I want to make it clear that I don't think that ALL deserts are to be avoided. I just couldn't go back to the So Cal High Desert. There are some really pretty areas out in the desert. My recommendation is to look North on 395, Bishop to Virginia City. If you haven't been there you should check it out.
Yeah, the 395 corridor you mention follows the Eastside of the Sierras. Lots of great recreational possibilities but not a lot of economic. The Owens valley was paradise until Los Angeles swiped their water.
As you head up into the mountains of o Arizona, you can almost dial select climate. There are many little towns of various elevations.
AZ and NM have huge variety. I like UT, where I'm at is around 3200' iirc and summers are brutal, winters are freezing but rarely do we get any snow. More snow and less heat as you climb. Next town 40 minutes up the road is over 6000' so you can get a lot of variance without a huge geographical change.
Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:Yeah, the 395 corridor you mention follows the Eastside of the Sierras. Lots of great recreational possibilities but not a lot of economic. The Owens valley was paradise until Los Angeles swiped their water.
Used to spend a couple weeks every summer at my aunt and uncles place in Independence CA. The Owens valley is beautiful and dry. As much outdoor activity as one could wish for, but the grocery store is 1.5 hour drive.
Flagstaff is high desert and we got 144 inches of snow so far this season.
desert is classified by precipitation, not LT elevation. All of the southwest has high elevation desert where it isn't hot but it's still very dry.
Jobs however seem to be in lower elevation deserts like ABQ, Phoenix, Tuscon, Vegas, Palm Springs, Reno.
Flagstaff and St George are both seeing tremendous growth. Prescott too. Santa Fe has some but it's not a college town and not as popular with retirees as Prescott or Phoenix.
New Mexico is still cheap. It's remote though. 8 hours drive time to any other major city. Las Cruces to Tucson is about the shortest drive between major cities in NM at 4 hours.
I want to spend some time in Reno. Like Flagstaff it's a day trip away from a major CA metro (Sacramento) but just a little more access to water in the Sierras.
In reply to pheller :
Reno is boomtown these days. A lot harder to find a housing bargain than it was. A lot more going on also. It isn't the joke town that it once was. Vegas also. The strip may be what it's famous for, but the place is a very vibrant community for creatives and outdoors people.
In reply to pheller :
Go a little farther to Carson, and you are back to a Flagstaff sized city.
Looking forward, I really wonder about the cost and ability to get enough water in these places to support the population. It's looking bleak right now.
One of you desert dwellers need to start a side hustle being a broker of rust free automobiles for us GRMers in the rust belt. I would love a rust free GMT400 but trying to find and buy something 1000 miles away and get it home seems like too much of a hassle.
In reply to gearheadmb :
Phoenix is probably your best market, but if you find anything on stgeorge.craigslist.org that catches your eye, I'll go check it out. Consider this a public offer for a couch to crash on for any GRMer doing a fly-and-drive around southern UT.
Wife and I love the rural Tucson/Oro Valley area. Inlaws live in a 55+ retirement community that we visist. Been looking for land northeast of there. Something just on the edge of having electricity. I can tell you we do not want to retire in Indiana.
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
The top picture looks like the Google Earth picture of my relatives place near Landers. I had a plan to be there now but timing means it'll be October.
We liked the time we spent in Alamogordo enough that we definitely want to go back & if we ever had reason to move somewhere else would definitely consider it.
At ~30k people it's big enough to have most of what you need, but is still pretty small. Las Cruces & El Paso are about an hour away though. Plus Cloudcroft is just a short drive up into the mountains if you want to escape the summer heat.
Colin Wood said:In reply to mr2s2000elise :
If we ever get serious about moving towards Joshua Tree, we'll be in touch.
Happy to help, my friend.
Rons said:In reply to mr2s2000elise :
The top picture looks like the Google Earth picture of my relatives place near Landers. I had a plan to be there now but timing means it'll be October.
25 min east of your relatives place. Feel free to contact me when you are here. We run our farm Sept-Jan full force, happpy to meet up if I am in the area.
Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:We liked the time we spent in Alamogordo enough that we definitely want to go back & if we ever had reason to move somewhere else would definitely consider it.
At ~30k people it's big enough to have most of what you need, but is still pretty small. Las Cruces & El Paso are about an hour away though. Plus Cloudcroft is just a short drive up into the mountains if you want to escape the summer heat.
I spent last 2 Xmas- New years week in Santa Fe/Taos/Carlsbad. Gorgeous area. I would love to live over there. Much much better than the San Bernardino desert of CA.
gearheadmb said:One of you desert dwellers need to start a side hustle being a broker of rust free automobiles for us GRMers in the rust belt. I would love a rust free GMT400 but trying to find and buy something 1000 miles away and get it home seems like too much of a hassle.
