Beautiful homes, plentiful job opportunities, lots (and lots!) of sunshine

Life in the Valley of the Sun means you’re the envy of snowbound friends and family

BY PAULA HUBBS COHEN

We work hard. We play hard. But for Valley of the Sun residents, easy-living is our middle name.

Moving in

So who lives here, who buys a home here and why? Thousands of people move to the Phoenix metro area on a regular basis, with many from wintery states and others from countries across the globe. While the reasons are as vast as the variety of lifestyle options found here, a few of the mostmentioned motives for moving here and purchasing a home include:

• A great job opportunity is offered to someone or their spouse/life-partner.

• After moving “back home,” ASU alumni often are able to conduct a successful local job search enabling them to return to the region.

• Quite a few east- and west-coasters have been able to sell their long-time home in a higher-cost state and purchase a home here for cash.

• Tons of not-quite-ready-to-retire folks purchase a part-time residence here so they can “snowbird” in the winter.

• Then there’s the had-it-up-to-here-withsnow retirees who can’t wait to ditch their snow shovel, buy a full-time home here and enjoy never having to salt another sidewalk.

Already here

Some hardy souls are born here (Zonies!), can’t imagine living anywhere else and never leave. For those who have lived here a while (or forever), the siren-song continued on page RE14