(gentle music)
- What is going on, everyone.
Welcome back to the "World According to Briggs,"
in a video on cheap desert towns for retirement.
Actually, most of these are great for just about anyone,
but probably best suited for retirees,
especially the ones that are like
retirement communities on here.
If you make a video on places to retire,
eight out of 10 will be in Florida.
Sunshine state is a great place to retire,
but it's not for everyone.
Some people don't like the beach
and old dudes in banana hammocks, what can you say?
People that don't land in Florida
normally spread out to the desert states
and desert parts of states like California.
Of have the retirees that relocate to another state
in retirement only about 20% move to
what would be considered cold states.
80% land in the desert, Hawaii or Florida.
Today we're looking at cheap desert towns
to call home in retirement.
Alright, in no particular order, let's take a look.
Number 10 Sun City Arizona.
Sun City is a nice little retirement community
on the northwest side of the Phoenix Metro Area,
right between Peoria and Surprise
and it's a nice place to live.
They only have about 40,000 residents here,
and one man described it as
one of the best places for a blue collar retirement.
This is a good size community
with a variety of different types of homes
you could buy here.
The median home listing price here is $189,000,
but realistically,
you're probably looking at to get something decent
somewhere between 250,000 to 350,000,
they do have some that they have these ponds and lakes
and stuff like that, that are right on the water
that are gonna get you up into the 600 thousands on up.
But really you're looking at about 250 to $350,000.
The average temperature here in Sun City throughout the year
is 69 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now, obviously it's Arizona desert.
So you're gonna have a lot of days
where it's in and above the nineties,
but throughout the year, it averages out to about 69.
The percentage of the population that is 65 and older
is 75% here.
Like I said, it's a retirement community,
they don't have a bunch of young folks living there.
Number nine, Fountain Hills, Arizona.
Staying in Arizona,
we find the fun community of Fountain Hills.
Fountain Hills is in the northeast
outskirts of the Phoenix Metro Area,
I like this community.
Most of home
stay with that classic Arizona architecture.
You know, it's kinda like that modernized Adobe look,
it's beautiful.
I'm not a desert person,
but I really like those type houses.
I hate it when people build homes
that really don't fit the feel
and the look of a community or state or whatever.
But if you like those Arizona type homes,
they got plenty here for you.
I would probably consider this place
an upper middle-class retirement area
because the median listing price here is $515,000.
Now that's the median, that's not the average
so keep that in mind.
But I'll give you an idea of what you're looking at
if you wanna buy a home here,
they have open lots here
that you could build your own home on,
that starts off around 200,000,
goes up to I'd say about 350,000.
Realistically, you'd be lucky if you find a decent home here
for the 400,000 area,
most of the decent ones are gonna be 500,000
to about 650,000.
And when I say they go up,
they go up into the millions,
but it's just outside of Scottsdale.
It's kind of out a little bit so you're not gonna have...
It's not too crowded, it's kinda nice.
Like I said the median listing price here is $515,000.
The average year round temperature is 69,
just like the other one.
The total population here is about 25,000 residents.
And the percentage that's 65 and older
is 34% of the population.
Number eight, Prescott, Arizona.
North of Phoenix,
pressed up against the Prescott National Forest,
you have the City of Prescott,
which is not a bad place to live.
It's definitely cooler here year round
compared to like Phoenix.
Prescott is in the Bradshaw Mountains of central Arizona
and elevation of about 5,400 feet or 1600 meters
whatever you wanna do.
The city has a Mediterranean type climate,
however, unlike most other locations in that climate class,
there's a serious summer wet season
due to North American monsoons.
It can get wet and you can get some flash floods.
So just keep that in mind
if you decide to check this place out or move there.
The cost of living here is a little bit high
compared to most places that retirees head to in Arizona.
Overall, it's about 13% higher than the national average,
not terrible, but it's a little bit up there.
Usually when people are retiring,
obviously they're gonna be looking to spend
a little less money so keep that one in mind, too.
A lot of people complain about different things
about Prescott, but they're unfounded.
I mean, I've heard their crime is bad.
Their crime is actually 18% lower than the national average.
Their property crime is 26% lower than national average.
Everything else is kinda middle of the road.
The median listing price in Prescott, Arizona,
they say is $459,000 but it's all over the map.
I mean, you could find places for 150,000
that are like trailers or whatever
on up to a million dollars.
Realistically,
I think you're gonna be looking at around 500,000
to get something really good or decent.
The average temperature here is 55.8 degrees Fahrenheit
that's year round,
their summers, like I said, can get hot and can get wet.
