Living In Tucson, Arizona... Pros and Cons

Video Transcript: Living In Tucson Pros and Cons

Hello, and welcome to this episode of Living in Tucson, your Tucson real estate connection. In this episode, I’m going to be talking about the pros and cons of living in Tucson, Arizona.

Hello, Tyler Ford here, Tucson, Arizona with EXP Realty and welcome to this episode of Living in Tucson. I grew up in Tucson and I’ve seen Tucson evolve and change over the last 45 plus years for the good and the bad.

I’m going to be talking about that. I’ve been a licensed agent in Arizona for 30 plus years, so I’ve seen a lot, especially in regards to real estate. So whether you’re thinking about moving to Tucson or maybe visiting Tucson or you live here and just wondering about Tucson and the pros and cons, this video’s for you.

I’m going to start out with the cons and then go into the pros. Some of them overlap. Some pros are cons and some cons are pros. I’m going to be going over my perspective of the pros and cons of Tucson Arizona.

TUCSON CONS

Con #1 SUMMER HEAT

I’m going to start off with the first con, which is the obvious and the thing that a lot of people complain about the most, and that is the weather in the summer.

It gets super hot, well over 100 degrees. Sometimes we get a streak of 110, 115. So from June until probably mid-September, you can expect Tucson being over 100 degrees. So in my opinion, that’s the number one complaint is the weather.

A lot of people live here in the winter, what we call snowbirds. So they come here during our awesome fall, winter, and spring months, and then they leave in the summer. So that’s ideal if you can do that. Again, a lot of people choose Tucson for that reason. Then what is a con in terms of the weather? I’m going to go over a pro aspect of it when I go over the pro.

But the first thing, the first con is dealing with the summer heat, but you can be lucky that you’re in Tucson and not Phoenix, because Phoenix typically is anywhere from five to eight degrees hotter and doesn’t really cool off at night where Tucson actually cools off at night, just because we don’t have the population, the asphalt, and we tend to cool off in the evenings much more than Phoenix does. So that is the first con and that is our weather in the summer months.

Con #2 LACK OF HIGHWAY & FREEWAY SYSTEM

Con number two that I want to talk about in regards to Tucson is the lack of highway and freeway systems in Tucson.

We’ve got I-10 that goes around the south side of Tucson. So if you’re traveling through Tucson, it’s not a big deal, but if you’re traveling within Tucson, within the city, getting from east to west or north to south is pretty difficult. In the summer months, it’s not as bad because our population is dramatically decreased because the snowbirds leave to get out of the heat. But during the winter months, traveling from one end to the town to the next can be frustrating.

Dealing with not getting through a stoplight… It takes probably two to three lights sometimes to get through during the day, but there’s no really good way to get from one end of the town to the next.

Tucson did a really poor job when it comes to planning and foreseeing the growth of Tucson to put in the proper highway and freeway system.

Then secondly, when it comes to roads is that the summer months can do havoc on a lot of things, whether it’s the rooftops of your home and also the roads. It’s really hard on the roads just because of the heat. There can be roads that are pretty bumpy and rough and have a lot of potholes just because the summer heat does a number on it.

So that’s number two, freeways systems, lack of, and then the quality of the roads in some areas of Tucson.

Con #3 NO PROFESSIONAL SPORT TEAMS

Let’s get into con number three about living in Tucson and that is there’s NO professional sports team.

If you’re a sports fanatic and like professional sports, you’re out of luck when it comes to Tucson. But up in Phoenix, hour-and-a-half, two hours away, southwest on I-10 you can head on over to Phoenix for a Phoenix Cardinals football game, Phoenix Suns basketball game, or Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game.

There’s a lot of people in Tucson that are season ticket holders for the various professional sports teams up in Phoenix. So you can make a weekend out it and have some fun. But if you’re looking for professional sports here in Tucson, again, you’re out of luck.

Con #4 LACK OF BIG ENTERTAINMENT

Con number four, and this would be a pro for some people. That is a lack of big entertainment, meaning in terms of the big concerts, theater, like I talked about pro sports. There’s no entertainment in Tucson. To get that, you need to drive up to Phoenix.

So for some people, and that’s why Tucson’s always been the thing that people are attracted to. It’s been a quiet, lazy, sleepy, big town per se, but there’s no big, big entertainment as far as the big concerts that you are going to get. So you got to head to Phoenix or jump on a quick flight to Vegas to get that, but there’s no big, big entertainment here in Tucson, Arizona.

Con #5 AIRPORT TRAVEL

Con number five is airport travel. So airport’s got a nice airport. It’s easy to get in and out of. There’s typically not long lines to get through checkpoints. So that’s a pro, but the con is if you do a lot of traveling for work or for pleasure, direct flights to get to where you want to go, most likely you’re going to have to take a connecting flight. So it’s one of the complaints that I hear a lot, especially for working professionals, is they’ve got to take a connecting flight, whether they’re going to go to Phoenix or Dallas in order to get to where they want to go or LA or even Denver.

