Safford, AZ Questions

[saffordpastor]

Originally Posted by jaykayarrr

I grew up in the Safford area, and currently live in Tempe. I enjoy getting back home as often as possible. I took a hike up Mt. Graham from Arcadia up towards Heliograph a few weeks ago when there was still snow. Parts of the northeast face of the mountain are still pretty scarred from the 2004 Nuttall-Gibson fire, but as a previous poster's pics show, there are still plenty of nice places up there.

There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to living in Safford. I haven't dealt with seasonal allergies for 4 years now, and it's nice. I'll take Phoenix's smog over Safford's pollen and dust any day. YMMV

As far as small towns go, it's well off to its own, and pretty well self contained. I think they could use a Beall's Outlet and maybe one or two more discount stores, but for the most part you have everything you need. It's a great place to be if you enjoy the outdoors, and the city has an excellent bike/multi-use trail system, which when completed will connect Safford, Thatcher and Pima. I also wouldn't mind seeing one or two more chain restaurants. A Chili's would be great. According to the rumor mill, there was supposed to be one built in front of the new Wal-Mart a few years ago, but the local mexican restaurants are good too.

Living in Tempe, if I get bored late at night I often find myself going out for a drive, going to walmart, or surfing the internet, and I end up telling myself I could be doing the same thing in Safford and living closer to family at the same time.

As far as jobs go, it's actually pretty on par with the rest of Arizona... seems like State Government and Wal-Mart are the big ones, with cotton farming and the college playing a role as well. I've always felt tourism was an untapped, if not underutilized resource for the area. Then you have the copper mines, which certainly have an impact - when times were "good"(2006/07) and they were hiring people like hotcakes, housing was in shortage and costs went up dramatically, compounded by the "real estate bubble" the nation was experiencing at the time. I actually know families who were forced out of their homes due to greedy landlords doubling the rent and cashing in on construction workers willing and able to pay higher rent prices. After the massive layoffs in early 2009, I was surprised housing didn't come down to 2004/2005 prices. However, as time goes by it does seem to be slowly coming down to a reasonable level. The mines are also slowly hiring people back, so hopefully people will be able to get back to work and enjoy a reasonable cost of living once that happy medium is reached.

Very well said.

[jaykayarrr]

Originally Posted by eula3

jaykayarrr, I am interested by what you say about allergies. Mine are dreadful, and didn't show up until I moved to the valley. They seem to be largely to plants that were brought in from the Mediterranean, i.e. olive trees. I could see some plants, such as mesquite, which I'm not really allergic to that are in common with the valley when I visited Safford, but I thought there were enough differences that I might see an improvement in the allergies, which along with the smog are fueling my asthma problems. Yet you say that yours got worse...do you think that the landscaping plants are largely the same? They had looked different to me, but then, I didn't go around doing a door-to-door bush and tree inspection.

Sorry for not replying sooner, I totally forgot about this thread. I think my allergy problems in Safford were primarily from all the farming and dust. Now that I'm in Tempe, it's urban enough and far enough removed from the Phoenix area farms that I don't notice it as much. But that's only speculation; I may have coincidentally developed a tolerance to my allergies and not even realized it.

[delian]

Hi,is there a border inspections going into Safford?
Delian

[saffordpastor]

Originally Posted by delian

Hi,is there a border inspections going into Safford?
Delian

No

[gsallison]

Safford, AZ looks like a wonderful place to live in the SW. I'm looking to retire in just a few years, (currently live in southern Ohio) and would love to have a place ready to live in AZ. Can anybody share the average winter and summer temps there? In one photo I saw snow at your elevation, can you give a rough idea of the temp swings throughout the year? Thanks ever so much, am looking forward to a reply. Peace out... (no snow in Ohio at this date: 03/03/2011)

[jaykayarrr]

Originally Posted by gsallison

Safford, AZ looks like a wonderful place to live in the SW. I'm looking to retire in just a few years, (currently live in southern Ohio) and would love to have a place ready to live in AZ. Can anybody share the average winter and summer temps there? In one photo I saw snow at your elevation, can you give a rough idea of the temp swings throughout the year? Thanks ever so much, am looking forward to a reply. Peace out... (no snow in Ohio at this date: 03/03/2011)

In the coldest part of winter, the temperature can drop to around 20 degrees overnight. In the hottest part of the summer, the temperature can get up to around 110. I'm guesstimating, but you can often count on about a 30 degree difference between daytime and night time temps.

As for snow, it snows in the surrounding mountains and sticks just about every winter. It snows in the valley maybe once every 4-6 years, and never sticks to the ground for more than a day, if that. Perfect if you want to take a quick trip up the mountain (about a 30 minute drive depending on what part of the mountain and what part of town you're coming from) to go play in the snow, but don't want to shovel it at your house.

Recently, Safford had a colder-than-usual winter, which resulted in a number of busted water pipes. I think the temperature got down to 8 degrees.

I think you'll like it in Safford. I grew up in the area, and relocated to Phoenix when I was 22. After almost 5 years of trying out life in the "big city", I have decided to move back to explore career opportunities and live closer to family. I'm currently in the hiring process at Freeport McMoRan, and will be moving at the end of this month.

Good luck with your search!

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by gsallison

Safford, AZ looks like a wonderful place to live in the SW. I'm looking to retire in just a few years, (currently live in southern Ohio) and would love to have a place ready to live in AZ. Can anybody share the average winter and summer temps there? In one photo I saw snow at your elevation, can you give a rough idea of the temp swings throughout the year? Thanks ever so much, am looking forward to a reply. Peace out... (no snow in Ohio at this date: 03/03/2011)

SE Arizona in general has a pretty wonderful climate. It will vary from place to place due to elevation variations but for most towns it's pretty mild for the SW and (in my opinion) 2nd only to MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE SoCal in regards "best climate in the country". As a general rule summer highs in SE Arizona will be somewhere in the 90's & upper 80's (depending on WHERE in SE Arizona & which month (June is the warmest)). Sierra Vista has the best summer climate in my opinion but all of the area is pretty reasonable for the SW. Specifics for Safford can be found here:

https://www.city-data.com/city/Safford-Arizona.html

Note that the main city-data.com site can direct you to similar info for any town or city in the country (city-data is MUCH MORE than just a message board).

Ken

[jaykayarrr]

I agree, Sierra Vista has a very nice climate