New to the site and thinking of moving to AZ
 

Hi everyone, just joined and seems to be a great place. Anyway, my wife and I are considering moving to AZ from NC. We are both into the honda scene, but theres not much of one here in NC. We do have 2 tuning shops in town, but are not very trustworthy or of good quality. Long story short, we have to drive to Virginia or Atlanta to go to a decent meet. AZ seems to have so many shops (Hasport, Locash, RC's Garage) and events. We were able to visit last year, and we loved it. The landscape and climate is much different and its exactly what were looking for.

My question is where would be a good, safe place to live?

Also, do you guys build your cars at your own garage, or do you take them to shops? Here in NC we dont have HOA's and are able to build garages and have a bigger yard to work on. Ive built a seperate garage at my house and am worried that if we move, we wont be able to work like we do now or the HOA's will be tough on us. Ive looked into the RV garage homes, but they are VERY expensive. What are some good options?

I know its a lot of questions, but just wanting some advice. Thanks

Mesa, tempe, gilbert, chandler, all have homes with or w/o HOA but most HOA dont really bother with you messing around in your garage but i have heard of a few that do. Just research each one you come across and youll find one that would be tolerable.

I just moved to mesa and have no HOA but lots of the yards and house are ugly, just have to take pride in your own and be willing to say oh well about the rest. I do however love seeing all the projects in peoples yards etc.

I think the people here are a mixed bag of garageTunerz and shop go'ers.

Thanks for the help. Right now, I have a 24x30 detached garage and I have several tools that take up a lot of space. It's getting kinda tight, and would like to have a garage that would atleast keep me at where Im at now. My current project is a 94 civic sedan. I also have a 89 CRX Si that I plan on doing a complete restoration on. I have to keep that in mind...space is running out lol

We've visited Maricopa (Pinal not Maricopa County) and liked it, but it seems to be an HOA retirement place. I'll definately check these areas out. I am constantly on Realtor.com but its hard to get specific answers.

I try not think too much about other peoples yards. We live in a nice small area but my neighbor has basically turned his yard into a dirt bike track. Can you hear the banjos out there? haha The stuff you see in movies, espically about the south, is kinda true. Sad but true. You can have a nice $300K house next to a run down rat hole. OK, I'll quit bitching haha. Its just amazing at the difference...AZ compared to NC

Where at in NC? Carolinahondas was big while i was out there but seems to have fallen off more. Charlotte has a pretty hardcore group of autocross guys.

Have you visited or spent time in a dry climate that gets in the upper 110s?

So far my fav house ive seen in my new hood has a nice detached garage in the rear with a driveway around the side. Baller has a red challenger hellcat and a purple srt8 challenger i assume for the wife lol

Im in Hickory. Its about an hour away from Charlotte. Yeah I try to stay away from Carolinahondas...Not trying to be mean, but its like a huge garage sale for Rota's and way overpriced stuff. Now and then you can come across a nice set of Mugens or SSR's, etc. I'll have to check out the Charlotte scene. Where in NC were you?

No, I havnt really been in a dry climate, but when its 95-100 degrees and the humidity is about 90%, you really start to feel it. We happened to visit Vegas and it stayed around 90 and when we visited AZ it was in the mid 80-90's. The heat would def be something to get used to. Who knows, that alone might change our minds!

Wow, somebody either has a ton of money, or he's in some serious debt. Thanks guys for the help. We'll have to keep doing our research and visit out there in the dead of summer to really get a feel for it. I work with several people that have lived in AZ for years. It's like anything else, some love it, some hated it.

I don't know anyone that "loves" 100+ degrees 24 hours a day.
Can't even enjoy a cold beer on your back patio on a Summer night because your beer gets hot in 2 minutes and you get sunburn even when it's 2 in the morning.

I hated every minute of living down there.

I knew some people that went to Hickory High School once upon a time. I am from Sandbridge/Pungo


If you are serious about moving here:

1. Live in the east Valley
2. don't daily drive a nice honda, have something else to commute in
3. have a garage, it is easy to find a home with a 2-3 car garage
4. you will enjoy the lack of humidity
5. it is only hot 4-5 months out of the year here
6. have full coverage insurance with glass coverage
7. don't take your honda to the movies, mall, or any event that requires long parking


it is less common but you can find 300k houses next to shitholes out here too in Az lol

BULLSHIT. You're just used to it now.

It's 90 degrees+ by March, and stays that way well into October.
I just looked up the weather for a random date in Oct....it was fucking 95 degrees on Oct. 15th last year. FUCK THAT.

I thnk 5 months of extreme heat is accurate, high 90s ending in May to the start of June then hell until about the end of October. A 95 day in October is tolerable after you get done with 108 for a couple months.

Ive live in Cleveland & Boston and the humidity is the killer. A dry heat is just really annoying but tolerable if you are prepared.

