I have a possible job opportunity there.  Please tell me the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Prescott dweller here. What questions do you need to be answered? Best I can say is, low stress town life, low crime, in close proximity to the hometown shoots, we have IDPA here and steel challenges nearby, there is a good VA hospital here if you're a vet, mountains, lakes, desert, among other things.

PM me if you need certain questions answered.

lots of good areas to settle down around here, plenty of places to go shoot, decent amount and quality of restaurants and brewpubs if thats your thing



something going on practically every weekend downtown

Formerly the best small town in Arizona,  Currently a typical American small city with all the exact same amenities and exact same issues you can see in any other modern clone city of a similar size.  Climate is good.  

Nice place to live....depending on what you do for work, Phoenix may have better paying opportunities. My wife went to HS with a couple who are all from here (Prescott) and the husbandhas been an engineer for over 10yrs. When they moved back here, jobs in Prescott were offering him 1/3 of what jobs in Phoenix offered. He now commutes 2 days/wk to Phoenix and works from home the rest of the wk.....just some food for thought.
That's about the only negative I can really find up here other than parking sucks downtown during events (pretty much every weekend)

Watch out for `Rizzo...

I am just looking for a little background.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the humidity is generally low and the summers aren't generally as scorching as Phoenix?

How is the area for annoying bugs like mosquitoes, ticks,and gnats?

How is AZ for homeschooling?

I understand the cost of housing is pretty high.

Jparish62, I am an engineer.  I was laid off last July.  I found another "engineering" job making about 40% below what I was making before.  There just aren't many opportunities for circuit design/hardware engineers here unless you are an expert in RF or switching power supplies.  The recruiter told me a relo package is included because the company has had difficulty finding candidates that want to move there.  I would be surprised if they would offer a relo package and and a low salary at the same time, but it's possible.  I have only taken the step of having the recruiter present my resume so I don't really know what kind of salary range they have.  Living in a place with nice weather, outdoor activities that don't involve muddy lakes, and having fewer mosquitoes would be like getting a raise even if the salary is as low as my current one.

When Stromdriver said "brewpubs", can you explain that?   Is it like the breweries where you can sit down and have beer and sometimes dinner?  I enjoyed the Left Hand Brewery in Longmont, CO, if that is similar.  Are your brewpubs family friendly?  In Longmont people would bring their kids and dogs.  

How about hiking?  Prescott is next to a National Forrest, right?  How is that for getting away from the city?

How about hunting?  

This is irrelevant to my decision about moving there but I am still interested:  Can you carry an automatic knife?  TX started allowing that again in 2013 and I would hate to leave my Benchmade behind.

Your Benchmade is fine, we have very few laws on what you cannot own/carry.  Lots of hiking in Prescott.  What the recruiter told you about not being able to find candidates for the job seems odd unless the position is very highly specialized.  The reason I say that is because Prescott is generally a high desirability area and I would assume many Phoenix and Tucson folks would be interested in a position there.  The issue with Prescott is generally not enough jobs, not too few candidates.  Personally I would do some additional research on the company/position and ask for a salary range, as others have said pay in N. AZ tends to be low.

Summers compared to PHX are non existent...lol, but then again I was born and raised in PHX. Humidity I'd virtually non existent and summers hottest is in 90's and may occasionally hit 100, but not very often at all. Winters you get some snow but it is gone within a few days usually.

Bugs are not a big problem. When spring hits there are bees if you have plants the flower, but nothing to worry about.

AZ is gtg if you want to homeschooling, but generally the schools up here are not bad at all for the most part. There are always exceptions though.

Housing here is higher the PHX for sure but there are different areas that its better. If you are willing to move to say Dewey or certain parts of Prescott Valley (not Grandville or Stone ridge), it is affordable. In town is definitely priceier as its all virtually next to downtown...

Prescott downtown has several local breweries that yes, are called brew pubs here. Its basically a restaurant with a brewery on site or visa versa. Almost everything and place here is family and pet (dog) friendly. Very few aren't. I've seen people take there dogs into Costco...lol and not just service animals. Almost every restaurant downtown has water bowls out front and many have outside seating.

Hiking is everywhere here. The furthest I'd say is probably Mingus from Prescott downtown, but its virtually Prescott Valleys backyard. Its the mtn between prescott area and Jerome/ Cottonwood. There is tons of hiking within a 5-20min drive.

