WE BEGAN IN 2019 to think seriously about what we wanted our retirement to look like. My husband had retired in 2018. I was aiming to leave my job in 2022. We were hoping to have a plan in place long before my final day of work.
Our first step was to decide where we wanted to live. We were both eager to escape the Pacific Northwest, so we zeroed in on a couple of potential destinations. We spent a few weeks during the summer of 2019 investigating our choices.
Our initial pick was St. George, Utah. We quickly discovered we weren’t alone in our love of the southern Utah climate. Over the past decade, St. George has consistently ranked as one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the U.S. Knowing our retirement budget would be modest, we realized we needed to find a location where housing was more affordable.
Sun City West, Arizona, an age-restricted community located just outside of Phoenix, was next. The desert climate appealed to us. The cost of homes was lower than in many other parts of the country. The question we had: Would we enjoy living in a retirement community?
Our doubts didn’t last long.
On our first trip to visit Sun City West in June 2019, my husband and I both commented on how easy it felt to be there. The community—which encompasses 12 square miles—consists of 17,000 single-story homes. Within the city boundaries are all the various amenities you’d expect to find in a small metropolis.
Sun City West is home to three grocery stores, a gas station, a full-service hospital and a variety of restaurants. There are also numerous banks and credit unions, three fire stations, two hardware stores and several churches.
The one thing conspicuously absent? Schools. With a median age of 75—and a minimum age of 55 to purchase a home—residents of Sun City West have no need for an educational system. As a result, property taxes are significantly lower than in surrounding areas.
Kristine’s new home in Arizona
Two days after we arrived for our initial visit, we began looking for a home to buy. With only a handful of houses for sale, and many eager buyers, we found ourselves in a market that favored sellers. We bid—and lost out—on two homes. A few days later, we flew back to Portland, Oregon, and continued our search online.
Two weeks after returning to Portland, we found a fully furnished home in our price range. We quickly made an offer and, within a month, we were absentee homeowners. Although we made a few extended visits to our new home in 2020 and 2021, we didn’t become fulltime residents until April 2022.
In the year since moving to Sun City West, we’ve become convinced an age-restricted community was the right choice for us. What have we learned over the past 12 months?
We made a good decision to buy when we did. The average price of a home in Sun City West was $272,000 in mid-2019. Three years later, they peaked at an average $408,000. If we’d waited to buy until I retired in 2022, we would have been priced out of the market.
Relocating has helped us financially. The cost of living in Phoenix is some 18% lower than Portland. Our Arizona property taxes, for a 2,000-square-foot home on a 10,000-square-foot lot, are $1,200 this year. That compares favorably to the nearly $4,000 property tax bill we had on our much smaller Portland home.
We aren’t as social as we thought we’d be. One of the draws of Sun City West is the ample opportunity for social interaction. With more than 100 chartered clubs, there’s something to do every waking hour. Prior to retiring, both my husband and I imagined joining at least a couple of the clubs to explore new interests. But since we’ve moved down, we find ourselves with little time for extracurricular activities. Training our dogs, working out, going for walks and riding our bikes keep us busy.
Our community is designed to help seniors age in place. The homes in Sun City West were built with an older population in mind. The open floor plans allow residents to negotiate their home using a variety of mobility aids. The gravel- and rock-filled yards are generally maintenance free. Most of the homes are single-family residences, but there are duplexes, townhouses, apartments and condominiums as well. Several assisted living facilities are located within the city’s boundaries.
Sun City West has 25,000 residents, a third of whom are age 80 or older.
The entire community is designed to allow residents to age in place and maintain their independence for as long as possible. Since moving down, we’ve learned about several nonprofit organizations that provide free or low-cost assistance to residents who need it. My husband and I appreciate knowing we can likely stay in our home for as long as we’re physically able.
We don’t miss commuting. One hesitation I had about moving to a suburb of Phoenix was dealing with the traffic. Having commuted to my job in Portland for several years, I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with all the cars in the fifth largest metropolitan area in the U.S.
But since moving, we’ve discovered there aren’t many times we need to leave our immediate area. Most of the services we require are located within—or just outside of—our community.
