So my wife & I have been entertaining ideas of packing up and moving to Arizona.
Mind you, I’ve lived in the same 15-mile radius mile my whole life, minus the 5 years I spent at college. My entire family (and my wife’s as well) live within half and hour of us. So it’s not like Graber moving again. Not to mention the 2 year old and the 5 month old.
But…life feels like it needs a change. My job is unfulfilling because they seem to lack the proper respect for IT. Especially a growing company with remote offices that wishes to collaborate together. 8+ years at the same job and maybe I’m getting the itch. Plus my wife and I hate cold weather.
Plus with me being in the IT field and my wife being a nurse, finding a job shouldn’t be TOO hard 🙂
Any ideas or insights about Arizona? Or about the moving in general. I know there are some on this board who have packed up and moved out west away from family before, and I’d like to know what they thing. I don’t know if it would be permanent, maybe for 10 ot 20 years.
My $.02 (is it worth $.02 in Arizona as well?) Weed
The West
In IT, you have some technology hubs, and some towns that are hubs for … erm … different reasons. Here are some of my impressions of western-ish towns.
That’s my semi-random selection. These are the towns with the hottest IT markets in the U.S. right now, listed in alphabetical order:
Now that I’ve shared all that, though, let me give you the perspective of a guy that left “home” thirteen years ago: stay reasonably close to family and friends if you value your relationship. It’s hard to keep in touch with loved ones when you move, if not because of distance (hey, the phone’s always close), but because when you go so long without talking, you get uncomfortable just trying to open up conversation again.
It’s one of the reasons I started this web site: I wanted to remember who I was before I moved away and turned into this success-driven IT guy. It’s worked pretty well. But I cannot stress how much I miss “home”, thirteen years later, even though I don’t have close family anywhere near there anymore.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
On another note.
From the perspective of a friend of mine that just upped and moved there, he loved it. All he could keep telling me was how he was 20 minutes from everything. When you think of Arizona you think of open space. Well you can go to the mountains, the water in Ca. and the deserts. Lots of stuff everywhere. I don’t know about the social nightlife but if your an outdorsey family guy, you’ll love it.
Temperature?
Does your body temperature guage go above 125 degrees? There’s does in AZ for about two months of the summer, sometimes more. It’s hotter than Vegas and Matt and I couldn’t stand it in Vegas.
One thing to look up is the job market. If you have a job when you get there and you hate it, are there lots of other jobs available for the taking?
My two cents is to go there and have a visit, family vacation and decide if you like the place. Then if you choose to move, just plan in the budget to fly home once or twice a year. With your kids so young, they should be able to fly free at this point. Change is good, go for it!–
Christy
Vegas
You guys didn’t seem to hate it with us!!
See, we make everything better!
The difference?
The difference when we were with you? It was just one day in the heat (the day wasn’t very hot for Vegas), not every day for 4 months straight, coupled with water rationing and no air conditioner in the car…
—
Matthew P. Barnson
It’s a nice place to visit….
but Vegas is hell on earth.–
Christy
Amen, sister!
Preach on!
(From your hubby upstairs, bizarre to me that we’re posting at about the same time on two different floors in the same house!)
—
Matthew P. Barnson
That Is Insane
Weed, I don’t think you could have told me anything that would have shocked me more. I was floored when you mentioned the move contemplation.
First, don’t listen to Matt. He’s old and grouchy. 🙂 I moved away from home and even though I miss everyone to death, I’m glad of the decision. It forced me to engage my adventurous spirit and learn to socially and professionally integrate in areas where there’s been zero support network.
Second, don’t listen to marketing. The last reasons to move someplace should be based on the parlor sound-bites that the Tourism Department has succeeded in releasing to and conditioning the market. For example, everyone thinks of Arizona as 1) warm and 2) offering numerous golf courses. In these instances, my reaction is to go straight to the statistics. What’s the average monthly temperature? % of days with rainfall? How many golf course acres per capita? What’s the total number of golf courses that aren’t owned or maintained on Indian Reservations? Move past the marketing hype and look to hard data for core issues.
Third, the core issues. These are just a sampling of issues I could come up with (it’s past midnight):
-State Budget. Historical surplus or deficits to understand the fiscal health of a state, historical shortfalls means public services are low, and property tax rates will likely soar every year. -Education. K-12 strength, University systems, postgraduate programs, enrollment trends, teacher salaries, teacher union strength. -Political Ideology. -Real Estate. Property value trends, single-family vs. condo construction. -Crime Rates. Drunk driving deaths per capita. -Job Market. Department of Commerce reports unemployment rates, average salaries for job field, recent aggregate Venture Capital investments. Secretary of State reports number of new firms created over past x years. -Public Services. Library System, # of state cops. -Census Population. Pop. inflow vs. outflow, demographic spread. -Traffic. Avg. commute length, public transportation available, state vs. federal funding for highway improvement. -Recreation/Leisue. Pro sports teams, golf, beer pong.
If you’ve decided on a specific area, subscribe to the largest paper (online sub) and read the Metro and Business sections for a month.
Just some ideas!
Hear, hear!
Well said. Matt and I did all that when we were looking at the option of taking a job in DC and moving to WV.
Also consider natural disasters for the area. Can you put up with them? —
Christy
wow
Wow Weed. That’s quite a change. Having never lived farther away than Catonsville, have you considered perhaps a move that’s a little less drastic? Like maybe Pennsylvania?
I can tell you from experience that as much as I enjoyed living in New York for 6 years, once we had Joey it became immediately clear that it’s very difficult to raise a child without a support system nearby. We couldn’t afford for either of us to stay home with him, and so we were out of luck if we had difficulty getting to day care on time, or if we needed a babysitter for an evening, etc. Plus, we felt it was important for our kids to have a close relationship with their grandparents, and although my parents visited often, it was still difficult for them to come up more than maybe once every two months or so.
As much as I didn’t want to move back to my hometown (carrying with it feelings of failure, etc.), it’s turned out to be a fantastic decision. Joey has a huge network of family members who will do anything for him. We have people we can call in an emergency. And you can’t beat free babysitting.
It’s your decision of course, but I just wanted to provide my viewpoint.
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor
Feelings of failure?
Mad Mad Lawyer, what do you mean.
You’ve gone from a respected and difficult career choice that few would dare to try to a respected and difficult career choice that few would dare to try.
Its damned cool, so don’t diss the shoe-man.
Yeah, I Don’t Know What You’re Talking About Either
How many people last more than even 2 years trying to make it in Opera in NYC?
Now you’re going to Georgetown law?
What failure you talkin’ about?
Well…
Well, I didn’t say it was rational.
— Ben Schuman Mad, Mad Tenor