Their winters can get cold a little bit.
Their total population around 41,000.
That's not in the Metro Area,
the Metro Area has about 110,000.
The percentage of the population
that is 65 and older is 35.5%.
Number seven, Banning California.
When I was growing up Banning wasn't the best place to live.
I mean, they've turned it around quite a bit
since I'd say the '90s,
they've had some newer developments
and a lot of retirees are heading out there,
and this usually turns the neighborhood around.
Banning is east of Los Angeles
in between Riverside and Palm Springs.
Banning has plenty of golf, plenty of warm weather
and plenty of decently priced houses
for Southern California.
Now it is in the California Outback,
so you get a little bit of a discount
the further you get away from the beach,
but in the City of Rancho Mirage,
the median listing price here in Banning is 277,000.
But realistically you wanna be looking
for 350 to 450,000,
that'll get you something really nice.
Now they do go up in price there,
or at least the area,
they can get into the millions of dollars,
but 350 to 450,000 is a good range to get something nice.
I'm sure that sounds outrageous
to someone sitting in Mississippi right now
who's probably got a mortgage that's like $90,000,
350 and $450,000, that person is probably a little drastic,
but if you're in Southern California, you didn't blink.
The average temperature here is about 62 degrees,
that's year round,
Banning can get pretty toasty in the summer,
staying around 95 for weeks at a time.
Maybe not that bad, but it gets up there.
Total population here is 30,000.
The percentage of the population that is 65 and older 27%.
Number six, Oro Valley, Arizona.
Oro Valley is on the northern side of the Tucson Metro Area.
That's really not a bad place to live.
The only thing that's ever graded
as below a A or a B for this place
is cost of living and housing.
It can get up there in price, but it's a nice place.
So you're paying to live in a nice place,
like so many other locations in the United States.
Tucson's not that bad,
even though I've done lists on not to move to Tucson.
One thing you need to keep in mind about those videos is
I'm giving you things you should know before you move there,
no place is absolutely horrible, maybe parts of Detroit,
but no place is absolutely horrible,
no place is absolutely perfect.
My lists are just things you should know
before you move in there.
Anyway, Oro Valley is a nice place to live.
Low crime rate, good employment numbers,
really good schools, this town has a lot going for it.
The median listing price here is 348,000,
that's what they say.
Realistically, you're looking at 460 to 600,000
to get something decent.
This is a little more expensive place to live.
Their average temperature year round is 65.4 degrees.
They've got a population of just over 40,000
and the percentage of that population
that's 65 or older is 30%.
Number five, Pahrump, Nevada.
Pahrump, Nevada is not the best looking place,
but we're looking at this one from it is in the desert,
and it is very inexpensive point of view.
Pahrump's only about an hour away from Las Vegas
so that's a plus.
They have communities that are growing right now.
And I think in the future,
this will be a lot nicer place.
I'm talking within the next five or 10 years.
It'll be a lot better than it currently is.
They've got these new housing communities going up with golf
and all that good stuff.
It's just not the best right now,
but it is extremely inexpensive
and a good place to get in on.
The cost of living in Pahrump
is actually 7% lower than the national average
and housing is 30% lower.
They got a little bit of crime
and that can be a deterrent for a lot of people,
but it's really not terrible.
The other reason I bring this one up
and put this on the list,
a lot of retirees like their golf
and they like their gambling.
I mean, a lot of them do.
Pahrump is cheap and it has gambling.
I really wouldn't mind doing a whole video on Pahrump.
I mean, I honestly think this place has potential
in the future.
If anyone from the mayor's office wants to give me an email,
please do.
I'd love to get more details
on what the city has planned for the future.
Maybe do a whole video on the place.
The median listing price in Pahrump, Nevada is 239,000.
They have tons of vacant loss that you can get for 20,000,
but really if you wanna buy a decent house,
you're looking at around 250,000 on up.
There's some as high as 600,000,
I think I saw one for 900,000,
but a majority of them are gonna be
in the 250 to 350, $400,000 range.
The average year round temperature here is 62.1 degrees.
Total population just in Pahrump is 35,000.
And the percentage of the population
over 65 is 31.2%.
Number four Palm Springs, California.
Palm Springs was a place
I would say mostly just for rich people
when I was growing up in Southern California.
These days it's a mix of everything.
Palm Springs is in between Los Angeles
and San Diego to the east, out in the desert,
and actually, not too far from Banning,
which we talked about earlier.
When I was in high school,
this is where you went for spring break.
Then one year there was a riot, (chuckles) and it was great.