It’s apparent there’s a tradeoff when it comes to buying items locally. We may pay slightly more for purchases made at the stores within walking distance of our house. But we save the time and aggravation that comes with battling big city traffic. We also feel it’s important to support our local retailers as much as possible. Many of the local stores go out of their way to employ residents who want or need a job.
Kristine Hayes Nibler retired in 2022, and she and her husband now live in Arizona. She enjoys spending her time reading, writing and training their four dogs. Check out Kristine’s earlier articles.
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Thank you for sharing your experience! I found it fascinating. I have also been looking for places to retire and move to from our current home in expensive and high-tax California. Arizona was certainly on the list, but I can’t stomach the idea of having to endure 100+ degree heat for 5 months a year or so. Some people are just born heat-resistant, but I would much rather be cold. How are you dealing with the hot weather?
This will be our second summer in Phoenix. So far, so good. We seem to have adapted to the heat pretty well, considering we came from the Northwest.
Even though it’s almost June, the mornings and evenings are still lovely. Low 70’s or upper 60’s in the mornings. The evenings are warm (85-90 degrees), but as soon as the sun goes down, it feels much cooler.
There are certainly places in Arizona where the heat isn’t as intense. Sedona, Flagstaff, Payson, etc. I think it’s quite rare that they get into the 100’s in the summer. Of course, they also get hit with snow and rain in the winter.
A fair number of people spend October-May in the Phoenix area and then have a second home in the mountains of New Mexico or Arizona. They migrate there for the summer.
Appreciate your sharing the details of your journey.
Last summer I read the 2009 Leisureville: Adventures in a World Without Children by Andrew Blechman. While he is biased against age segregated communities, my takeaway from the book was to research the finances of any community one is considering and try to understand its long term capital funding. Just another pieces of prudent research we can all add to our list.
Hi Kristine, I enjoyed your retirement journey. I also had an amazing adventure on my path to retirement beginning in 2008, although very, very different from yours. I started my googling in 2005 while living in NJ’s Soprano country and commuting and working in NYC at a great location near Grand Central Station. I researched and visited possible locations along the East and West seaboard states as well as some other states. My final wishlist identified a location similar to the NJ/NY METRO area with less humidity , deplorable heat or freezing snow, less congestion , close to the beach, forest and mountains. A temperate environment and a village type community. A nearby university to audit college courses, an awesome Walk Score , great public transportation and bike lanes. Yup, you guessed it! Portland, Oregon (inner SE) The cost of living and R/E taxes compared to NY/NJ are very favorable. . Portland’s real estate market has been robust during my 15 years. The Oregon Health & Science University is easily accessible.I love our dog loving neighbors, kids of all ages and the nearby K-6 public school. I can relax and enjoy the kids laughing and enjoying their playground. I originally thought I would end up purchasing a home down South in a gated community with a country club, exercise facilities and a golf course. However, after visiting some sites similar to The Villages of Florida I decided it wasn’t for me. Silly me, I likened the gated community to a minimum security white-collar prison. A 50 mile road-trip on a bus to enjoy a baseball game or a concert. Hey, I wondered if our paths ever crossed in our pursuits of retirement bliss. So it goes “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. I offer that we both found the pot of gold at the end of our rainbow. Enjoy, with my love. Jimmy
So glad you found your perfect retirement destination. I lived in three of the four ‘quadrants’ (NW, SE and SW) of Portland while I was there.
My first job was at OHSU. Back then it wasn’t ‘easily accessible’ since there wasn’t a tram to shuttle folks up to the top of the hill!
Thank you for this article!
You’re welcome!
Congratulations.
Thanks!
After traveling fulltime in our motorhome for almost 5 years, we finally built our retirement home near our oldest son and his family in Georgia. As with you, our timing was near perfect (for once). The house was built during the pandemic, before prices went crazy, and though we could have paid cash, I couldn’t resist a 2.35% mortgage. Property taxes are low here in Georgia and we pay very little in state income taxes. Our total housing costs per month are less than what a 2 bedroom apt would be here. Our home is in a very family friendly neighborhood but for the most part is pretty quiet, and we do enjoy the diversity of ages here. Yep, we’re the old folks here in the neighborhood (along with a few others), and that’s OK. Now, we are native Californians and we would have never moved here if it wasn’t for family. Fortunately our middle son moved here after finishing nursing school, so we have 2 of our 3 kids here! We are both introverts, so making new friends has been difficult. Fortunately we found a great pickleball group where we play 5 mornings a week with a great group of people. Still can’t get used to these hot and humid southern summers, so we travel during that time. We’ll be in eastern Canada soon.
