Damn man. The way things are going with work now, I’m tempted to move to that area, get a house and work as menial job and just enjoy life. My buddy is somewhere in the Phoenix burbs and has a 3000 st ft house with pool for around 1/2 of what my current place is assessed at. So since I owe about 1/2 the value 🤔
Another of my nephews had moved to Phoenix a few years ago. He went to work for the AZDOT. Decided he wanted to move back to Utah after a year or two. They offered to let him telecommute. I think he still has to travel to Phoenix once a month. He feels he has the best of both worlds. Didn’t know that government agencies have that type of opportunity.
AZ isn’t the best state in the republic, but they offer a lot that Hawaii does not. For instance, when I sell my house here I will have a chunk of equity that I will use to pay down my mortgage in Prescott. We bought a more expensive home in Prescott than we planned on. I will recast my loan with the same terms but based on less than $50k mortgage. It will only take me 3 or 4 years to pay that off, if not less. If we had not bought a more expensive house, we would be able to pay off the house instead. If you want to buy in the Phoenix area, I would suggest somewhere on the outskirts. I just bought an investment home in Mesa for under $250k. It’s a very nice house in a nice neighborhood. It is a 3 bed/2 bath, 1600 sq ft, 2 story, 20 yrs old. Not much land but I prefer that for a rental. Not sure what you are looking for, but it sounds like you have already started to consider. If you don’t already have an agent in Phoenix, I have a terrific one I can recommend.
AZ also does not tax my retirement income. Gas is a little above average but prices on other things are less than Hawaii like electricity, water, etc. Fresh fish is hard to come by. If you don’t mind desert living you can live even farther out and not be around a lot of people like where we are moving to. But, AZ has very expensive healthcare prices. They are still on the Obamacare debacle. They were one of the states where Obamacare prices went up 100% in one year. But I’ll put up with it for 3 years until I qualify for Medicare. One thing I noticed during my commuting around Phoenix is little to no graffiti on the freeways. Everything that is supposed to be green was green and not brown.
Dustoff moved to AZ and we continue to stay in touch. He and his wife are having a house built for them currently. We will be meeting for shooting and talk story after I move.