Surprise Bisbee Mini-Rally

[UTTransplant]

We spent time in Bisbee on our way east this winter. What a fun place! Not so far from Tucson that you can?t go in for a day of shopping occasionally, but not so small that you can?t get groceries. I loved the hippie vibe too. The weather was amazing to me, being as far south as it was. Elevation sure makes a difference.

 

[Kevin Means]

Remember Arizona has a annual Vehicle License tax (I think it's about 2.9% of "depreciated" value as determined by the state) in addition to Income taxes and Property
taxes.

Yep, and that's a pretty hefty tax. We figure it would cost us about $3100.00 a year more to register our motorhome in Aizona, than in California. However, our state income tax rate here in California is 13.3%. In Arizona it would be 4.54%. Sales tax is about a wash between there and here, but the COL index in San Diego is 177.5, and it's 83.5 in Bisbee. Then there's the cost of fuel, and utility rates (ours are the highest in the country.)

When you factor in all those numbers, we'd save enough (in taxes alone) to pay for the property we're looking at, and a new stick-built home. We wouldn't even have to sell the two homes we own in San Diego. We'd rent them out to people who think California is what it once was. Then there's the traffic, the crowds, the politics... I'll stop there.

Kev

 

[Alpena Jeff]

I thought you were on a diet!

That's a fantastic area. Check out Chiricahua National Monument if you get time.  Great area for birdwatching too in Madera and Ramsay Canyons.

Have fun.

Diet? I don't do diet! I eat whatever I want and can still see my feet...barely!

 

[Gizmo100]

Diet? I don't do diet! I eat whatever I want and can still see my feet...barely!

I thought the rule was see your shoes...That why I always set them on the table next to me.

 

[More-Gas]

Heading back to Michigan from Yuma this year we stopped in Tombstone and Bisbee. Bisbee is a place we could live in its an awesome town. We will be heading back to visit longer.

 

[ArdraF]

Jerry's great aunt went to teacher's college in 1904 in NW Pennsylvania and later graduated with a B.S. from Columbia in New York City.  Her first - and only - job was teaching in Bisbee.  They hired her fresh out of college in 1919 and she retired from there 27 years later.  Irene taught high school history and geometry.  We met two of her former students and they showed us where she lived, the church she attended, and told us all about her.  Can you imagine a young woman growing up in green Pennsylvania and moving to Bisbee?  What a culture shock that must have been.  Her students said they had no running water at home so Irene would take the girls to have lunch at the YWCA where she was living at the time.  They loved going to the YWCA rest room where they could wash their hands in nice warm water.

We have a postcard showing the Lavender Pit Mine when there was still a hill.  Now it's a deep pit.  Jerry's grandmother visited her aunt Irene and was amazed when they told her they were going to tear down the entire mountain.  We found a couple of miners from her era who showed us where the photograph on the postcard was taken.

The Bisbee High School was in Ripley's Believe It or Not.  It's a five-story building situated on a hillside and all five floors have entrances which was unique at the time.

ArdraF

 

[HueyPilotVN]

Yep, and that's a pretty hefty tax. We figure it would cost us about $3100.00 a year more to register our motorhome in Aizona, than in California. However, our state income tax rate here in California is 13.3%. In Arizona it would be 4.54%. Sales tax is about a wash between there and here, but the COL index in San Diego is 177.5, and it's 83.5 in Bisbee. Then there's the cost of fuel, and utility rates (ours are the highest in the country.)

When you factor in all those numbers, we'd save enough (in taxes alone) to pay for the property we're looking at, and a new stick-built home. We wouldn't even have to sell the two homes we own in San Diego. We'd rent them out to people who think California is what it once was. Then there's the traffic, the crowds, the politics... I'll stop there.

Kev

In Arizona like some other states you get one vehicle registration and tax free if you are 100% VA Disabled each year.

Saved me a lot including the sales tax when I bought the DP and I save each year on the renewals.

 

[Alpena Jeff]

Yo! More gas. Where in Michigan?

 

[More-Gas]

Hi Alpena Jeff. we are in Davisburg Mi on Big Lake just out side of Clarkston Mi exit 93 off I 75.