Along with your previous article about selling your Portland house at exactly the right moment, it sounds like you and your husband did very well in timing both ends of the move. A lot of people would have waited until closer to your planned 2022 retirement to buy a new place so that they wouldn’t have to carry two homes for several years. Thank goodness you didn’t, huh?
Credit for the decision to pull the trigger on the Arizona home goes to my husband. The idea of purchasing two homes (one in 2018 and another in 2019), made me very nervous. In the end, it worked out very well for us.
Kristine, It’s great to hear you have chosen and settled in so well to your retirement home. Thanks for the great detailed information ( and spurring so many detailed comments) on a poplar style of retirement living. The sharing of information is a great part of HD.
Thanks Rick. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I retired. I agree that the sharing of personal stories is a great part of HD.
Regarding the water situation in Arizona: I’ve heard that rainwater doesn’t belong to the property owner on which it falls. And that homeowners are forbidden to collect rainwater from their downspouts; they have to let rainwater go to their sewers and/or soak into their soil. Is that true?
You got me interested so I did a little checking. According to this site it is legal with some restrictions: “In fact, the state passed legislation in 2016 that allows residents to harvest rainwater for non-potable uses without a permit. However, there are still regulations in place that govern the design and installation of rainwater harvesting systems.” There’s also an interesting discussion here: https://www.gutterfix.com/rainwater-harvesting-laws-arizona/
I haven’t heard that. In our community there are numerous large culverts that collect the rainwater when it falls. Most of the (heavy) rain comes in the summer during the monsoons. It’s not unusual to have 1/2 an inch of rain come down in an hour or less. The water typically runs into the middle of streets and is then funneled down into one of the many culverts running through the city. The streets are typically flooded for an hour or so after the rain stops.
When I have investigated 55+ communities in my area, they all seem to include a golf course and golfing access.
While I am willing to pay annual fees for access to the community gym and even a pool, maintaining a golf course seems very expensive to me and I would rather eliminate that item from my budget.
Can you share any info on whether it’s possible to join a 55+ community without paying for golf access?
In 55+ communities with golf courses, it’s likely that some portion of the annual dues is used to maintain the courses. Those wishing to play golf must pay an additional fee.
My wife and I live in a 55+ community with three golf courses where all residents pay annual dues, a portion of which is earmarked for golf course maintenance. While neither my wife nor I play golf, the courses are a big draw and enhance the value of our property.
Not sure what area you live in, but we live in a 55+ community without a golf course in Philadelphia area.
I can share that information! In Sun City West, there are several golf courses–I’m not sure how many since neither my husband or I are golfers. I do know that here, the golf course fees are separate from the recreation fees. All residents have to pay the recreation fees (about $500 per person per year). That covers access to all the common recreational facilities (swimming pools, fitness centers, tennis courts, dog parks, etc.).
Golfers have to pay additional fees to join the golf courses. I think residents get a discount, but I’m not sure.
So yes, there are communities where you don’t have to pay for golf access.
Congratulations on finding a place that works for you and your husband. Similarly my wife and I enjoy living in a Sun City community in Las Vegas, NV. We’ve been here 13 years and we still enjoy it. We particularly like the peace and quiet. It’s pretty quiet all day, but at night it’s really quiet. That said, I’d caution someone looking at a similar community to consider the traffic pattens. While most of our community is very quiet, there are some houses that border on the perimeter or main interior streets where there’s much more traffic and noise. Our house is in the interior and away from any major streets, so its very quiet and peaceful. But in our community the surrounding city has really built up over the years, so there’s significant noise on the non-Sun City streets bordering the perimeter. So any houses along the exterior wall suffer much more noise. Also, there’s two major streets through our Sun City that non-residents now regularly use as a shortcut. Houses along those streets also suffer much more noise and traffic than the rest of the community. Just something for buyers to consider.
