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Hi, I'm Ella Gurfinkel, your host of the AskElla Show and senior loan officer at Fairway Independent Mortgage. On my podcast, I cut through the noise to bring you honest conversations about real estate, mortgages, and financial planning.
I interview industry experts to tackle everything from homebuying basics to complex topics like reverse mortgages, trusts, and market trends. With decades of experience, I'm passionate about dispelling myths and providing clear, actionable advice.
Whether you're buying your first home, refinancing, or planning for retirement, I'm here to help you make informed decisions. Join me for straightforward talk about real estate and beyond!
why I moved to Arizona well first of all let me tell you it was not planned it was in my case a complete fluke what started out as snowbirding or actually in my case it was rainb birding turned into a life-changing decision of actually coming to settle down in Arizona out of the Pacific Northwest let me tell you Arizona is not what people think it's not all about the sunshine which is freaking awesome it's not all about the cacti or the palm trees in the background it is about a opportunity lots of opportunities for that matter and it's about I guess being happy in my case not to mention that Arizona offers lifechanging benefits for people looking to relocate here so I'm going to actually give you a few reasons why you too could consider moving to Arizona and some of those reasons might surprise you are you ready to find out why Arizona should be your next move let's Dive In [Applause]
hi there I'm Ella gfle senior loan officer at phway independent mortgage at almost 30 years in the industry and over 2,000 fam served and I break down the home ownership financing to my clients to make it fit their situation to make it make sense for them and therefore for you today I want to talk to you about why Arizona could be the next chapter in your life just like like it has become the next chapter in my life after d near 35 years in the Pacific Northwest so I never actually dreamed or even thought of leaving the Pacific Northwest that just kind of happened I just happened to stumble into Arizona in 2022 uh when I came here with my husband for a conference and fell in love with the sunshine fell in love with the weather fell in love with the friendly people and frankly Co played a very very big role because it was as if we landed on a different planet compared to Oregon at the time by the end of that week that we spent in Arizona we started looking for a home took us about 6 months to find what we were looking for and the idea was that we're just going to spend the winters here stay in Oregon for the summer basically do the whole Snowbird or as we were corrected by the locals Rainbird in our case thing because Oregon snow well lately yes but normally rain so do the whole rain burning thing for a few years and then towards retirement move here all together and frankly you know Phoenix area Scottdale have been really the happy retirement place for so many so that's what we were thinking but little did we know that by the time of the first season we spent we didn't want to go back it was heartbreaking to go back to Oregon and getting back to Oregon immediately into the 50° weather was a shock it was a shock to the system not to mention the happy faces around here in Phoenix in Scottdale the friendly people everybody's from somewhere else striking up conversations with people talking about where they're from why they came here just like us was so different and so heartwarming it left a huge impression probably left the biggest impression in the last few years a ton of people from States like California Oregon Washington even Texas New York the Midwest have been moving down to Arizona and realizing a lot of opportunities here what you don't realize is that this state actually and the Phoenix area specifically are actually really really affordable and that's one of the reasons so many people flock here not just for the weather here are some of the reasons to move to Arizona one of them is affordable housing believe it or not the housing here is actually very much more affordable than that in California Oregon Washington New York or a lot of the big metropolitan areas even though Phoenix is not small by any means it still offers a lot of variety from from vibrant neighborhoods to the quiet suburbs but one of the affordability pieces to real estate here does not hide in its price alone the property taxes are considerably lower than those in Cali Pacific Northwest or States like New York when you look at the total monthly payment you can actually get a really nice home here and pay a lot less for it per month because the property taxes are so much lower another reason to move to Arizona is low taxes so overall the income tax here is only a 2 and 1 12% yes there is a sales tax and there is a very small sales tax on groceries at 1 and a half% but in general between the lower property taxes and between the lower income taxes Arizona offers basically a tax Haven while not entirely taxfree like income tax free like Washington or Florida or Nevada for example still a 2 and 1 12% income tax it's a great place to be whether you're employed a high worth individual or retiree because it's as close as it gets to basically no income tax another reason is almost year round sunshine I mean look at this it's amazingly beautiful right over 300 days a year of this soak up vitamin D spend time Outdoors yes people say it's hot here in the summer yes it does get hot but that's only in the summer the winters though are incredibly mild and there is plenty of outdoor activities with Flag Staff being only 2 hours away the White Mountains a little further out with Rocky Point 2 and 1/ half hours away that's the Mexican side and so many more things to do and frankly 5H hour drive to uh 5 and 1/2 to San Diego 6 to La 4 and 1/2 hours to Vegas come on what is there not to love driving job market in Arizona is yet another reason why you should consider moving here it's extremely business friendly climate creates a great opportunity for anybody who wants to start a business here and with a lot of large companies being attracted to again the business-friendly climate thus creating lots and lots of jobs career opportunities and individual growth if there was another reason why there you have it I've already touched a little on the proximity of a lot of the natural Adventures hikes Etc if you're thinking Grand Canyon of course Arizona the Grand Canyon State but then also you can hike the Campell Back Mountain the McDow mountains and so many more just in the vicinity of Phoenix you don't have to go far to hit up Lake Pleasant and many many many many lakes of Arizona so there's plenty of outdoor activity if that is something that that you're looking for especially during the milder months so there you have it I've given you five amazing reasons why you should consider moving to Arizona just like I did from Sunshine basically year round to outdoor activities to thriving economy and affordable housing and lower taxes come on down make a move but moving isn't as simple as packing up so let's have a conversation about what you're looking in your move and if Arizona is right for you and I'll be more than happy to have that conr with you one onone hit me up and I'll see you on the next one
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