sir_eccles

Unless you're Canadian or from Montana, Idaho, Alaska... mumble grumble bloody snow birds mumble grumble.

kodokan

In fairness, they're usually neither working nor placing kids in the schools. And I can't wait until I can be one, but in reverse!

AZ_Alba

Within 30 minutes you have cave creek, fountain hills, anthem, Tempe, Mesa, chandler, Gilbert. Chandler is probably the most ethnically diverse due companies like Intel.
Also thier parks and recreation has lot of classes for kids from about six months up.

The heat you get used to and apart from monsoon season the humidity is low.

Driver's. License is easy to get as long you can show legal residence, simply a computer multiple choice followed by 30 minutes driving.


If you want night life such as bars and clubs then downtown Scottsdale or Tempe which has younger crowd as it is college town.

And welcome to the neighborhood

Carlisle401

Do you reading for your driving test. I came over here last year and was told the driving test was just right turns. Not so, I had left turns, right turns and reversing! Do read especially about parking on hills.

I live in Northern Scottsdale and I am as common as muck!! Very nice place. Come before the summer and then the summer won't be too bad. Winters are great. Good Luck.

kodokan

My road test WAS just right turns, scarily, but hubby had something resembling a proper test that took about 15-20 mins and involved the usual range of junction manoeuvres.

The reversing/ parallel parking is a standard part of the AZ test and done every time, before the road test, where you have to reverse the car into a parallel parking position alongside a painted line 'kerb', between a set of cones (because parallel parking is SO regularly used in AZ...). Again, mine was weird - I'd been out practising that morning using wheelie bins: drive past second bin, stop, reverse into space on my right rear corner, etc. But when I got to my test site, they had the space set up on the left of the car, as if you'd somehow crossed all the traffic lanes and were now trying to parallel park facing the oncoming traffic! Pretty easy to do though, as I could just lean out of the window and see the line.

And hey, even if by some chance you don't pass, you can just turn up the next day and try again, and the next, all for the same $10. So there's no real pressure.

Uncle_Bob

Yep, since the 1970s

Its hot out but as the locals like to say its a dry heat (no humidity so its doesn't feel sticky). A few months of the year you might be stuck indoors but houses are generally of a good size here. I'd prefer to be stuck inside a decent size house for 3 months or so than stuck in a tiny house up in the north east for 5 months.
You will notice people in Arizona get up and going as soon as the sun comes up at 5am to take advantage of the cooler weather. There are no clock changes and its dark by 7.30pm in the summer.
Not having to bundle your children up every time you go out is nice.
Mums clubs seem to be popular here. Most of my wife's current friends are mums club friends. There are quite a few indoor play places, public splash pad type places around. Also when its hot its off season so all the large resorts with lots of pools and lazy rivers, water slides etc offer deep discounts. Its common for families to have "staycations" at these resorts to help cool off.

Good luck with the move to Scottsdale, most of it is considered posh and they actually nick name it Snottsdale. But its very nice and has great schools. You will expect to pay more to live in the scottsdale/paradise valley area than you would for a comparable property anywhere else.

Have you tried websites such as http://www.realtor.com/ to look for houses?

Driving test is really easy, four right turns around a block and some stupid questions along the line of "what do you do at a red light"
Biggest shock was the tester was a police offer who sat in my passenger seat fully armed.

I hope all goes well

Uncle_Bob

Lots of people were able to get into better areas after the property bubble burst like you did.

Fortunately for the OP the housing market is still tilted in favour of the buyer.