Your comments really resonate with me. The thing my husband and I enjoy the most about our community is simply the peace and quiet! In the evenings, we’ll frequently take a walk or bike ride and, at 8pm, we rarely see (or hear) another human being. Similarly, the scenery is also ‘quiet’. All the homes are single level. The homes and landscaping are generally neutral colors. The utilities are all underground, so there’s not a single utility pole to be found!
Your points about the traffic surrounding the community are true here as well. Like you, our home is located in the center of the community so the only traffic we have are the cars and golf carts that belong to the few residents that live along our street. But homes that are along the perimeter of the community do have to deal with a lot of traffic noise.
Same here; all the homes are single story and the utilities are underground. This really helps with providing a general feeling of openness and enjoying the sky (particularly the sunsets during our evening walks). Thanks for calling it to my attention.
In addition, our garbage cans are underground. That probably doesn’t sound like something that would be a benefit, but for me, it’s huge! In Portland, every home has three enormous rolling garbage cans at their house. There’s a huge can for garbage. An even larger can for yard debris. And finally, there’s an even larger can for recycling. Almost every homeowner keeps these monstrosities in front of their houses. They are huge. And ugly. And all different colors.
I love that the garbage here is underground and the recycling bins must be kept in your garage. It just adds to the general feeling of openness and community pride.
Garbage cans underground? That sounds amazing. How does that work? I’ve never heard of that.
I hadn’t heard of it either! Every house has an underground garbage can on the side of their driveway. We have garbage service twice a week. I really respect the work ethic our garbage men have. They RUN (and I do mean RUN) from house to house, picking up the garbage from every underground can and running it to the garbage truck as it drives down the street. In the summer, they start their route at 5am so that they can finish before the heat of the day.
Hi Kristine,
My grandmother’s home in Lake Oswego, Oregon, near Portland, had in the ground garbage cans.
I remember this from the mid 50s.
Sounds like you had a plan, Kristine, and found your ideal community and home. I was lucky to find a small, walkable village in Northeastern PA that similarly suits me. I agree with what you said about patronizing the local businesses even if it costs a little more. Looking forward to reading more about your retirement journey.
So far, we’ve been happy with our choice of retirement location. This will be our second summer here and it seems like we’ve adapted to the warm climate.
As frugal as I am, I am willing to pay a bit more in order to support the local businesses. I would hate to see our ‘downtown’ fail and be full of vacant spaces.
It’s hard to believe I’ve been retired for a year already. Time flies when you don’t have to work :-)!
Curious if you now pay HOA fees? We are building a new house in a small 55 and up community and will be exposed to HOA fees, plus higher property taxes. Our cost of living will probably increase by over $5000 a year, but well worth it.
Thanks for writing about the deciding factors and choice of location.
My wife and I live in a Sun City in Las Vegas, Nevada. This community has 1 big HOA of $165 a month that everyone (including detached homes) pay for the common services (gyms, pools, etc). Then there’s a bunch of small HOA’s for the townhouses. Their fee’s vary, but $280 is typical. That covers the roofs, exteriors, landscaping, plumbing outside the house (eg. water main and sewer main), trash, and insurance on the structures. Everyone pays their own property taxes, and here that includes supporting the school district.
We do pay $500 a year for access to our recreational facilities (gyms, pools, bowling alley, dog parks, etc.). That fee is per person and everyone within the community has to pay for it, even if they don’t use the common facilities.
Our particular house isn’t located within an HOA. I believe there are over 60 HOA’s within Sun City West. Most (or all?) of the townhomes, apartments and duplexes are in HOA’s. I think some of the newer homes are also in HOA’s. The fees seem to range between $200 and $400 a month for owners who have to pay fees. I think those fees typically go towards covering landscaping services and basic home maintenance (exterior painting, roof repairs, etc.).
Enjoy your new home!
I’m glad to read that it has worked out so well for you. (And I thought my property taxes were low – more than double yours for less space…).
But aren’t you worried about the water situation in Arizona?
