20 Most Popular Places to Retire: Arizona Rules the Southwest

I currently live in NY renting all my life. I will definitely retire to AZ in 2 years. I am sooo ready for the next phase of my life. I visited AZ twice and Sun City AZ (which is not on the list) has all what I need and want. Can't wait to leave the cold, high cost of living, hustle and bustle of NY. AZ has the great dry weather which is great for my arthritis and other ailments.
Definitely looking forward to this move.

Just moved into Saddlebrooke, AZ. Part of the larger Tucson area.
Higher elevation means bit cooler than Tucson and much cooler thean Phx valley.
Great amenties. Multiple golf courses with low fees.
Performing arts center, multiple gyms, multiple clubhouses and wide range of age groups.
Fees better than most the others we checked. Did stay and play at several.
Big plus is the terrain and views. There are views, more views, with ridges and elevation changes. Right on the north end of the Catalina mountains.
Think we made it !

The greater Tucson area has wonderful active adult communities with a full array of amenities. Look northeast of Tucson at Saddlebrooke, Saddlebrooke Ranch and Sun City Oro Valley. Northwest check out The Highlands at Dove Mountain (I've lived here 20 years) and Del Webb at Dove Mountain. South of Tucson is Green Valley with Quail Creek and lots of very affordable options. There is no doubt that summers are hot here! We get out early and get business done...I golf at 7am and I've survived 20 summers, afternoons are a good time to be inside. Our desert is highly vegetated and beautiful with unique wildlife. We also have areas to drive to and get away and enjoy cooler air like the White Mountains, Flagstaff/Canyon and Santa Fe/Taos - it helps break up the summers. Compared to the misery of midwest cold winters, snow, grey skies and ice...I'll take the summer heat and incredible winters!

Comment from Paul:
I haven’t seen much about Las Vegas in the forums. I have a good friend there and he’s not pleased with the changes in the past 8 years: traffic is terrible, and the summers keep getting hotter. Also water is becoming a big problem. They have ‘water police’ that issue tickets if you water the lawn on the wrong day, or use too much water and it runs in the gutters. Lake Mead keeps dropping every year, and that will affect the entire southwest.

My husband and I have been in Las Crus since Sat checking everything out. We are absolutely in love with this beautiful place. Great food and friendly people so far. We met with a realto Billie Haynes that represents The Willows at Picacho Mountain. She showed us all the age restricted(99% retired people). Love The Willows. Tomorrow going to Los Lunas to check out Jubilee. Then to Albuquerque to visit the DelWebb communities.

From Brigitta (Great comment - something we will work on. In the meantime, maybe some of our Southwest retirees can tell us more!)
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I've been receiving your newsletter for a couple of years. However, I don't think I've ever seen an article about the differences in building practices in different areas of the country. By that, I mean as someone who has lived my entire life on the east coast, I am quite familiar with how homes are/were built going back to the 1700s when my area was settled. I'm also familiar with the types of "pests" and environmental issues, i.e., radon, asbestos, buried oil tanks (for heating) that that NJ homeowners look for.

Now, I am interested in purchasing a home in AZ and I realize I don't know ANYTHING about typical building practices- pro/con, types of homes that one might want to stay away from or might WANT to consider, pests typical to the area, environmental issues, etc as I do about the east coast!

Thus, I'm wondering if you have ever addressed this issue in a series of articles on your site. Yes, I have learned quite a bit from the comment section of various articles. However, I would enjoy reading about things to take into account when purchasing and settling in the southwest. I could see this morphing/expanding into a series of articles on different parts of the US, especially in the most popular areas for folks who are considering retiring there. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would benefit from a series of articles such as this.

Thanks for taking this idea into account when looking for ideas for future articles.

I definitely agree with this since I will be retiring to AZ from NY in abt 1 1/2 yrs

Great idea! I'm curious about how local governments are adapting their building codes to accomodate climate change. Builders say they build what people want to buy but the trouble is that people aren't good at predicting what they *should* want (looking into the future). Its easy to want what everyone else has (or wants) but really hard to go out on a limb and choose something different. I'd like to know if there are any localities (anywhere in the country) that are looking to what their local climate may be like and encouraging building that matches it. As for the southwest, heat and drought and consequent fires are the obvious issues but I imagine there might also be invasions by pests that are now only rare or occasional. And who knows what else? It might be up to us seniors to lead the fight to bring about change that will protect our investment in where we live. After all, we have lived long enough to know the value of money.

These comments concerning retirement in Texas were moved here from a different Blog article:

After much searching I landed in the hill country of central Texas. Cost of living is about half of what we spent in NY. Health care is great, a University right in town, an active play house great restaurants, wineries and so much more.
My advice for those still searching, keep an open mind. Never had Texas on my radar but now I hope to stay for a long while!

by Pat — October 13, 2018

Where are you located Pat ??by Billy-October 14,2018
Pat, which town??by Pamee — October 15, 2018
Pat answered:
Georgetown Texas. 20 miles north of Austin.
by Pat — October 16, 2018

Question for Pat regarding Texas. I’ve been considering Texas and just looking online so far (never been there aside from flying through Dallas airport). Hope to visit Austin and check it out. So far my research indicates that healthcare ranks very low in Texas. Not sure what that means? Is there a lack of doctors? Also the real estate taxes are very high – super high. I know they don’t have income tax. But on a fixed income I couldn’t afford a $12,000 yearly real estate tax. Do they have any breaks for seniors? The heat is something else I’ve read about. Is it humid or dry. Dry heat is so much easier to take.?Appreciated your comments about Georgetown and would love to hear any other observations you have learned about your new home.
by Cindy — January 20, 2019

Cindy:?Texas is a huge state. Things will vary greatly depending in which part of the state you are considering. I’ve been in the DFW area for 20 years. Like many places, there is a shortage of family practice doctors as that specialty doesn’t pay as well as some other medical specialties. Texas is addressing this problem by opening new medical schools at the University of Houston and at TCU/University of North Texas.
Real estate taxes are high, as is the sales tax. As you mentioned, there is no state income tax so the money has to come from somewhere else. There are breaks for seniors on real estate taxes offered by local counties, cities and school districts but they differ between jurisdictions. The state legislators are going to address increasing property taxes during the current session. Most of the property tax goes to local school districts because Texas does not adequately fund education. They have a crazy system in Texas where the state takes away money from local property-rich school districts and redistributes it to poorer school districts. This system is unofficially known as Robin Hood. They can’t agree on a better system.
Except for west Texas and the panhandle, it is hot and humid here. Winters in most of the state are mild. In the DFW area, it gets below freezing only a few times but it is windy and overcast a lot. There is little or no snow most winters. Climate change is affecting us as summers appear to be getting more hot and humid recently. We have been under restrictions for watering lawns for many years but the last several years, rainfall has greatly increased and filled the lakes. However, because of all the people moving into Texas for jobs, those restrictions will likely remain in place.
Hope this helps.
by LS — January 21, 2019

Thank you so much LS for all this good information for me to study. Very helpful!