I’ve just been offered a job at Arizona State University, but I’ve never been to Phoenix (actually only been to the States a couple of times), so I’m looking for some advice as to what it’s like to live there. What’s it like for bike training, and how is training in the summer? How would I get by on $36,000 a year with a wife, baby and an expensive exercise habit? Any thoughts appreciated!
first, I think the bike training is great. most people i know ride all summer no problem, it’s hot but you just get up early- my group from bicycle ranch starts as early as 4:30 in july august. we rideall winter when a lot of the country are sitting on their trainers watching tapes of old episodes of Friends or Jerry Springer…
Phx/Scottsdale have great places to ride, and areas with additional wonderful riding like flagstaff or tuscon only 2 hrs away. mtn biking is world class also, and many many very good athletes here. also many many crappy ones like me… a decent and growing triathlon city- now we have the ironman, one or two half im distances and a lot of shorter races, plus you’re a one day’s drive or cheap flight from CA, CO, UT, NM and even Buffalo Springs TX, all good places to race.
the $$ is another story. unfortunately $36k does not go far, even in phx which is a relatively cheap city to live inby american standards. my guess is it gets an ok 2br apartment somewhere in tempe- mesa but not a house. i guess i’d think about what my income might be like in a few years and see if the apt. lifestyle is worth it for the future gains. good luck
I just got back from two weeks there at a tech school. Its a lot cheaper than southern California,the Scottsdale area is the high end and just north of the skyharbor airport is the low end industrial / slums . It gets smoggy in the summer, 100+ temp for about 3 months, the joke is its Dry Heat.
I saw a sign for $350 month apartment,it looked good from the outside, which is less than half of California prices . 36 K might be a good start.
It was the car theft capital a few years back ,so insurance would be high ,but fuel is 10 - 30 cent a gallon cheaper than Kalifornia.
The water is very mineralized , drinkable but bad ,a bit worse than Kalifornia
This city has lots of canals of brown irrigation water flowing through it, paper cups and debris.
In a prior job (4 years back) I had several locations in Phoenix/tempe area with staff (I likved in Kansas City KS) having just come from Western PA.
In terms of wages/living -
definatly the cost of living in Phoenix was lower than easter US. Housing seems to be reasonable and some of my staff rented and indicated rent was affordable.
in general I thought salaries were low - I paid staff working in other parts of the US 10 to 30% more (none were in super high - NY, DC, San Fran type locations).
people seemed to get by on less than $40K - but I was hearing more and more about rising prices as Phoenix was growthing considerably.
my general thought is that for a family $40K might be tough but doable - not sure about your general standard of living. Many will be making it on that in Phoenix, but the high ends of the SES are growing.
I too work in Higher ed - are you faculty or administration? I might have some contacts.
Not admin, but not really faculty either, since it would be a postdoc research position. Tough but doable is pretty much what I’d expected, and also what my wife and I are used to - but it would be nice to have a change!
Use birth control next time…
One thing to factor in is that you will need a car here, and car insurance is fairly high. Buy something cheap to repair or replace and live close to your work (if it would be the Tempe campus, there is plenty of cheap housing nearby within walking or easy biking distance), the less you drive it the lower the insurance by far.
36K will be tough. If your wife can pick up something part-time, that would really help. You should be able to find somewhere decent to rent on that amount though.
Where are you coming from, UK?
Would certainly be the plan for my wife to get work after some period (or maybe even trying to take her current job with her), dependent on how she finds looking after a baby. And yes, I’m from the UK.
with the exception of this winter- how does never having to worry about your workouts getting rained out?? Good traithlon scene in the area–plenty of bike-able roads–many with bike lanes–endless dirt canal paths to run on, and a number of good outdoor year round pools to train in
start early in the summer-but your blood will thin out–and its a dry heat