Last Updated: 21-MAR-2018

These trips had two purposes, vacations and to check out the area for possible relocation in less than 1.5 years.

We researched the St. George, UT area in the fall of 2015 for relocation / retirement. The full story of that trip is here St. George, UT - Trip OCT-2015 I have some of the logic that got us to St. George, UT on the front page. Will not go over that again here.

AREA RESEARCH AND THE DECISION - We wanted to check out the Tucson, Arizona area after watching the temps in St. George, Utah over the winter as we did not like what we were seeing. We wanted it much warmer. I lived in Phoenix back in 1984, 1985 and I did not want to go back to that polluted, congested massive city. Sure, Phoenix (The valley) is better than living where we are now but I want to live someplace without crowds. For what we are looking at in a home the only area in Phoenix that we could find the good life is in the UPPER Scottsdale to Cave Creek area and that really limits our choices.

SO WHY TUCSON

The weather - As I get older I like it hotter and I hate winter & and the gloomy weather. So, this area has excellent weather when you look at the southwest. Yes, it goes over 100 in the summer but it cools off at night more than low urban desert areas like Phoenix. Yes, it does get snow but its quickly gone and being retired I have no place I need to go anyway. In the summer if I want to have a cool day, I have a number of places within 2 hours where I can go over 9,000 feet so I can find 70's day and 40's at night even in July. I don't want ANY yard work so the houses we are looking at are close to 100% desert landscaping which is what we want. After spending the last 17 years dealing with 5+ hrs. a week mowing grass as I have seen enough yardwork!

Urban problems - After living with all the drama of Baltimore which is along the route that I commute and where Mary works, I want to live in a very non-urban area. We are looking at the NON-urban rural parts of Tucson or the small towns East of Tucson so no urban issues. Also, the traffic in Tucson compared to Baltimore & Washington is not an issue at all.

Crime - Tucson city has crime. In fact it has some of the highest property crime in the United States. Where we are looking its very low comparable to where we live now. As we refine the areas that we are looking at crime is not a problem. In fact many of the homes are in gated communities and a couple of our top homes, have its own gate inside of the gated community. It's funny that some of the more urban homes that come up in the searches have bars on the windows and security doors. Not sure why someone would spend 700K or more on a house in an area like that. Also, Arizona is a VERY GUN FRIENDLY state and like I do here, I will be armed all the time so that lowers the risk of someone getting away with something.

The hearts in the image below show where we are currently looking at houses in the Tucson area. Targeting the valley edges and we prefer the upper right side (North East) area.

Guns - Extremely friendly - Pennsylvania is a gun friendly state but it's becoming surrounded with liberal states so it's only a matter of time before it falls. Arizona is even better than Pennsylvania.

TRAFFIC / POPULATION DENSITY - Very low in the areas we are looking at. It does increase in the winter when the snowbirds vacation in the area.

HIKING - Some of the homes are within walking distance to Saguaro National Park. Literally 100's of world class trails are within a few hours of Tucson.

NIGHT SKY - Tucson has ordnances regulating lighting so your chance of having some crazy neighbor installing streetlights all over the place is less. You could easily see the milky way every night even close to town. Numerous star parties occur monthly at various federal & university astronomical facilities within an hour or so from downtown Tucson

EXPLORING - A lifetime of opportunities exist in southern Arizona. From world class birding locations, mountain hikes, Mexico is only 60 miles away so plenty of places to visit away from the border areas. Also, the beaches of Mexico & Southern California are a easy 1/2 day drive away.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR

We are experts in looking at houses and properties. After the complete renovation of this house as well as considerable renovation of Mary's house we know what we want.

Over time this requirements list changes

As for property, we want privacy, low maintenance (desert landscaping), security, very quiet, CITY WATER (NO WELL or WATER TANK) internet access, cell phone service. We want a community gate or setback to install our own additional gate. Hopefully a DISTANT CITY VIEW. WE REQIRE a couple of ACRES or more to make sure we are far enough away from other houses.

No above ground utilities next to the property. I am amazed that some of the homes that I have really liked and after more research, you discover that the property has high-tension power lines running right across the back yard and in some cases over the pool. The online photos taken by the realtor, purposely are placed at angles that don't show the wires. I am moving to Tucson to have great views and having something like that near or across my property will not happen.

As for the house, we want 3-5 bay garage, more than 3,700 sq. ft. but prefer around 5,000 sq. ft. Why so much ? Hobby rooms, 2 guest rooms. so 4 or 5 bedroom, I am not ready to downsize yet. Pool, hot tub or space for hot tub, pool heating capability, solar power installed or space for it. Very high end kitchen with little to no tile. NO WALLPAPER (went thru hell removing that here - NEVER AGAIN!)

A number of the houses we looked at had various hits on the above list. Currently a couple of the houses we are watching has everything on the list but it's still too early to buy.

SO WHAT IS NEXT AND OUR TIMELINE

I could possibly early out (deferred) in the fall of 2018. Depends on a couple of variables and if my commute drives me insane. Mary is already eligible but it's in our best interest for her to stay till FEB 2019 if no early outs. So, our timeline follows our best retirement time which is summer of 2019 - less than 1.5 years from now. One variable with Mary is Baltimore. As long as it remains semi-safe she will work. Our house - as some of you know we have done an amazing amount of renovations to it in the 16 years we have lived here. Yes, I built it as our retirement home where we would spend our winters where its warmer but, we feel that it may be time to move on. We were going to do this anyway so why not do it when we are younger and have more energy to explore. So, over the next 3 years we have a few projects to complete - front walks, part of rear patio walk. Sheetrock & main garage, basement and finish the master bedroom. Everything we can do and having an end date gives us a goal and allows us not to spend too much on any one of those projects. Heck, after this trip we have been increasing our "ready to sell" process and reducing clutter, boxing stuff off, not replacing supplies so we are serious!

THE TWO RESEARCH TRIPS

We chose a house to rent in the EAST part of the Tucson Metro area. When you click below the rental was at the center of the map. The 6 homes we looked at are marked on the map.

The red areas above are where we are looking and could possibly live. The blue X is the area we really like when considering density, crime, remoteness, and close to what we want. The west side has some interesting properties but we are not sure as its further from where we want to be and closer to higher density developments as well as crime.

We still need to research the tax advantages of various locations. We want to minimize taxes if we can.

These are the links to the vacation story & photos and the four houses we visited on the trip.

We chose a house to rent in the northern part of the Tucson Metro area. When you click below the rental was at the top center of the map.

Quickly we realized that this was not where we wanted to be. The area was nice and out of the way but we found that everything we wanted to do was on the South East of Tucson. Also, it was cold here as some of the mornings it was close to freezing. The pool was too cold to use as Mary only went all the way in once.

These are the links to the vacation story & photos and the four houses we visited on the trip.

PHOTOS: It's sad that I used my cell phone (Samsung Galaxy S7) for most of the photos with a 128gig card I had no issues with space. I continue to be amazed at the quality of the photos that this nearly two year old cell phone takes. I brought the Canon EOS-70D 20.2mp camera with three lenses with me (400mm, 55-255mm, EF-S17-55/2.8 IS USM) and used that on critter / land photos. I did have some time issues with the cameras as well as when I put them back together so they are mostly in the correct order.

Tucson Crime Stats by zip

burglary, robbery, car theft, Arson, vandalism, shoplifting, theft