If you’re doing a lot of traveling that’s on the east coast or midwest or northeast, you can expect to have to take a connecting flight in order to get to where you want to go.

Con #6 TUCSON'S ECONOMY

Con number six in regards to Tucson, and this has been a huge complaint over the years, but it’s actually one that’s slowly starting to change, and that is Tucson’s economy and the job opportunities in Tucson.

Tucson’s population, a lot of retirees and snowbirds on fixed incomes that actually drive our Tucson economy and market. So in terms of a big six figure income salary type of jobs, in the past, we haven’t had the big companies other than a Raytheon or an IBM that actually moved out of Tucson. Raytheon’s probably one of the biggest employers, but that is slowly starting to change. Caterpillar just came and put in a big corporate office here. Amazon, huge distribution center. So Tucson is slowly starting to change and companies are coming to Tucson just because the cost of living and the cost of building and things like that are relatively lower than other parts of the country.

So it’s a very affordable place to live and it’s always been the best kept secret at Tucson is affordability. So companies are starting to see that and the job growth is in the last, I would say five, six years, we’re starting to see some bigger companies come to Tucson, but if you’re looking for more job opportunities and the higher paid salaries and incomes, Phoenix probably going to be a better bet. So that’s one of the biggest complaints over the years is just Tucson’s economy and lack of the salaried, high income type of jobs.

Con #7 GROWING HOMELESS POPULATION

Con number seven and the last con I’m going to go over is not to judge, but Tucson has a growing homeless population. Growing up in Tucson, we had a homeless population, but it was more confined to the downtown area. So you saw the homeless when you were in the downtown area. Outside of that, the homeless population wasn’t spread throughout Tucson. It seems as the last 10 years or so, we’ve definitely got a growing homeless population, but that sprawl is throughout Tucson.

So you see it in a lot more places and it’s just not isolated in one place. So it’s becoming an issue in Tucson and a complaint. Again, it’s not to judge, but Tucson definitely has a growing homeless population.

TUCSON PROS

Pro #1 SUNNY WEATHER

What was con number one is also pro number one, and that is the weather in Tucson.

If you Google sunshine in Tucson, you’re going to see we’ve got about 284 days of sunshine. So people choose to live here because of the weather and the sunshine.

In the fall, winter, and spring, it’s absolutely beautiful, mid-sixties to mid-seventies. So our weather’s awesome and a lot of people choose to winter here and then they’re able to get out of the heat in the summertime. So if you don’t have that luxury and you can’t afford to do that, Tucson’s still a great place to live.

Tucson maybe three months of heat, but the weather out of the other eight to nine months definitely makes up for that. The other cool thing that I like about Tucson in terms of the weather is that we don’t do Daylight Savings.

Arizona utilizes the morning hours rather than the evening hours. I really love Tucson summers because I’m an avid cyclist and runner and I love to get up early in the summer and get it done. It gets light around 4:45 to 5:00. So I’m done with my workout when most people are getting out of bed and the mornings in the summer, absolutely beautiful. It’s in the high sixties, maybe low seventies. So if you utilize the morning hours and get stuff done, the weather’s really nice in the summertime as well.

Pro number one is the weather and the sunshine in Tucson, Arizona.

Pro #2 MOUNTAINS AND OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

Pro number two about Tucson is our mountains and our outdoor activities. Tucson has a couple big mountain ranges, the Catalina Mountains and the Rincon Mountains. The Catalina Mountains is the biggest range and that’s due north and the Rincons are due east and the Catalina Mountains go up to about 10,000 feet.

In the summertime, it’s a great way to get out of the heat. You go up to Mount Lemmon and you’re in the 70s. There’s some great hiking. There’s a couple restaurants up there.

So it’s just a great little reprieve in the summertime to be able to get out of the heat and then also it’s one of the most epic cycling climbs in the country. So we get cyclists coming here, specifically in the fall, winter, and spring, they train in Tucson and Mount Lemmon’s one of the rides that they do. Then we’ve also got what is called the Loop in Tucson. It’s the best thing that Tucson’s done for Tucson. They’ve paved the wash raise. We get water run-off from those mountains and we’ve got a couple washes and the Loop is along those washes. It’s uninterrupted paved pass, about 150 miles where you can ride, not have traffic. It’s really safe. It’s just become a cool thing for Tucson. Then golfing in Tucson. In Arizona, we’ve got some of the best golf courses in the country and people will come here for golfing destination vacations. Then we’ve also got Sabino Canyon and Saguaro National Monument East and West where there is some really good hiking and sight-seeing.

Tucson’s got some, even though we’re in the desert, Tucson’s a little bit surprising when you get here just because of our mountain ranges and all the things that you can do from an outdoor standpoint.

