The Best Places to Retire in Arizona: A Virtual Tour
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
January 12, 2020 — Arizona is a really popular place to retire because of its climate, scenery, and interesting towns. At Topretirements it is the second most popular state for retirement. It also has the second highest net immigration of people over 65 (SmartAsset). Since Covid has put the damper on travel and exploration, please join us on this virtual tour of the best places to retire in this beautiful state. This is the second in our series of virtual tours of popular states for retirement (Southwest Florida was the first).
The Road Trip
Arizona is the sixth largest state in terms of size and 14th by population. Florida by contrast has almost 3 times the population in just under half the area, with many more retirement communities. Arizona’s sheer size means a retirement tour of the Grand Canyon State involves a lot of driving. If done outside of the summer, it means bringing along some warm weather clothing for parts of the trip, because many areas have high altitude and chilly weather at times. This virtual tour will hopefully whet your appetite for an Arizona exploration, and learn more about the many towns we mention here and over 300 active adult and 55+ communities in our Arizona Directory.
Comments on "The Best Places to Retire in Arizona: A Virtual Tour"
Ed LaFreniere says:
I would also suggest that you travel through Arizona in the middle of the winter and the middle of the summer. It gets down into the high 30s and 40s in Scottsdale these days, and our golf course in north Scottsdale seems to be having as many frost-delay days as not. By late morning you're up into the 60s, or perhaps 70s, though. Glorious weather, like seven months of New England fall temperatures. The summers are a different story. If you have an aversion to extreme heat, you will endure four months that will sear your soul -- June through September, at least. Nearly 150 days in Phoenix last year above 100, and record numbers above 110 -- 53 days, and another 14 above 115. If you love to be outdoors, the summers won't be your favorite time of year. Prescott is much cooler, as is Flagstaff. On these blistering days some in the Phoenix area retreat to these mountain havens for a break. Can't emphasize this enough -- live through these days before choosing a location, and be honest about whether this will fit your lifestyle.
Greg W says:
We’re having a house built in Prescott and are very excited about moving there! We’ve met a lot of transplanted folks, largely from CA but also east coast. When looking for places to buy, we were really struck by how new the contractor trucks were, a sign of the booming market. People are very friendly and the area has a lot to offer for outdoors enthusiasts. There’s some nicer restaurants, but Scottsdale’s not too far away and we have friends in the area for visits. We were going to keep our Truckee cabin and buy modest in Phoenix area, living in the mountains of Truckee during summers. However the Tahoe “Covid” housing boom was too big to ignore, so we elected to sell there and go to 4-seasons Prescott. Will vacation travel more (when things get better).
Admin says:
See also the companion piece to this article: "A New Mexican Retirement Road Trip".