As for hunting, I have met very few people up here who don't hunt. It all depends on what you're hunting and where you get drawn for.

Your knife is fine. I pretty good rule of thumb, if you can carry it and its legal anywhere else, its gtg in Az.

If I missed anything or am off on something, please chime in anyone.

Great shot of granite dells rich!

But you still need to watch out for `Rizzo....

Note mine, I just borrowed it from the web.

These are my photos


All of these are within a 2 hour drive from Prescott

Those are beautiful too!

I can speak for that one: AZ is very homeschool friendly. You file an affidavit with the school district when your child turns six, and you are homeschooling. You're required to teach math, English, social studies, and science, but no testing or reporting is required.

Your kids are incredibly smart too, you and your wife are doing it right!

I only bite when I'm cornered.

OP - call me to discuss Prescott area. I've lived here with my family for over 10 years, I'm self-employed, highly active in the outdoors, we homeschool our kids, and we love living here. I don't feel like typing a lot more than that: 520-831-3683

^^ Dat ammo tax tho...

I've been here for the last 37 years, now retired electronic engineering from Cobham.
I love Prescott and will never leave!

Thank you for the info everyone.  I will give Rizzo  call this afternoon or evening.

BTW why do I need to watch out for Rizzo?

Can anyone tell me about a draw for hunting?  In TX sometimes they have a draw for hunting certain public land where you put you name in (I don't know if there is a fee) and a certain number of names are drawn and allowed to hunt there.  Do your chances of winning in the draw go up over time i.e. if I put my name in this year and I'm not drawn, does my name go in twice when I apply next year?  I've heard in some states that it works that way so your probability improves next year if you aren't drawn this year.

Please add any more info you can think of.  I am excited about this opportunity.

So many have asked
So few took our advise
In the end
They all paid the price

Are you saying I should not call Rizzo?

You can call Rizzo, just have your "ammo tax" ready when you get into Prescott (pronounced Pres-kitt)

In AZ hometown traditional fashion we are just busting your chops.
Glen (Rizzo) is one of the best guys you can hope to meet. He runs a firearms training company out of Prescott Valley and hosts an internet talk radio show, see here http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_8_13/551204_The_Arms_Room.html.
A long standing joke is he charges an ammo tax for any newcomers to AZ, payable on entry. In reality he has a boyscout troop that he leads and he takes ammo donations for when he takes the troop out to shoot. Mostly 22LR & shotgun.

Give Glen a call, he will give you the honest truth about the area.


Now the person you really need to watch out for is that freebear guy.

No open carrying AR15's or any of that OC Texas crap!

LOL I thought AZ was a free state?

ETA are you telling me I CAN'T carry my full-auto UZI openly in downtown Prescott?  You better let Rich know about that.

Oh it is but we're not fond on Starbuck shenanigans

What is legal vs what is wise.

I CC or OC pistols all the time in town, never needed a rifle.

For all practical purposes AZ has no gun laws other than what the feds force on all of us.

I thought Prescott was overrun by Californians?  

Native Texan here.   Prescott will be a fun change, unsure you will want to stay forever but I doubt you will regret the move and taking a few years to enjoy AZ.

I have been in Phoenix for 15 years, only visited Prescott but as far as small towns go, it seems kinda urbanized and maybe full of the aforementioned Californians.

Anyway, as far as hunting goes, you don't have to pay for a lease.  Bad news, it may take you ten plus years to draw the best hunts.   Even just antlered deer in a good unit can be a once in every 3 or 4 year kind of deal.  

When I moved here, I joked to people I left Texas to escape the oppressive gun laws, few got the joke but it was true by comparison anyway.  

The Prescott weather is great, at least by Phoenix standards and bugs are non existent compared to everywhere else.

Unfortunately many from Cali, Chicago, NY etc have moved here, but its still a right wing area and nothing can really change that. Its definitely not what it was when I was growing up but its not as big as phx or anything like the lib states/cities either.....

They should have left their "I'm a fucktard at driving" personalities behind them then, before they came here. Also, we're a college town so there is that as well.

