Darn Sun City! A Pox on you Sun City! Sun City the trouble maker. I'm having a huge problem with Sun City. For the past couple of years my wife and I have been planning a move from the Twin Cities area of MN (some like it cold) to Arizona. Arizona, as you residents are aware, offers dozens and dozens of age restricted communities throughout the state. We've toured and researched many of them. We've stayed at some of the newer and nicest communities including those offered by Del Webb (Pulte) and Robson. Very nice. Very nice that is until you start looking at the fees and taxes associated with them. Like hundreds of thousands of people we suffered some real financial setbacks in the downturns of 2001 and 2008. As we plan our future retirement we are extremely cautious about expenses related to real estate. This is one of the reasons we quickly moved beyond consideration of Texas where there is no state income tax (we could only hope our income was sufficient to have this worry!). We looked at a couple newer Del Webb communities there and noticed property tax rates around 3% of value. On a $200,000 home that is $6,000 a year. Add to that the association fees and you're looking at easily paying $600 a month in addition to your house payment. Yikes! So, back to Arizona. We've considered the Tucson area both north of the city and south in Green Valley. We've considered communities southeast of Phoenix and west. There are some pretty nice developments in all these places. Taxes are much better in AZ than TX. As we figure the cost of living in these newer developments we start flinching. Property taxes and hoa fees push up the monthly cost anywhere from about $250 to over $400. Here's my problem with Sun City. When I look at the cost of property taxes and hoa fees, Sun City pretty much ruins the attractiveness of these other developments. I'm not even talking about the cost of the house. That in itself dwarfs other communities. While you can get a nice size home with a very, very nice size lot in Sun City for $200,000 or less in most other communities you'd get a house several hundred square feet smaller and a lot squeezed in between two other lots with very little room for privacy. Damn Sun City. Why'd you guys have to go and operate a community that is so very cost effective making it very, very hard to be happy with all the other places?
Very funny! I also investigated many retirements communities in Arizona. Sun City kept whispering in my ear "here, here" and I have now been here 8 years without a single regret. So far I have not heard anyone say a single thing negative about Sun City. BTW. You can get a nice home for waaaay less than $200,000, but you'd better hurry because prices are gradually creeping back up.
Rusco - - - - shhhhhhhhhhhhh.....wait until after we get our house to trumpet all that appears (wink, wink) to be wonderful about Sun City.
Hey Rusco, you are taking the term "due diligence" to a whole new level. Awesome to see that kind of investment into your golden years; way too many people look at one of the nicer, newer developments and fall in love and buy without really knowing what they are getting into. I'm always fascinated to read some of the comments on 55Places from folks who bought into the grandeur only to realize it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. When one talks about the original Sun City, it's almost impossible to ignore the historical significance of what has happened here. Besides being the first, we had significant struggles in those early years. Incorporation seemed to be a given; the differences that existed between Community Center (now Oakmont) which had voluntary fees and Town Hall (now Fairway) which had a facilities agreement with buyers took 8 years to be resolved; the feed lot stink from 111th and Peoria was horrid; and in 1964 Sun City was destined to only go as far north as Grand Ave. Through it all DEVCO and the residents overcame every obstacle. The 70's became the boom years and the growth was beyond anyone's expectations. Clearly the "great social experiment" worked. DEVCO's plan of turning over everything to the community was brilliant on their part; they got to walk away and we needed to figure it out. In the early 80's the infighting over direction and course was heated. And yet we endured. In the late 90's, the community was beginning to show it's age. There was no money for long term projects, upgrades or even repairs of any significance. RCSC board members arrived at a solution that to this day has been our salvation. The Preservation and Improvement Fund (PIF) was the single defining moment in Sun City's already brilliant past and would become the way we would stay current and competitive in the growing age restricted marketplace. Here's the thing; virtually everyone who visits Sun City finds we have great values and are a great value. Two wholly different things and through all of the adversity, we have maintained both. It's truly a testament to those who built it (DEVCO) and those who took ownership (the residents) and refused to quit. It's why the history matters and while some see it as unimportant, they just don't get it. Perhaps best of all is as Sun City runs so efficiently, we are adding amenities and upgrading the facilities in ways other communities still marvel at. What's so cool is, the best is yet to come.
Absolutely NO offense taken folks. You're posts just confirm our findings (so far). We'll be visiting for a week or so later this summer. We've found a realtor who lives in Sun City and specializes in that and surrounding communities. We're excited to continue our research. Thanks folks!
Please stop by the Visitor Center across from Bell Library. Just south of Bell to the right on 99th. The volunteers there are very helpful. I'm one of them. You might consider taking the bus tour. You can go online and make a reservation. Google Sun City Visitor Center.
We originally wanted to live in Florida, but the cost of living was so much more for so much less there than Sun City. Love this house and yard and love our walking pool lol. Rusco you found a great place to call home and many have taken a hit in 08. I feel blessed to have discovered the hidden jewels here.
Just to follow up here; we've booked our flights and rental car for our visit. We'll arrive in Sun City Thursday, June 18th. We have registered for the bus tour that afternoon although when doing the registration on line, filling out the form, we did not get any confirmation back at all, the page just went blank when I hit "enter". So, I'm just assuming we've registered. Looking forward to our visit. Our realtors (husband/wife team) sent us a list of 11 homes which match our criteria. We won't be buying until early 2016 but it gives us an idea of what might be available. We're also going to look down south in Green Valley and return to Sun City Anthem for another look. However, it is clear to us Sun City is by far the best value in the state given it's cost and amenities. Looking forward to our visit. I'll post here and the city-data forum on our trip. We'll be in Arizona for 9 days.
Hello R. We just returned home from a trip to the west valley ourselves. I'll spare the details as they can be found in another thread but we did take the bus tour. We received an email confirming our seats a day or two after registration. We also received a reminder call from the center the day prior to the tour. Coincidentally or realtor was showing us homes in Sun City at the time of that call.
It hit a lot of people and we watched so many of our friends leave in U-Hauls for parts unknown. Our street in 04 was bustling with new families in new homes with matching BMW's and boats and jet ski's and whatever else they could cram into the garage. We had to close our newly opened office in Glendale and retreat back to the house. It was hard to swallow the amount of money we watched vanish overnight. Our home lost over 40% of its value. We did not panic thank goodness and rented it until it regained what we paid for it and just sold it last month. Only took 10 years.... Could not wait to move into this little box. I just tell our old friends we went with the "economic refugee" motif. Still, we are content. I am glad you are here Emily!
