Moving to Phoenix Arizona? What's the Cost of Living in Phoenix?

1. Moving to Phoenix Arizona? What's the Cost of Living in Phoenix? So you're thinking about moving to Phoenix Arizona, but you're not sure what's the cost of living in Phoenix. Well today, I've got you covered. I'm going to talk about the cost of living in Phoenix Arizona from housing all the way down to what it costs for a gallon of milk, and we're going to get started right now. Hey, what's up everybody? This is Todd Hall founder of Phoenix Homes and Hotspots right here in sunny Phoenix Arizona. If it's your first time visiting the number one Phoenix real estate resource and you want to know everything there is to know about living in Phoenix from homes, the top communities and the best hotspots that surround them. All you have to do is go to our YouTube channel (bit.ly/phah) subscribe and ring that bell and we're going to notify you every time we create a new Arizona real estate video. Now, we are constantly getting phone calls, texts and emails requesting more area information as well as tours of the Phoenix Valley. So if you're moving to Phoenix Arizona or thinking about relocating to Phoenix Arizona, all you have to do is shoot us over a call, send a text or an email and we're going to be happy to give you the key to our city. All right. So before we talk about cost of living in Phoenix, I think it's really important to understand the dynamic and what's going on and the type of growth that we're experiencing here in Phoenix Arizona right now. So Governor Doug Ducey just put out an infographic the other day showing that Arizona is the number 1 inbound state right now. So more people are moving to Arizona than any other state currently. We're number 2 as a state in job growth and we're number 4 in economic momentum. Now understand that the majority of that is coming right here into Maricopa County. Arizona from a population standpoint, most of it is right here in the Phoenix Metro which makes up a good majority of Maricopa County. So most of that growth is right here in the Phoenix Valley. So you’re thinking about buying a home when moving to Phoenix. Let's start with median home prices. Now you are going to see that median home prices here in Phoenix are higher than the national average mainly because we have an absolutely booming market. We have over 300 plus people moving to Phoenix Arizona every single day. So I'm not going to go through all of the major suburbs that make up Phoenix in terms of the median home prices because I've created another video to do that. So you want to check that out on our YouTube channel at Phoenix Homes and Hotspots. So check that out if you want to know specifically across the valley what home prices look like. But today the U.S. national average for median home prices is 244,000. In the greater Phoenix Arizona area which pretty much makes up the majority of Maricopa County, median home prices are $294,000 and just in the city of Phoenix alone median home prices are $261,000. Now, if you look at a heat map of the Phoenix Valley, you're going to notice that the most expensive areas start to the north side of Phoenix. So North Phoenix over to Carefree and Cave Creek. That really makes up that north side then moving East over to Scottsdale and then down south to Fountain Hills in Paradise Valley that is where the most expensive areas are. So if you're looking for more luxury living you might be looking in those areas. You look down in the Southeast Valley down at Gilbert, you're going to see that that's a fairly expensive area as well mainly because that's where some of the best schools are here in the valley. If you look over to the West in the West Valley, you're going to find that the housing becomes a lot more affordable. So that's one of my hot pockets right now. If you're looking for the most affordable Phoenix real estate, you might want to look over in Phoenix's West Valley where Luke Air Force Base is located. OK, next up. Let's talk about the rental market the rental market today in Phoenix is really really competitive with low inventory. So you're not going to have a lot of homes to choose from if you choose to rent when you're moving to Arizona. When we're looking at the rental amounts you can see that a studio apartment right now today in Phoenix is $794 a month. If you're looking for a one-bedroom that's going to run you $928 a month. Jumping up to a two bedroom, that's $1147 monthly. And then when you jump up to a three-bedroom, you're going to see a huge increase all the way up to $1659 a month. 3 bedrooms are the most commonly rented and you're going to find that's about 1560 square feet that'll get you. A 4 bedroom jumps up to $1,900 a month. Now. I mentioned earlier that we have pretty low inventory. The other thing that you're going to find is the cost is much higher in most areas. It will cost you more to rent than it actually will to own and here's the reason why. Think of yourself as a landlord that owns a home that you're going to rent out. Your mortgage payment is $1200 and taxes are $200. Your insurance is $200 so you're at a $1600 payment. every month. Now you're taking the risk. You're a landlord. So you want some cash flow. So you add a few hundred dollars a month in cash flow into that. Your payment as a landlord is $1,600 you added $300 on that the tenant is going to absorb. So as a tenant you're now paying 1,900 where you could have bought the home and owned it at $1600. So again, if you're looking at the difference between renting and owning if you're looking to own you're going to have more inventory, your cost is going to be in most cases a little bit less to own than it will be to rent. So the next thing that is really important when relocating to Phoenix are the taxes. So let's start out by talking about the state income tax. Now Arizona is not a flat tax state. So our range depending on your income tax bracket ranges from 2.59% to 4.5% percent which is pretty reasonable when you compare it to some of the other states where people are moving to Arizona from. So let's look at a few of those. California has a max tax rate for their wealthiest individuals that ranges all the way up to 14.3%. Oregon same thing ranges up to 9.9%. Colorado and Utah are both flat tax rate states. So Colorado's 4.63% flat meaning that everybody regardless of their income falls into a 4.63% bracket and Utah's at a 4.95% flat tax. Illinois is also a flat tax rate state at 4.95%, Michigan a little more reasonable flat tax rate at 4.25%. New York has a range and their highest income earners will pay up to 8.82% and New Jersey their highest rate level for their top income earners is 10.75%. So you can see that the income taxes for those living in Arizona are very very reasonable. Now you are going to have some states such as Texas and we do have some people moving from Texas to Arizona and they pay no state income tax in Texas. However, I used to sell some real estate in Dallas, Texas and even though they have no state income tax, there property taxes are outrageous. So they usually

