I have friends who lived in Mesa, AZ for many years in a 5,000 sq. ft. house on several acres. Their cooling bills several years ago ran about $1,500 some months. When they both retired a couple of years ago they sold the big house and acquired a 1,200 sq. ft. semi-detached condominium in a 55 and over community in Mesa in which they live during the cooler half the year. They bought a home up in Idaho for spring to fall. They did this solely to escape the incredible summer heat in the Phoenix area.

Over the years I have gotten to know several native Central Floridians. Those who have had the means usually had summer retreats in cooler parts they used during the sweltering humid Florida summers.

It seems to me that if one can afford it become a 'splitter' to get the best of both worlds.

I was born and reared in Upstate New York and until felt the summers hot but it wasn't the heat since most days were 75 or below. It was the very high humidity 90 and above most days. This was worsen when I lived in Virginia and even worse when I lived in Memphis. I found DesMoines warm because of the humidity but Minneapolis an absolute delight, except of course in the winter......but its a dry cold.

I survived every summer in florida until last year and the cause was the higher humidity. So for me humidity is the culprit and not so much the heat. No i wouldn't want to sit in the Arizona sun for tooo long but I had learned that in those states with high humidity one has a tendency to change shirts about three times a day.

for us, it's also the ease of visiting relatives
 

We have kids, siblings, grandkids and all of our friends (so far - some may end up retiring in Arizona) in basically the eastern third of the country - would be more expensive for everyone to visit us and us to visit them if we were out west, so never considered Arizona. Think about this if it is also the case for you, and vice versa. Family is important.

We thought we'd be frogs in TV, but have now become snowbirds, buying a condo back in Ohio for the summer. We get heat and humidity sometimes, but except for last summer, usually only lasts a week or two at a time, and then a cool front will move in. We love the summer city life, so it's working well for us.

Depends on your individual financial situation, but we would rather have 2 inexpensive places than one bigger place in TV - but that's us, and everyone is different.

[QUOTE=senior citizen;681505]...Our "peeps" live in Marana Arizona which is north of Tuscon.......
It's in the foothills of the Tortolita (sp?) Mountains.....high Sonoran Desert.
I believe it's about 3,000 ft. above sea level......so not actually desert.

We know many residents from our town who LOVE Arizona........many are rock hounds and such.......retired earth science teachers.....also some ex military guys....just love Arizona....

QUOTE]

We moved here (Dec 2012) from Marana, AZ. ("suburb", if you will, of Tucson) Still own our house there (leased it out). And yes, while it is about 3,000 ft above sea level, it is still DESERT! After spending more than 20 years in the Tucson area desert, when we found The Villgeas by accident, I was totally ready to move here. Wife still misses the dry heat. I don't. However, I have heard her telling many friends and releatives in AZ that so far, the weather here has been very nice.


Here's one for you, because of the extreme low humidity (8-15% is very common) (just checked, it is 10% as I write this in Marana, and 34% which is low, actually, here in TV) when you go away for a week, the water in the toilet bowl will completely evaporate. In 7 days! By the way, the name Arizona means "Arid zone". Dry, no water...etc. The annual rainfal there is about 12 inches....most of which occurs during the Monsoon...which actually just indicates a change in the direction of the prevailing airflow, when the airflow starts coming up from Mexico, bringing moisture laden air. That mixes with the hot dry air, and creates summer thunderstorms. The time frame of Monsoon used to be determined when the dewpoint hit 55 degrees for 3 days in a row... now they claim it starts June 15, I think, and it lasts usually until Labor day.

Admittedly, we haven't spent a summer here yet.

2 weeks ago we went back to AZ for our son's wedding, it was already over 100 degrees there. I love the weather here so far.

OH, and by the way, I have severe arthiritis, and again, so far, I have felt much better here. In fact, I have cut down on my pain meds.

One more thing, sorry long post.

We ALMOST bought in The community referenced above called Saddlebrooke, North of Tucson...nice community, but can't even begin to compare to The Villages. We are SO GLAD we didn't buy there!

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Heritage Highlands sound heavenly no crowding lots of space mountain view gated community homes well spaced WOW

[quote=senior citizen;681872]Well, my wife's brother lives there.... Our home there is about 3 miles east...in a non 55+ community.

The homes are NOT well spaced....lots of open space, but where they have built homes, that are close...not unlike The Villages. They need lots of open space for the water to run down the "washes and ravens" when it comes down in the summer. It is very hilly and much of it is not buildable. We briefly considered Heritage Highlands, but they were at build out, and we wanted a new home, and the "new neighborhood" experience. Saddlebrooke was/is much larger, and offers more, but nothing like TV. AND the homes are very small in HH, mostly 1300-1700sq ft. if I remember correctly. A few near 2000, but the majority are small. It is a very scenic area, but remember, there are at least five months with daily temps at or over 100 degrees...

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Your last post says it all about humidity, senior citizen. From my experience in hot humid regions and hot arid regions I would have guessed that at 95 degrees and 90% humidity it would feel about the same as 115 and 10% but from this article it would feel hotter. Wow!

Here is a heat index calculator I found provided by the national weather service. http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/heatindex.shtml

Perspiring is how we humans cool down and if the perspiration we produce on our skin can not evaporate no cooling results.

My skin is already dry enough so I have to vote for Fla.
I have bad allergies here but my throat would be too dry in
Arizona (and it's WAY TOO HOT!)

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There are quite a few retirement communities in Maine

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