I’m sure you were asking about general water availability. But there is another aspect to your question. Generally speaking, communities in the southwest are taking steps to limit water usage. Here in Las Vegas a law was recently passed requiring the removal of “non-functional” grass that includes HOA communities. This has resulted in HOA’s levying assessments ranging up to $11,000 per dwelling (although most assessments are much less) to pay for the grass removal from the common areas. We live in a townhouse so we have 2 HOA’s, but fortunately both of them have been proactive for years in reducing the grass so no special assessments have been required. But this is something to be aware of if one’s considering buying into an HOA here in the southwest that still has a lot of grass in common areas.
The low property taxes are a welcome change from what we paid in Oregon.
The water seems to be managed pretty well, as best I can tell. Most residents are aware that water is a precious commodity and adapt their landscaping and lifestyle with an eye towards conservation. Some of the duplex units in our city have natural grass landscaping (put in back in the 1980’s). They are slowly being transitioned over to artificial turf as a way to conserve water.
One of the homes near us is currently for sale and has been vacant for several weeks. While I was walking our dogs one morning, I noticed a leak in their irrigation system. I made two calls–one to our local neighborhood posse and one to the water utility office. Within a day, the leak had been repaired. People seem to take their water seriously here.
Sounds like you made a good decision. I can’t imaging the heat in the summer though.
I was fascinated by what you said about property taxes that you pay no taxes toward schools. It’s sure a break for the residents, but it seems unfair to younger families in the surrounding districts. As far as i can see, even the Villages in Fl pay school property taxes.
Whenever i read what others pay in property taxes I wish i lived somewhere else. What you pay a year we pay a month for a condo.
Hope the dogs have acclimated too.
You make a good point about the heat, and I think (like so many things in life) it depends a bit on the person and what trade-off’s and adjustments they’re willing (or able) to make. My wife really doesn’t like the heat in the summer here in Las Vegas, so we typically leave for a month or two during the worst of the summer. That said, I don’t mind it as much because having grown up here I’ve learned to adjust to it. While there’s a lot of specific examples I could share, I think a fair generalization is that when it’s really hot out it’s effective to do more outside activities in the early mornings or evenings and more indoor activities (like watching tv) during the heat of the day. This is facilitated by 2 key facts: first, there’s generally no mosquitoes in the desert so the evenings outside are usable, and 2. for whatever reason even retired people in Sun City still stick to the traditional day schedule. This means that even busy outdoor venue’s (like the Sun City outdoor pools and jacuzzi’s) tend to empty out in the afternoon when it gets nice. One specific example is in our Sun City there’s a gorgeous pool and jacuzzi sitting on a hill overlooking Vegas. While very busy during the day, it’s usually empty by dusk. So my wife and I regularly enjoy using it at dusk and watching the lights of Vegas come on. It borders one of the golf courses, so as dusk falls the wildlife (eg. bunnies, hawks, quail, & coyotes) come out. We’re continually amazed that we’re usually alone.
We look at it this way: When we lived in Oregon, we typically ‘hibernated’ from October through April. The rain, cold temperatures, fog, snow, wind, etc. usually made it pretty miserable to be outdoors.
In Arizona, we hibernate from June through September. But here, we get to enjoy the sun shining every day!
It’s hard to describe the heat to people who haven’t experienced it. During the day, when the sun is out, it’s hot. But if you’re in the shade, it’s tolerable. And once the sun goes down, even though the air temperature is still in the 90’s, it feels positively lovely.
The dogs have acclimated. These days we’re up at 5am to get them walked before it gets too hot. We have a dog treadmill set up in our living room for those days when it’s simply too hot to walk them outside for more than a few minutes. We also installed air conditioning in our garage so we can train (and play) with them in there. Our backyard has a nice covered patio that’s in the shade most of the day.
As a resident of the Villages, we definitely pay taxes that go towards schools.
While our property taxes are higher than I would like, we pay no income tax. I’m still working for another 5-7 years, so the income tax saved from my previous state more than covers the increased County\City property tax.
Arizona has an income tax, although it’s considerably lower than Oregon’s. We also have a sales tax in Arizona–something we didn’t have in Oregon.
Just went through a long distance purchase ourselves last year. Happy it worked out so well for both of us. Do you have family near by?
Congratulations on the purchase of your new home!
We don’t have family in Arizona. It can be difficult to convince people from colder climates to move to the desert!