How are living conditions in Arizona Flagstaff/Tucson/Phonenix?

Whats the weather like, the jobs. How expensive is it to live out there. What type of work is Arizona know for (ex. Michigan known for makin cars) What are the wages like? I am thinking about moving to the west coast from the midwest. Arizona seems close to all the good states. Also how expensive is college out there for out of state students. I want to use my GI BILL.How are living conditions in Arizona Flagstaff/Tucson/Phonenix?
Flagstaff is a small college city w/too many people, cool w/pine trees. It doesn't snow like it used to. Living conditions are great if you have the money. Very expensive tourist town. Lots of gas stations and motels. Phoenix is hot desert, can be affordable. AZ has mining, electronics, military. Wages are bad in Flagstaff, better in Phoenix. Most don't want to live in Phoenix, rather in Tempe, Mesa, surrounding areas. Lots of people moving to Tucson, smaller than Phoenix. College is expensive, I know of more people dropping out, transferring to schools like University of Phx. Link below has lots of data. Good luck..How are living conditions in Arizona Flagstaff/Tucson/Phonenix?
I've been out here for 5 years, so hopefully I can help. The winters have been getting really cold the last 2 years (30's-40's) during the day. Still not as bad as most places though. The summers average about 110 degrees. It's not too bad unless there's humidity which happens a lot due to the Monsoons (just regular thunderstorms, and dust storms). When it does rain we usually get no more than 2 inches, but it tends to flood areas due to the way the roads are built. You may have to take a day off of work because of flooding, but at the same time, you don't have snow to deal with (unless you decide to live in Flagstaff). Flagstaff is much colder the whole year. I'm talking about the areas near Phoenix.



Arizona is not known for having their own of anything. So when it comes to jobs one major employer out here would be Intel. Wages are ok, it took me a while to make what I was making in Chicago, but after 5 years, I'm finally making more. I guess it just depends on what field you get into or what company you work for.



Phoenix area, which is where I would suggest to live over Flagstaff and Tucson, is about 6 hours from everything good, so it's not bad. 6 hours to the California beaches, 6 hours to Vegas, 6 hours to El Paso. For a cool off in the summers, you can go to Flagstaff which is only 2 hrs away.



Housing is relatively inexpensive compared to other states. With the market so bad right now, you can buy a pretty big house for a relatively cheap price. If you want to live in the suburbs, there are new areas all over. Examples are Gilbert and Queen Creek. I live in QC, it's far from a lot of places, but you can get a whole lot of house for a little amount of money. Look into foreclosed houses because that happened a lot out here. Queen Creek is finally getting a ton of stores, so on weekends and stuff you don't have to drive that far for anything.



ASU is the big university in Phoenix area (Tempe). I know they're somewhat expensive, and I'm really not sure how out of state residency student tuition. If you live here for a certain amount of time, you can claim residency and will save you thousands of dollars. Good luck to you and your decision.