[mcuozzo]

Hey Jamie,

I lived in phoenix for two years so I'll answer what i can. I lived\now live in Northern NJ\NYC so that's what I'm comparing it to.

Its hot, but a very very dry hot. Kinda like an oven. Seriously, I would take the heat in phoenix over the humdity back here in NJ any day. It's only really hot in the summer months. Even then its not bad in the shade and at night. From Oct through May the weather is perfect. When I lived there we went for about 150 days without rain. Great weather for car guys. You litterally never had to plan when you could wash your car!!!

There aren't that many old neighborhoods. The best would be old town/south scottsdale. Tempe has some older neighborhoods, but they aren't as nice as scottsdale. Plus with ASU there everything is kind of college oriented. I think Paradise Valley might fit the bill as well. All the other areas are newer, with a majority being very new developments. You might want to consider a newer house. They are much more energy efficient. I'd say you should concentrate on looking in areas north to north east of the airport/tempe not to the south or south east. The Glendale area (to the northwest) is a nice area as well but a little far for your commuting\biking prefereneces.

If you work between the airport and ASU it would be no problem to bike to scottsdale. Traffic might be backed up during the normal rush hour, but other than that time, there is no traffic. A 20 mile radius from ASU/the airport gives you a pretty big area to choose from. And if by anychance you work a time other than 9 to 5, you can live anywhere in the valley. There is no traffic off hours. I lived in Avondale (a western suburb) and worked in Mesa (an eastern suburb). On days when I worked late or early the commute was 30 minutes tops. In NYC it could take you 30 minutes to go a block. Literally.

Track time shouldn't be a worry. There is PIR and Firebird. The PCA is pretty active and when I was there a group of 993 owners was pretty active for monthly rides up to Payson and the like. There are plenty of great roads. All the major highways are smooth as silk. Paved with new rubberized compounds. Eerily quiet. For the twisties you have the rides out to Payson in the Northeast, Prescott and Jerome in the Northwest, Sedona and Flagstaff to the North and Globe to the southeast. Plus you can ride to the Grand Canyon, the Hoover damn\Lake Mead, the beach in Mexico, heck LA, Vegas and San Diego are only 6 hours away!!! I almost forgot, there is south mountain park in, oddly enough, south phoenix. Nice quick fun ride you can do on any day to unwind.

If you want a trip that has everything, take a ride to wickenburg, prescott, jerome than sedona and finish up with the highway back into Phoenix. Awesome ride. Pretty long for one day, but it can (and has) been done.

Plenty of car shows out there as well. Best thing is they never have a rain date.

Can't say much about the economy. It was OK when I was there (05-06) but even then housing was CHEAP (I live in NJ\NYC so that's all relative). I rented a 2200 sq ft house with 3 car garage for $900 bucks a month.

If you go there again or move there - you must eat at The Salty Senorita (in scottsdale, not mesa), The Capital Grill (in scottsdale), The Bamboo club (In the Biltmore section) and Pappdeux's Seafood Kitchen (on 17 norht in Pheonix). You might have Pappadeux's in TX so you can forget that one.

You mentioned you have kids so I'll keep my recommendations to those places although they are not that kid friendly. My other recommendations would not be kid nor wife friendly ;-).

That being said when my nephews came out we had a blast, went to both zoos, a water\amusment park (on rt 17) and saw an air show. I'm sure there is more for kids to do but they were only out for a long weekend. Oh yeah, if you haven't already, try ballooning. A friend came out and we had a blast.

I really liked Phoenix, but had to move home for healt\family issues. I'd love to move there again.

Two other things - First, the lack of diversity, peolpe wise seemed weird to me coming from NY. When I stand in line in a Deli in NYC, if there are 10 people in line, no one can understand each other. So it turns out everyone tries to work together. In Phoenix, the same line would have 6 people speaking english, 4 people speaking spanish and the two groups working against each other. Second, the crime rate in Phoenix is higher. Many more guns there than in NYC\NJ. The murder rates is 5 times as high in Phoenix. Never really saw a gun up close till I moved to Phoenix. There they carry them in their glove compartments. Plus gangs seem to be a bigger problem their. In 38 years in NJ\NYC I had my tires slashed\car vandalized once. There it happened twice in two years. Avondale might have more of that crime than the areas I mentioned. I lived in Avondale because it was a convenient commute for me when I first moved there.

Hope that helps in some way. Ask more questions if you got 'em.

Matt