1,703,080
Population
Sunny Days: 299
90100 Affordability
85100 Schools
95100 Diversity
75100 Safety
Phoenix, Arizona
The Spicy Chicken
Downtown Phoenix
Downtown Phoenix, Credit: James Day / www.jamesdayart.com
Four Peaks, Phoenix, Credit: Donald Giannatti
Phoenix Countryside, Credit: Jeremy Alford
LookyLOO Review of Phoenix
Making Hay While The Sun Shines
300 days of sunshine a year makes Phoenix the sunniest major city in the country. While some of those days are obscenely toasty the great majority are just plain nice. Which makes it hard to not enjoy being outside hiking, biking, outdoor yoga, poolside cocktails, or whatever it is people do when it is nice out all the time. If you like a casual lifestyle of shorts and t-shirt this is going to be your nirvana.
On the downside, all the boom Phoenix experienced had to end up somewhere. People come here in part for the same reason people have been coming west for hundreds of years: lots of space. This means that as far as the eye can see the homes and commercial strips stretch out into the desert. Phoenix lacks green, trees, and many tall buildings so this sprawl is visually striking and detracts from the sense of Phoenix having character.
Lifestyle
Like most sunbelt cities, Phoenix is a mix of: retirees/snowbirds, families who flocked here for inexpensive housing, young professionals from throughout the southwest looking for a lively city, and finally work-from-home refugees from more expensive cities.
What all these populations have in common first and foremost is an appreciation for the outdoors. If you live here you’re going to spend most of the year hiking, camping, golfing, biking, running, swimming, kayaking, jet skiing or any other activity that takes advantage of the weather or helps you get cool relief from the weather.
If you’re looking for something to do after you finish your hike or swim, then expect to enjoy a massive outdoor culture of rooftop bars and beer gardens. That is the Phoenix lifestyle. Play outdoors during the day, and have a cocktail and fine meal outdoors at night. This is how they roll here.
If you want to see what's happening in Phoenix check out the calendar of events: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/phoenix/Event
Worklife
Phoenix has a small number of Fortune 500 companies relative to its size but with WFH on the rise that’s likely increasingly irrelevant. Where Phoenix excels is in the small business community. Consider the costs of starting and running a small business in NYC or San Francisco v. Phoenix and it is easy to understand why Phoenix was the fastest growing city in the U.S. between 2010 and 2020. Neighboring Scottsdale is home to a big percentage of the Arizona tech businesses so if you don’t mind a small commute that could be your huckleberry.
While there isn’t much venture capital here there is tons of human capital that appreciates the low tax rate and inexpensive real estate. Generally, the population here works in mid-pay to low-pay service jobs and is now increasingly a side-hustle lifestyle. The low cost of living makes all of this possible where you can feel like you’re drowning in other parts of the country. One oddity to the Phoenix job market is the large volume of call-center jobs available here. The lack of natural disasters that would force a closure, the low cost of land/office space for housing lots of cost-center workers, and the neutral accent of most of the locals seem to pull in the business.
Why You Should Move Here Now?
Take Down Your Temp
Even though Phoenix has boomed it remains an extremely inexpensive option for a big city. Much of the stress that goes with trying to slug it out in one of the other big cities comes down here. The economy is good, the cost of living is low, there are no city taxes, and the lifestyle is healthy. That makes it perfect for youngsters looking for an inexpensive place to get a start or raise a family, and ideal for empty nesters or retirees looking to stretch a relatively fixed buck.
Reviews of Phoenix from Locals
phxbimmer
Living in Phoenix
Updated 8mo ago
✭✭✭✭
I was born and raised in NYC, and in 2014 I moved from there to Phoenix. I didn't have a job lined up, I just wanted somewhere warm and sunny and relatively cheap. Nine years later and I still have not regretted my decision. Things I love:
The weather. Yes, the summers are hot, but if you work a white-collar job it's more of a nuisance than anything… you'll find that most indoor places in Phoenix are extremely well air-conditioned. Summer is also a great time to go north, which brings me to my next point.
There's a huge diversity in landscapes. We've got the desert, forests, lakes, rivers, and everything in between. Heck, if you miss the snow you can take a visit to Flagstaff, which is one of the snowiest cities in the US. In the summer when it's hot, it's a great time to go to Flagstaff, Prescott, Payson, where it's a fair bit cooler.
It's a 5-6 hour drive to Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Albuquerque. So if you're ever bored here, there are a ton of fun weekend trip opportunities.
The grid-based street system is so easy to navigate, along with some useful highway loops, you'll be a natural at it in less than a month. I don't remember the last time I needed to use GPS to get anywhere.
The roads are generally quite good compared to a lot of the country.
There's tons of great food options and at this point most major concerts/events stop in Phoenix so you've got a lot of entertainment options.
The downsides are fairly minor, in my opinion:
Traffic's gotten worse over the years, but is still a cakewalk compared to NYC and LA
The public transit is not particularly useful here, so you'll have to drive most places.
Housing has gotten more expensive over the years, but the market's starting to cool down a bit. Rents are higher than they used to be, but still reasonable compared to NYC or LA.
I may be a little biased towards Phoenix, but I have to say I still love living here. It seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing with people, so you'll just have to find out for yourself.
For more reviews from locals check out: The Reviews
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Living in Phoenix
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The Area
As was noted in the workstyle section the Phoenix metropolitan area, known as the Valley by locals, includes Scottsdale, which is just a few miles from downtown. It also includes the city of Mesa, which at over 500k in population, is no slouch itself. The suburban cities of Glendale, Peoria, Tempe, and the aforementioned Scottsdale are all 200k+ populations making “the Valley” a booming metropolis.
Most of the area gets around by car but there is a light rail system, called the METRO Light Rail, that runs 20 miles from Mesa, through Tempe and into Phoenix. The line connects these three downtowns, the major Phoenix airport and two of the four metro area campuses of Arizona State. It ain’t much by New York standards but there are expansions in the planning and construction stages so expect the public transport scene to improve here.