Problem is the prices.
Higher housing costs means higher wages, which means higher values of vehicles that would anywhere else be cheap.
Best places to look for rust-free deals is hours away from the major metro areas, where people know better than to price based off what they might charge hundreds of miles away.
Still, the only deals available are those offered by people who shun the internet (and it's "I know what I've got" mentality), and as a result, those are hard to find.
gearheadmb said:One of you desert dwellers need to start a side hustle being a broker of rust free automobiles for us GRMers in the rust belt. I would love a rust free GMT400 but trying to find and buy something 1000 miles away and get it home seems like too much of a hassle.
Few of us have that as a side hustle moving 25-30 cars a year. Issue is the typical GRM buyer (present company excluded) would want me to sell the car to them for less than what I have in it - making the whole business proposition less than ideal 
If you find anything you like, I am happy to store it here for free, after purchase, and help with any transport for you.
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
My mother-in-law had a cousin (Charles) that bought luxury cars around Birmingham, Alabama in the 1950's and would buy a car, fix it up, drive it to Chicago and sell it to a dealer. (Olds 88's, 98's, 225's, Cadillacs)
He retired in the 1990's and lived on the road every other week. By this time he was using a car hauler and moved 6 cars every other week. Sometimes grandpa would catch a ride back to Piedmont, Alabama with the cousin.
Once I cornered him and he explained it to me. I'm sure he lived a lower expensive life than we do today.
And as was already mentioned, NO mosquitoes.
Datsun310Guy said:In reply to mr2s2000elise :
My mother-in-law had a cousin (Charles) that bought luxury cars around Birmingham, Alabama in the 1950's and would buy a car, fix it up, drive it to Chicago and sell it to a dealer. (Olds 88's, 98's, 225's, Cadillacs)
He retired in the 1990's and lived on the road every other week. By this time he was using a car hauler and moved 6 cars every other week. Sometimes grandpa would catch a ride back to Piedmont, Alabama with the cousin.
Once I cornered him and he explained it to me. I'm sure he lived a lower expensive life than we do today.
Sounds like a fun hustle! Sadly, amongst a bunch of things I do, I can't make the car thing a full time hustle. Would be fun. Just not in the cards for me. As economy softens, I go back into buy only mode. Probably sell less than 10 a year in 23/24 if things take a downturn. Which is fine, as its more of a hobby that feeds the 529, hoping to max it out soon.
Well, we're here in Palm Springs for three weeks in November and three weeks in Feb./Mar. So I look at it from a socio-economic perspective. The desert here is fantastic. Unbelievable. Best place to live if you can afford. If you can, I encourage it. It's a great place for car people. And you can drive your cars all year long here ... if you can afford it.
High desert may be a lot less buggy than Florida, but not all desert. Last time I was in the Tucson area, I couldn't stand still for more than a few seconds, or I'd get swarmed. I think Joshua Tree is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It's more crowded every time I visit, and I haven't been there since 2019.
mr2s2000elise, I know it's not exactly five stars, but I like going to Sam's Indian Food and Pizza whenever I visit.
I'd really like to move to the desert after retiring, too, but long term water supply is a big concern of mine.
eastsideTim said:High desert may be a lot less buggy than Florida, but not all desert. Last time I was in the Tucson area, I couldn't stand still for more than a few seconds, or I'd get swarmed. I think Joshua Tree is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It's more crowded every time I visit, and I haven't been there since 2019.
mr2s2000elise, I know it's not exactly five stars, but I like going to Sam's Indian Food and Pizza whenever I visit.
I'd really like to move to the desert after retiring, too, but long term water supply is a big concern of mine.
Personally it isnt the 5 star or 1 star that bothers me at all. I can't afford the 5 star if I tried. However, I am not a fan of crime and some of the nastiness we have around. . Just providing the reality of it.
JT area and Palm springs are worlds apart, for those who are comparing. LIving in a space and visiting in a space are also very different. Once the romance wears off, and reality sets in. Of course if you are retiring, and want cheap living, don't care about schools, etc, needs are different.
RE: Water supply...farm + employees= it costs me $65,000 for a well per 5 acres. Nothing to need to pay for water, but constant pump issue + mechanic issue blah blah. Water table is 361 feet-450 feet.
If I don't have a well, like many of our other farm holdings, my monthly city water bill is $1800 in winter, and $2300 in summer per 5 acres.
In Los Angeles, 1 acre lush green grass property + Pool = avg size family usage, residential costs me $150 a month.
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