course, pools, gym, club et cetera. There is a very nice social program which is important if you are seasonal residents. You can rent off road toys in nearby Cave Creek and take them out to the National forest which is about 5 miles away. Beautiful views which won't change much because of the surrounding mountains being in the National Forest. There are about 1400 units with a variety of housing types, from condos to 3500 sq.ft. houses. Here's a link to the website: www.terravitascottsdale.org/Home Grocery store borders the complex. About the only downside is that its about 30-40 miles to the airport which is a 45-1 hour drive. But I think they have a shuttle service which serves the complex. I think some snowbirds don't even bother with a car and just use a golf cart. Plenty of restaurants within 5 miles in the surrounding communities of Cave Creek, Carefree and North Scottsdale.

Good luck with your hunt!

[sesfw]

I agree with others that advise renting for a winter season and getting the feel of several areas around Phoenix. I live in Fountain Hills which is NE of the city and the other side of McDowell Mountains. My daughter lives in Mesa and FH is consistently 3 degrees cooler in the summer, and that is a huge difference.

FH is a small town of about 22K and can't get any bigger. Three sides are Indian Reservation Land, and the fourth is McDowell Mountains. There are three groceries, resturants are <ehhh>, small community theatre, active community center, family town, other shopping is about 20 miles in Scottsdale, Costco is 12 miles.

[phil5185]

Personally, I'd never want to live in a place where I'd feel guilty every time I washed a dish.

The Desert Indians (Pima, Gila) wash dishes with sand. I wonder how well that works?

BTW, water and water vapor can not travel thru space - so every drop of water that was on our planet when it was formed is still here. It is almost impossible to get rid of water - boil it, the vapor goes up, forms a cloud, and rains. Water the grass, some goes down to the aquifer, some evaporates upward (rain again), some goes into the plant and ultimately evaporates (rain). Some goes into the oceans - and then evaporates/precipitates from the surface into the air (rain). Contaminated water is filtered thru sand/rock/soil on the way to an aquifer (takes about 100 yrs).

The point? When we were designing the Lunar vehicles in the 1960s, we didn't have to worry about including windshield wipers.

[Deleted]

We also talk about "retiring" in the Phoenix (or maybe Alburq) area. My husband is already retired. but he has to wait on me (nine more years until 66).

Anyway, I'm tired of watching him freeze to death in the Sunny South.