If you’re thinking about moving out west to the one and only Grand Canyon State, you’ll want to do research on what the cost of living is and if it would be wiser to move to one of the neighboring states instead.
Here’s a quick run down on Arizona’s cost of living and how it stacks up against the states around it.
1.) Housing
Arizona housing prices stack up nicely against its neighbors. It’s relatively cheap and just slightly above the national average. Meaning you can find places like the Glendale apartments for great prices compared to apartments in New Mexico and Nevada.
Arizona also offers a wide variety of houses, so if you’re someone looking to fork over a little bit of extra cash for a bigger house, they’re out there. If you’re looking for something a bit more reasonable and cozy, they have that too.
Apartments are also on the cheaper side and in almost every city or town, so you can find some great choices.
2.) Taxes
Arizona’s taxes are relatively low and not something residents of this state have to sweat over too much. Income tax can be from 3.34% to a maximum of 4.5% based on how much you make.
They also have low property taxes, meaning the only tax to look out for is the sales tax. However, even that is only about 1% higher than the neighboring states.
Another great tax benefit of Arizona is that the state does not tax your social security benefits, making it a great place to retire to and spend your time when you’re older!
3.) Food Shopping
In terms of groceries, Arizona falls below the national average, making it one of the cheaper states in the west to go food shopping.
Since Arizona is one of the hottest states in the country, you’ll be buying a lot of frozen and chilled items such as bags of ice, water, and more to help you keep cool. Luckily they’re not overpriced at all!
4.) Safety
Our last category in cost of living is safety. Arizona is actually high in crime rates, beating the national average for crime rate by about 25%, and only some of its neighbors by about 10% This does not apply for all of Arizona however, as most of the crime is committed in the big cities like Phoenix.
Most small towns and suburbs in Arizona are a lot safer than the cities and the towns of surrounding states. The only thing you’ll have to worry about here is the heat, where temperature can soar to around 120 degrees fahrenheit!
Arizona stacks up well against its neighbors in terms of cost of living, and has some great places to move to if you want to live out west at an affordable price!