If you’re a cyclist coming to Tucson and are curious about where to ride your bike in terms of mountain biking and road biking, specifically road biking, when you get here, go to Arizonabikerides.com and then in the search, just to type in top 10 and you’ll see a blog post right here that has the best bike rides in Tucson, Arizona, or you can also Google it and it’s going to have a list of the best bike rides in Tucson. So number one, Mount Lemmon. If you just click on that, it’s going to take you over to Mount Lemmon and what you can expect. Again, Mount Lemmon is an epic ride and one that people from all over the country come to do. So if you’re a cyclist, head on over to Arizonabikerides.com to learn more about cycling in Tucson, Arizona.

Pro #3 MOUNTAIN AND SUNSET VIEWS

Pro number three, about Tucson and Arizona is we’ve got some great views. So mountain views and sunset views. Although we’re in the desert, Tucson does have a cool mountain range that provides for some great views, especially in the wintertime.

When the weather comes in and it gets cold, the Catalina Mountains and the Rincon mountains are snowcapped. So it’ll be like 70 degrees in Tucson and within 30 minutes, you can be from Tucson to the top of Mount Lemmon and skiing, and it just makes for an incredible view of the snow-capped mountains that are about halfway up.

Then also our sunsets. I’ve traveled a lot and been a lot of different places and I have to say that Tucson and Arizona has some of the best sunsets in the country. With the desert vegetation and the mountains, we get some awesome, awesome sunset views. So again, the views, the mountains, the sunsets, and then also something else that I didn’t even talk about in the weather is during the summer months, we get monsoon season and it comes in. We get really hot. It heats up, which creates humidity.

Then we get these monsoons where we get some awesome lightning storms. Tucson is one of the most, there’s more lightning strikes in Tucson than a lot of other places across the world. So we get some epic, epic 4th of July type action fireworks when it comes to our monsoons and the lightning. We sit out on the back porch and watch these storms roll in and just see these incredible views and the lightning that happens in our summer months during the monsoons.

Pro #4 MOUNTAIN AND SUNSET VIEWS

Pro number four about Tucson, and it’s always been the best kept secret and it’s what attracts a lot of people to Tucson is our cost of living.

If you go to bestplaces.net, you can pull up Tucson and look at maybe where you’re living and compare you between another place in the country. But Tucson’s about 10% less in terms of cost of living on average than the US average. So it’s why a lot of people come to Tucson, especially retirees that are on a fixed income. They come here just because their dollar is going to go a lot further.

So even though over the last couple of years with COVID hitting and we’ve seen a double-digit appreciation rate in terms of home values, it’s still less than the average across the country.

On average too, our gas prices in Tucson are one of the cheapest in the country. So again, the cost of living, it’s been the best-kept secret and it’s what attracts a lot of people to Tucson is our cost of living. If you head on over bestplaces.net and you type in any location, it’ll give you the cost of living, but right now I’m on Tucson and you can get a lot of really good information. But as you can see, Tucson is about 10% less than the average across other places of the country and even Arizona for that matter. So our cost of living on our average is about 10% less than other places across the country.

Pro #5 AUTHENTIC MEXICAN FOOD

Pro number five, and that is our authentic Mexican food here in Tucson. Tucson has a huge Hispanic population. We’re really close to the Mexican border and with that comes some really good, authentic Mexican food.

Anytime somebody comes to Tucson and they’re new to Tucson, the first question they ask is where should they go to get some good Mexican food? I’m not going to give any names of any restaurants, but again, one of the big attractions to Tucson and what people look to do as soon as they get here is run off and go have a good Mexican meal.

Pro #5 ARIZONA WILDCAT BASKETBALL

Pro number six, and the last pro I’m going to talk about is to Tucson is crazy about their Arizona Wildcats. Con number three, that I talked about, lack of professional sports teams. Well, in my opinion, we’ve got something better and that’s Arizona basketball. I would far more enjoy going to an Arizona Wildcat basketball game than any professional sports team. McKale Center is one of the number one places to watch a college basketball game in the country. We’ve got the best fans in the country and it’s just an electric atmosphere, Arizona basketball. This has been going on for since Lute Olson took over the program in the late eighties. It’s been going on for 30 plus years.

We were national champions and always a top contender when it comes to college basketball. If you’re coming to Tucson, expect to be inundated about Arizona Wildcat basketball in the late fall, winter, and spring, into March Madness. We are crazy about our Wildcats and it’s just a great place to go watch a basketball game in terms of just the energy in McKale Center.

FREE MOVING TRUCK

Keep in mind, we’ve got a 16-foot box moving truck. So if you use us to buy or sell a home, you’re more than welcome to use the truck. Even after the fact, if you ever need to move appliances or furniture, you’re more than welcome to use our moving truck.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks for reading and watching this episode of the Pros and Cons of Tucson.

If you have any questions about Tucson real estate or questions about Tucson give us a call at 520-775-3400.

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In the meantime, make it a great day.

Call Tyler Ford