I might accept a job there. What is it like? Cost of living? Advice? etc.?

I don't live in Scottsdale, but in the metro area. Scottsdale is a nice town--not my style, but I understand the attraction. Great nightlife, nice restruants, etc. Cost of living is higher than Texas for most things, but lower on some (property taxes). Really depends on what you are looking for. Main thing to note is the summer temperature. It is a dry heat here, so 105 really isn't that bad, but when it gets to 116 or 118, it's dang hot. Dry heat doesn't matter at that point. But, on the flip side, the winters are beautiful here.

Any specific questions?

Thanks for the reply scrimp! I am mainly concerned with the cost of living. I have heard that the average house is $400K+. I will be making great money and so will my wife, but we were looking for a new starter home in the neighborhood of $150k - $225k with the possibility of renting for a few years. We want to have the student loans/debt paid off in 2 - 2 1/2 years.

Thoughts?

Also, the crime rate/schools?

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 9/14/2010 8:38p).]

Well, there's good news and bad news on the real estate front. Home prices have plummeted around here over the last 3 years. I don't know Scottsdale specifics, but other areas in the east valley have seen prices drop 50% or more from the peaks. It's a buyers market, so you would be in good shape there. Again, haven't checked Scottsdale area in a while, but I'd think its a safe bet that $150-$225 would get you a real nice home in most of the east valley cities right now. 3 years ago, it would have been double that for the same house.

Schools are a mixed bag. Most of the suburbs have decent schools, but overall Arizona doesn't rank well. It does have 2 things going for it, though. First, Arizona has open enrollment for public schools, meaning that you can put your kids in any school you want, as long as they have space. So, if the elementary school next to your house is bad, but the one a mile away is great, you can try to enroll your kid in the great school. Of course, the great schools fill up quickly, so there isn't always room, but you do have some choice. Second cool thing is that Arizona is big on charter schools--publicly funded privately run schools. Each charter school seems to have a different focus. Some focus on arts, some are more vocational oriented, others are college prep. My son is in a charter school and we think he'll be getting a much better education than the public schools (and our local public schools are pretty highly ranked).

Crime rate--I'm sure you can google and find some statistics, but anecdotally, I've never had a problem here. I did have my car broken in to once, ironically, in Scottsdale. I'm sure it was some methhead because he did $1k in damages to steal a $50 car stereo. Overall, Phoenix areas has it's share of shady places, but I don't have a problem avoiding them.

I've been here 10 years, and I really enjoy it.

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but we were looking for a new starter home in the neighborhood of $150k - $225k

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That's gonna be hard to do outside of Texas, though like scrimp said, Arizona has some good buys right now. I think it's important to realize a couple things when moving out of state: (1) Texas is really cheap and is the exception; (2) you get what you pay for usually; (3) don't expect housing to be anywhere as cheap as Texas. My first home in Denver will probably be 275-300k.

Thanks scrimp and proudaggie02...the more I hear about Scottsdale the less terrible it seems.

Happen to know about hunting in AZ? Does it exist? I know, I know, I could Google it...

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the more I hear about Scottsdale the less terrible it seems.

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My guess is that it would be a nice upgrade from Temple, TX.

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My guess is that it would be a nice upgrade from Temple, TX.

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Someone has been lurking on other boards!!

That job didn't work out as planned and now I am having to look at other opportunities. I was supposed to start Sept. 1, but new administration, blah, blah...Honestly, I really liked the Temple area when I went for the interview. Once I thought I had the job in the bag, my fiancee and I went and looked around and really liked it.

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Someone has been lurking on other boards!!

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Nope, I just looked at your profile. I just figured Scottsdale would be an upgrade from anywhere in TX, especially Temple.

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 9/17/2010 12:19a).]

Noted and updated!

I would actually prefer to stay in Texas...anywhere in Texas..

Doesn't look like it is going to happen

I have friends that go dove, elk, and deer hunting around here. Mostly up towards Flagstaff. Don't know how it compares to TX, but a good percentage of this state is public land (national forest), so that probably lends itself to plenty of hunting opportunities.

I'm actually in Phx, is there an aggie group here for game watchings etc?

The Valley of the A&M club gets together for the games (or at least used to...). http://clubs.aggienetwork.com/sunamc/

I haven't been in a couple of years, due to having kids. Good group of people when I was going, but my kids can't sit still long enough to watch a game with a group like that.

To the OP, I'm in law school and live in Southern Scottsdale. It's my understanding that the area gets increasingly more expensive the further north you go. For the price range you are looking at, I think you can get a reasonable starter home in South Scottsdale, but because I wanted to be closer to ASU, I didn't look much into the north, so I can't really address that much. However, the schools in the area supposedly aren't bad, so that's a plus. At that price range, I think you'd be looking at between 1200-1800sq feet, with a decent trim level. One thing I found though - if you are looking at buying a home, be thorough. The guy we dealt with was sleezy, and did the bare minimum he could. If you call them out on it, I think they'll generally do it right, but you gotta watch out. I'm sure that's a general rule of home-building, but apparently, this area has a bad reputation for half-assing certain aspects of the process.

Katokolon - I went to a happy hour with the local aggie club at a bar called Blue 32. Our next get together is Thursday for the game. If you are interested in coming, it's a little north of Indian Bend and N Scottsdale Road. Game kicks off at 430, so feel free to come on out! Last happy hour, there were ~30 of us.

[This message has been edited by john32f (edited 9/27/2010 2:46p).]

Thanks for the info john. If we move out there we, the rib and I, will definitely be joining yall for Aggie HH.

Thanks for the info! I'll def be joining.

I'm moving to Phoenix in January and will be working downtown. Any recommendations to live? I'm 26 and single if that helps. I know Scottsdale is considered "the place" but I hear the commute from downtown is not so pleasant. I'm currently in Houston so traffic is not something I enjoy in particular.

Any advice is much appreciated. I'm flying in the first weekend of December. Looking forward to meeting all of you Ags at a happy hour in the near future.