But you won't see the out of townees with those plates messing with the locals, they know we're armed and that there is a nice thing as stand your ground here in AZ

I went up there once for the weekend when they were having their Christmas tree lighting event on the town square, and I swear to God I almost didn't come back. There were at LEAST 3,000 people in the street, people were drinking, there wasn't a cop in sight and get this...there didn't need to be a cop in sight, because there were no assholes. Not a single asshole, I searched and didn't see even one. Down here in the Phoenix area it's still better than California, but any time you have a gathering of that magnitude you'll either have punk ass wanna be gangbangers, an overwhelming police presence, or in the case of the state fair, both. I'd give a lot to be able to relocate up there, but work is here, so here I am. You should go for it.

That's because the assholes know to stay out. Unless its out of staters, they know everyone here won't take that crap

I like it here

I do too. The California comments are a bit overstated. Usually after about a year they figure out we don't care about how they do things there. Personally I find the
Chicago people worse, but I have one for a neighbor. To be fair though SOME Texans seem to forget we don't care how THEY do it either. (But we're a LOT closer to the way Texans do things than California!

Humidity is relative...  But we do have a monsoon season.

Don't kid yourself, we're more of a retirement refuge for middle class up. People make their money first, THEN move here. In Prescott (PRESSkit, DON'T EVER call it PresCOTT) proper you can find houses in the forest, houses in a Victorian neighborhood, ranch style ramblers and "planned communities" complete with HOAs. The outlying areas such as Prescott Valley (THIS is where the Californicators seem to land) can be less expensive and at the same time, some affluent areas as well. Outside of town it gets semi rural to rural quickly. Out there you can find anything from single wide mobile homes to the "Rolex Ranches".

People sometimes say, "You can afford to move to Chino Valley, but you can't afford to move out!" That's somewhat true; you must choose wisely out here.

As mentioned already, the problem isn't usually filling jobs, it's FINDING a job that pays well. Make DARN sure you have your employment all lined up.

I've got the exact same story, but it was Independence Day, and the rodeo was in town. Ive never seen average townspeople so friendly. People were stopping to let people back out of parking spaces! I almost didn't go back home.

It did seem like it was starting to get overgrown, but it does definitely feel like "Americas Hometown".

I'd take Prescott over Phoenix, Flagstaff or Tuscon all day long. There are a lot of firearm related stores and companies located there. You probably won't be paid as well as living in one of the bigger cities, but it will be worth it. It always comes down to job security when selecting a place to live. I elected to live in the Hualapai Mountains east of Kingman. Most spit on Kingman; but the Hualapais (Pine Lake area) is different. It has the same feel as Prescott. In the entire time I've lived up here, I have never seen a cop car nor a reason to need one.

I've found very different types of communities in Arizona. Most of the cityscapes are very unfriendly. We had a condo in Bullhead for years and never knew a single neighbor. As soon as someone got home they went inside and hid. You might save to them on passing at best. Up in the Pine Lake area, it truly feels like a community. Just this weekend, I helped a neighbor with his well. Filled his holding tank from mine since his well wasn't producing enough. His wife cooked lunch and sent home dessert. Helped another neighbor with his Arctic Cat. Everyone has a specialty or the equipment to handle most things. So you barter and trade services or figure they'll help you out later when you're in need. Almost no one even has fences other than for decoration or to keep deer and elk out. We have gates between our neighbors and bridges across the wash.

When I send people pictures of our house, they can't believe it is Arizona. We have 100+ foot Ponderosa pine trees several centuries old in our yard. The price point is very reasonable too. Everyone thinks we're high rollers; but the houses are typically 150k-250k. Very few mobiles. Typically 0.5 - 2.0 acre lots. We have a full on garden in the ground fed by our well. Absolutely zero crime. As for snow, we had one day where we needed chains to get up the mountain this winter. Summers top out at around 86 degrees. Our house has central air, but we never use it other than to test it and run it once in a while. The rest of the time we have the windows open letting the smell of pine trees and choke cherry trees in. Insects are very mild. No Mosquitos or gnats. My daughter was following a butterfly the size of a bat yesterday.

We homeschool my daughter at k12.com. The program is free and they provide everything -- even a computer if you want it. We saw more improvement with it than in Montessori. Taking care of the garden is actually part of her lesson plan.

I recommend you hit up zillow or trulia and scope out some houses in the area. I commute 50 minutes to work. Perhaps make a week trip out of visiting before signing on. Make sure your significant other is on board for such a lifestyle change.

The biggest negative we've found is the internet sucks. Frontier can choke on a big fat cock. Every time I see that buffalo on TV, I spit in its direction.

Oh how I do love Prescott!