Moving from California to Arizona

[Travelin Mann]

I get it about the 2006 opening post. Some of the old threads do have a proviso, though, TO POST, because lots of people are still reading and yada yada...

That said, I do wonder about the Flagstaff winters, now that one of the posters from 2006 mentioned the city being in a drought for the previous 10-15 winters and hence the dreaded winters of the past were on hiatus BUT could return.

Have they? How are the winters up there now, I wonder.

When I first moved to the Prescott area in '96, I remember hearing something like, they were in the 10th year of a 20 to 30 year drought. Dunno how they knew how long the drought cycle would be. Are these a geologically regular thing? Anyway, 20 years later we are STILL getting only 13 inches of a "normal" 19-inch annual precipitation. The forests have suffered mightily from bark beetles as a result, the forest fires statewide have devastated a million acres or more, and the cattle pastures always seem bone dry -- except just now they are green(!) as they often get for a brief period each August.

I remember snow being a catch as catch can for the ski area in Flag. Do they make snow now? I know there were issues about that. But more basically, does it even get cold up there in Flag anymore? There's been so much warming lately. A hundred degrees in June around here this summer. Anyone?

[Colt AZ]

Don't know what happened to ol' Kimberly, but she's either in Arizona or in Elk City, Idaho.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by Ashley A.

Lived in Flagstaff for many many years............in the days (before the drought) when the winters were so harsh that you couldn't find your car for the high drifts of snow......where you were suffering from cabin fever because the roads were so bad you didn't want to risk driving. The past 10 to 15 years because of the drought have been very mild winters there.....but those winters will come back!!! Be warned!! Housing prices in Flag. are the highest in the state and if you are looking for work there, the jobs are few and far between and low-paying.........if you are retiring.......you can join all your fellow Californians that now live there and have made the city congested (and are also to blame for the high prices of homes and land!). Almost impossible to get around on the one and only main drag (Milton or Rt. 66) during rush hour. Good luck and glad I moved!!!!!!!

That's a very disingenuous statement to make!

For one, there aren't that many Californians living in Flagstaff. Most of the people there are either longtime locals, transplanted staff working at Lowell or NAU, Park Service employees, or people who managed to retire up there from Phoenix. Quite a few of the homes in town are rented to NAU students and there is a constant flow of them in and out every couple of years, so you could do well as a landlord if you were blessed enough to own a home.

Second, the cost of housing is high because Flagstaff is completely surrounded by National Forest Service land and there isn't much room for development. Furthermore, due to geography and the rocky condition of the earth at that elevation (8,000 ft.) it is not easy to drill for water, so growth is limited based on that alone, which also increasing the value on existing housing stock.