Retiring to Arizona?
“In Arizona, they salt micheladas, not sidewalks.”
I took a break from writing last week because of a trip to Arizona! Marsha’s brother just bought a brand new home there, and we went there to cheer him on! For now, his plan will be to make the home a vacation escape from the Pacific Northwest rainy seasons, but it may be a future retirement home for him! Given that this is a Substack about retirement, I thought it was worth covering our first impressions —both what we enjoyed, as well as some things that made us really appreciate our retirement in Portland!
For context, Marsha’s brother bought his new home in a planned community still under development. About 60% of the community uses these residences as a second home, where about 40% of the owners live there full time.
Some things we enjoyed
Overall, I can see why people choose to retire here in Arizona. My aim isn’t to make this a tourist or TripAdvisor review, as there are many of those. Still, I thought I’d reflect on some things that Marsha and I really appreciated!
The weather in April! Even here when the weather is good in the Pacific Northwest, mornings often start off cloudy, and it’s not uncommon to wait for clouds to burn off before going out during the day. We really appreciated how the sun was shining in Arizona from the moment we got up, and we could don T-shirts and shorts every day!
A very active older population. Portland is also remarkably active, but we were very surprised by how many older people in the Scottsdale area were in such great shape. On this desert trail, we were getting passed by people who were probably at least a decade older! And, it seemed like a much greater percentage of trail and park users there had time to say “hi” or “Good morning!” than we even have in the Pacific Northwest!
Food. Admittedly, it’s hard to compete with Portland on the variety of food. However, I am a big fan of Southwestern cuisine, and Scottsdale definitely had places to go that differed from what we get in the Pacific Northwest. Pictured below was a dish called Flautas con Fideos. I had never had this noodle soup (Sopa de Fideo) before! I’m a fan!
Huge Micheladas! (Coaster and utensils were in the photo show the scale of the glass!) There is something very thirst quenching about a michelada when consumed while being out in the hot, dry air! For those who haven’t had a michelada, it is a drink of beer, lime juice, and chili sauces in salt-rimmed glass! It's like a more refreshing version of a Bloody Mary!
Resort Lifestyle. The community here in Arizona has some very nice amenities like a golf course, a fitness center, and a really cool bar at the “19th hole.” Club membership is built into the HOA dues, with golf as an extra upsell charge. This whole vibe was very different from our urban lives in Portland!
Overall, we are excited for Marsha’s brother and spending time with him in his new home!
Some surprises
While we did enjoy our visit this past week, there were definitely some things we encountered that made us appreciate our decision to retire to Portland and to live in a high-rise urban condo. Examples included:
Getting anywhere else requires driving! Even inside the community, golf carts are prevalent. The good news is that there are volunteer organizations (example) to drive the elderly around, and those of us who are younger retirees can volunteer! Life here seems totally different from our life in Portland where we almost never drive!
Snakes. On our hike in Scottsdale (urban park!), we were surprised to encounter a rattlesnake! It rattled and hissed at us. After backing away, I took this photo. For the first time in my life, I learned what a snake fence is. Marsha’s brother is having one installed on his property. Other critters (termites, scorpions, et al) are also quite prevalent in Arizona, so pest control is an important service there. Again, critters are not something we worry about with an urban lifestyle in Portland!
Hard water. I found it interesting that homes come pre-plumbed to allow in-line water softening for showers, dishwashers, and washing machines, as well as reverse osmosis filtering for the refrigerator and kitchen taps. Marsha’s brother’s new home is ready to go to have these filters installed in the garage. In contrast, in Portland, we just install inline filters and drink the tap!
Garage AC. While Marsha’s brother’s place has a cool, modern heat pump unit, the garage isn’t air conditioned. One consideration with electric cars in Arizona is to air condition the garage to improve battery life. The neighbor has installed a separate air conditioning unit for the garage to the left of the main HVAC unit for the rest of the house. In contrast, with high-rise living in Portland, we are serviced by a central utility plant for our HVAC and residential water! And the weather never gets extreme enough where we have to worry about augmenting beyond that!
Really hot and dry air in summer. While many people leave Arizona in the summer months because of the heat, leaving the home requires keeping the thermostat set to “cool” mode at a high temperature, e.g., 82 degrees Fahrenheit. The surprising one for me was the need to maintain some moisture in the house by leaving buckets of water out to preserve the furniture, art, and cabinetry. Of course, long extended absences require hiring people to refill the water buckets. Again, this is in contrast to high-rise living in Portland, where our condo is really “lock and leave.”
Next Steps
Of course, we just came to Arizona for the initial closing of the house. We haven’t yet experienced what life will be like there. There are some things we want to learn more about:
The weather in July and August. Everyone has warned us about this.
Real-world home maintenance experiences. None of our family members have ever lived in Arizona before, so we’ll have to understand this better! High-rise condo living in Portland makes things easy, but it comes at the cost of space, high taxes, and HOA fees!
The community. We love our urban lives in Portland, with adult friends across age ranges! This community seems to skew a bit older, so we’ll have to see how it really turns out!
Watch this space as Marsha and I visit again!
Do any of you have experiences with Arizona living?
A humor note. I guess I’ve been getting too political in a way that doesn’t agree with the algorithm on X (formerly Twitter).
At 4:09pm Friday, I replied to a user on X with a reference to my last Substack post.
I got a notification from X about my account getting a “temporary label.” This was a screenshot I took at 4:15pm after I happened to mention to Marsha that I received this notification.
It appears that X thinks my Substack is “inauthentic” or “misleading” media!
I don’t have a way to appeal this because my account remains active, but, at the time of this writing, the label has not been removed. Has anyone else ever received a label? If so, I’d appreciate your sending me a DM with some tips!
It seems that others here on Substack seem to use BlueSky now instead of X, but I don’t really have any followers (yet!). If you’re on BlueSky, please DM me your handle. Mine is @retiredpdx.substack.com.
Dad, Stanley, and family are waiting in Phoenix with open arms!
My brother also bought a 2nd home in AZ a few years ago - he’s retired, his home base is Oklahoma City, so he travels between the two for now. But as he soon enters his 70s, I think he’ll spend more of his time in AZ.
I’m so lucky to escape my Midwest home in the dead of winter and set up camp at his home in the desert! The sky is such a beautiful blue we just don’t get in our part of the country.