And I think that pretty much ended Palm Springs
as a spring break destination for college
and high school kids.
I actually saw how the riot got started.
There was a park and a bunch of, you know,
teenagers and 20 year olds hanging out in this park,
there's a lot of them.
Everyone's drinking and having a good time,
nothing terrible was going on,
and then the place silver loudspeaker said
we had to vacate the park and everyone started vacating.
And they were kinda going slow.
And a motorcycle cops started driving through the crowd,
hitting people with a stick.
It well his, you know, his nightstick
and that just launched into chaos
and it went on for like two days.
These days riot's everywhere
and around the country on the regular,
this was kind of unique
and kind of very out of the ordinary.
Palm Springs is a great place to live.
Their median listing price is 468,000.
And it's really hard to tell you
what realistically you're looking at,
but 'cause it's such a wide range.
You can get condos for the 250 area that are decent.
And it goes all the way up to homes
that are worth three and $4 million not even kidding.
It's that broad of a spectrum.
The year-round average temperature is 73.9 degrees.
The total population of just Palm Springs City is 47,000.
And the percentage of the population that's over 65 is 30%.
Number three, Green Valley Arizona.
Green Valley is a small community south of Tucson.
It's not that big at all.
It is located along the western side of the Santa Cruz River
and the people that live here love this place.
It's just far enough away from Tucson,
not to be bothered by the congestion and all that.
It's just a decent place to live, and it's affordable.
The cost of living is 1% lower than the national average,
crime isn't terrible and the houses are affordable.
The median listing price here is $199,000.
Just looking around realistically,
you're looking at around 230 to $260,000
to get something decent.
Now in this area, it goes up, it goes way up.
There's a couple houses here with some property
that go for close to a million dollars.
Got a little extra coin and wanna build a big house,
for $5 million they got 293 acres, right outside of town.
The average year round temperature is 63 degrees Fahrenheit.
They got about 22,000 people living here.
And the percentage of the population
that's 65 and older is 77.3.
Number two, Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
Staying in Arizona, we got Lake Havasu,
there's Lake Havasu and there's Lake Havasu City.
Lake Havasu is a great place to hang out on a summer day.
Lots of boating, skiing, wakeboarding,
whatever you wanna do.
Lake Havasu City is right near where California,
Nevada and Arizona meet
and Laughlin is just a little over an hour away.
So if you wanna go up to Laughlin Nevada
and get gambling on.
The median listing price here is 333,000,
realistically, I mean,
you could find condos and stuff
for in the 150 to 200 range.
You can occasionally find houses for the 300 range,
but really you're looking for something around 425
to 550 to get something decent here.
If you wanna build your own place
they've got tons of lots for sale
for sometimes less than a hundred thousand dollars.
They've got next to no crime, their crime rate is very low.
It's actually 45% lower than the national average.
The average year round temperature here
is 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
The total population is 53,000
and the percentage of the population
that is 65 and older is 31.5%.
Alright, before we get to number one,
don't forget we have another channel called "On This Day."
There's a link down below.
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if you already haven't.
Alright, on to number one.
And number one, Rancho Mirage, California.
I love Rancho Mirage.
Right next to Palm Springs,
you have the community of Rancho Mirage.
Rancho Mirage is a nice place.
It's kinda strange because you've got some areas that
you know are affordable
and then you have some extremely rich gated communities.
These communities all seem to have golf courses
within their individual communities,
along with artificial lakes and things like that.
One of my favorites is Lake Mirage Racquet Club.
This one design alone wins me over.
You've got houses, ground,
an artificial lake with an island in the middle
that has 10 tennis courts on it,
dotted around the lake are 10 community swimming pools.
It's an amazing design, I love this place.
The median listing price they say is 247,000.
That it's a Mirage, it's not real.
You could find condos here for maybe 300,000,
but if you wanna actually own a house in this area,
500,000 is the minimum.
And it goes up, way up.
There's a house there for sale right now
that is $7.5 million.
So yeah, this one is definitely for people
that got some money in the bank.
The average year round temperature Rancho Mirage
is 73.9 degrees.
The total population is 18,000
and the percentage of the population
65 and older is 51.7%.
So half the population is gonna be in your age range
if your retirement here.
(gentle music)
Alright, that's today's video.
Hope you guys enjoyed it,
hope you got some information out of it.
This list was based on opinion and stats.
So I'm sure a lot of you may have opinions on other cities
that should have been on here and some that shouldn't,
we'd love to hear about it in the comments section below,
everybody have a great day.
Be nice to each other.
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