2. make up for that somewhere. All right, next up is property taxes and just keep in mind that whether you own or whether you rent when living in Phoenix, you are paying property taxes. The only question is are you paying your own property taxes or are you likely absorbing the landlord's property taxes? Well fortunately here in Phoenix, our property taxes again are very low compared to the national average. In Phoenix AZ, and all of Maricopa County we pay .64% of the assess home value where nationally it's 1.8% and that's due to a law that we have that caps that property tax value if it's an owner occupied home. Now, if you're moving to Phoenix and you decide to rent, you're going to pay more and guess who absorbs that cost? Sales taxes are a little bit higher here in the City of Phoenix running at about 8.6% currently. Next, let's talk about some of the other things as it pertains to the cost of living in Phoenix Arizona. First of all, let me say this, if you look at the overall cost of living in Arizona compared to the national average, Phoenix falls about 5% less in total cost of living than what you're looking at on a national scale. Some of the others key cost of living factors would be utilities where we’re about 4% below the national average. Groceries we’re 3% below the national average and transportation we’re 8% below the rest of the nation. Transportation, most people in Phoenix still drive although we do have a Phoenix Metro System which is pretty good. We've added light rail in the last several years and we're expanding on that. But right now it mostly covers the downtown area. So you're going to find that most people in Phoenix still drive for their mode of transportation. But again, we're about 8% less than the national average. Now if we look at some heat maps just to get an idea around the valley of what cost of living in Phoenix looks like and we look at groceries you're going to see that that's pretty stable around the valley. When we looked at housing, you can see it's all over the board. But when you look at groceries, that's pretty stable as well and health the same thing you're going to find that Central Phoenix and kind of the inner areas is pretty consistent and then as you get into some of the outer areas that cost of healthcare becomes a little bit more expensive. When we look at transportation again, pretty consistent across the valley and then when we look at utilities again, you're going to find that's pretty consistent from area to area across the Phoenix Arizona Metro. Alright some other factors that are likely important to you, energy costs. What does it cost for your power for your home every single month on average? That's $161 a month. Keep in mind. Of course. We're very seasonal here. So in those 4 hot summer months that's going to be a little bit higher and then of course in our eight months from Fall to Spring that's going to to be much lower and will come down but on average $161 a month for your power bill. For a cell phone bill $172 a month is the average. That would be if you finance the your phone into that so we have some pretty reasonable deals here about $172 a month with your phone financed in. If you're looking at high speed internet for 150 megabits per second download speed, our major internet supplier here is Cox, that's going to run you right now today about $60 a month. And then a gallon of gas $2.75 a gallon right now here today in Phoenix Arizona. Next, let's look at groceries. At the grocery store a loaf of bread on average today is $3.24, gallon of milk $1.89, a carton of eggs $1.70, six bananas typically about .49 cents a pound and then if you go out and get a hamburger about $4.13. Turning our attention to health care. A doctor visit is about $108 for an average visit here to the doctor . The dentist is $92, an optometrist will run you $101. The annual amount you would expect to pay in drug prices is about $430 on average for a Phoenix or Maricopa County resident and then an average visit to the vet if you have a pet is about $48 per visit. So there you have it that covers the main questions that we receive in terms of cost of living in Phoenix Arizona. If you have specific questions, you want to know what things cost or maybe just to get an update about living in Phoenix Arizona, give us a call, send us a text or shoot us an email. We're always available. We want to be your number one Arizona real estate resource when you're thinking about moving to Phoenix Arizona. Nobody knows the valley like we do. We’d be happy to give you tours and show you some of our favorite hotspots that surround our favorite communities. So again use us as a resource. We want to be your number one resource for real estate in Phoenix Arizona. Now, don't forget to visit our YouTube channel at Phoenix Homes and Hotspots, hit that subscribe button and ring the bell, that will notify you every time we create a new video informing you about new neighborhoods, new hotspots and just things that you need to know about living in Phoenix Arizona. And last but not least I mentioned earlier that I have a video that I created on median home prices for the 21 major cities here in Phoenix. So visit our YouTube channel to check that out. You're going to have a couple really popular videos that you could check out that I'll give you even more information about living in Phoenix Arizona. As always folks, we are happy to help in any way we can so please don't hesitate to call, text or email us at any time so that we can answer your questions and introduce you to and give you the keys to our city for the time that you're here.