Lol at being hot only 4 months out of the year in Phoenix. its hot 9 months out of the year and 3 months of nice weather lol

69 January
72 February
78 March
86 April
95 May
104 June
106 July
104 August
100 September
89 October
76 November
67 December

Based on this 2014 list, 7 months of the year were 90 degrees or under on average.

I'd bet 7 of those 7 months were mid 80's-90 degrees.

Dude, IT'S FUCKING HOT. Period. Don't let anyone else say otherwise. You'll run your A/C non fucking stop for most of the year.
Every time I go down and visit it's fucking miserable.

I will take that bet.

This :goodpost:

I wear long sleeves in this weather.

I don't really understand what is being said here but i do know that in january last year we had an 81 degree day, in february we had an 88 degree day, in march we had an 89, in april we had a 98 degree day, in may we had a 108, june a 110, july a 116, august a 111, september a 109, october a 99, november a 90 and december a 78.

These are all recorded high temperatures. Stating an average is one thing because you might have a "cold spell" in the summer, you know only in the low 100s and that brings an average down because overnight lows will be much lower than normal. But stating that 95 with humidity is anything similar to 116 is a joke. I've experienced both of these and i would much rather have an occasional 95 with humidity to a constant barrage of 100 degree days. Especially if you'r driving your old honda that doesn't have ac lol...

Hell, one of the years i wasn't in AZ was the worst and i remember visiting during that time. In 2011 there were 33 days of a high greater than 110 degrees.

I will say i enjoy living here much greater than i did living in Wingate, NC which if you've never been down 74 east of charlotte on the way to either rockingham or fayatteville, you didn't miss much.

If you expect AZHT to be anything different than carolinahondas i'd say you better dig a little deeper lol.

there are 4to5 months out of the year when it is uncomfortably hot from 7am to like 7pm

the rest of the months at maybe noon to 3pm it is somewhat hot, but guess what, step in the shade and you are fine. There is no humidity. A simple breeze can cool you.


i'd question those complaining about the heat because neither of them actually live in phoenix. one user is 40 min south, and the other is like 1.5 hour north.

HaHa Ok. This is all good info. Def something to keep in mind. I say that 110 wont be too bad, but then again Ive never been in it for longer than a week...I guess I keep telling myself what I want to hear. This is great to hear from people who currently live there.

Aside from the heat, I assume the economy is trying to regain speed. I'll have to find some info on everyday living expenses and what jobs are available. I would assume that AZ has a higher cost of living, so another thing to consider.

Even though we dont really have a high auto theft rate in my town, I hardly ever leave my car unattended. I drive a bone stock 08 Si as my daily, but I'd never leave my "fun" car alone. It would definately be a change in culture. Thanks everyone for the info and I'll keep doing my research.

LOL, dick I lived down in Chandler for almost 4 years.

:rflmao:

The heat is why I LEFT.

I was born and raised in phoenix, iv lived here my whole fucking life lol and yes I live in Maricopa about 40 minutes from downtown Phoenix pretty sure the weather 40 mins south of phoenix is almost identical lol its hot anywhere in the valley and surrounding areas

Man see, I would NEVER live on the east side. To each there own.

did you grow up there?

ive been to the west side and its like a third world country there :flush:
unless you go extreme west is only when you find anything nice and then at that point its just like the east valley. just the west version.

all big metro areas are like that though. rotten in the middle. good on the outside

As far as cost of living i didn't see too much of a difference to be honest. My rent was cheaper in NC but my gas cost more. Hickory might be cheaper to live than arizona but i wouldn't assume by too much. But i guess a comparison for you of the sides of town to live in would be like matthews as the east valley and gaston county as the west lol... That's an extreme comparison but i don't mind the west valley in az you just gotta explore the neighborhoods. A good thing to note when thinking of moving here is that if a neighborhood has trees and grass and parks it's probably a good area. I remember thinking that when moving to NC and almost lived on North Tryon near uptown charlotte then i realized it was about 2 minutes from a pick n pull which is never a good sign.

I lived in Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Connecticut, and South Carolina.

After living here since 08, I would never move back to any of those places. The weather here is much better.

I'd still recommend you live in the East valley, so you don't have to "search neighborhoods" to find the safe ones amidst the hell holes.

Yea I grew up on the west side. I am pretty far west and everything is nice. I feel the same way about the east lol! Just exact opposite. So I think its safe to say. Go east. Go west. Stay out of the middle lol

I am, and have almost always been north of thunderbird and west of 17.
Never considered moving to east valley long term. I did live in N Scottsdale for 1 year and Tempe for 1 year though

OK, sounds good. I'll try to search for some houses and jobs in the extreme west and east to see what is available. You guys have answered SO many questions. I'll have to dig a bit more, but I have come across a few RV garage homes near Lake Havasu. Im assuming this is considered extreme west since its almost in CA? Homes with RV garages really appeal to me because they have a ton of work space, but they also have a very hefty price tag too.

You won't see much of anyone here if you live in haveascrew