Come to Phoenix it's open for activities and it's cheap

I lived in Scottsdale for 4 years. Beautiful area. Lots of money there...

Hello there, as someone who was born and raised in AZ and has spent almost 2 decades in the Valley (Phoenix area), I can tell you a thing or two about the area.

 When it comes to living arrangements, it depends whether you’d like a commute or not.  You can find hundreds of apartments and townhomes near Central PHX, while the newer lofts, condos, and flats are being built in Downtown, Midtown and Uptown PHX. There are several low-cost homes ($150K-$300 and rental homes ($700-$1,500/month) with pools on the outskirts of town (Peoria, Avondale, Glendale to the West -- Anthem, New River to the North -- Gilbert, Mesa, San Tan Valley to the East – Maricopa city to the South) which causes tens of thousands of people to commute 10-35 miles to Phoenix, Tempe, Chandler or Scottsdale for work. 

 There are always pockets of crime, but the funny thing about Phoenix is, you can have a million-dollar home 1 mile away from a $200K home. Often enough, you don’t look for specific cities, but for neighborhood names within those areas. For instance, Arcadia, Anthem, Garfield, Biltmore, Coronado, and Ahwatukee are all neighborhoods in Phoenix but have distinctly different restaurants, homes and area amenities.

 As for nightlife, it depends on the crowd and age you are looking for. Arizona State University is home to over 80K students between the 4 campuses, but over 55K of them are in Tempe near Mill Avenue. As for Downtown Phoenix, it is home to the Suns arena and Diamondbacks ballpark, so game nights and weekends are usually the best nights to be downtown.  West Phoenix (Glendale) houses the Cardinals Stadium and Coyotes Arena, so Westgate (the multiuse complex) is great on game days and weekends.  As for Scottsdale, the area of Old Town has 2 to 3 sides, as one area of Old Town has smaller versions of Vegas/San Diego/Los Angeles clubs with prices to match. While the other 2 sides have older dive bars, country bars and karaoke with much cheaper drink prices. 

 For concerts, music and the arts, Phoenix is usually a stop for most major tours for musicians. On any given night, there could be 20-30 concerts around the Valley from famous A-List musicians to fan favorites from the 50’s-80’s at some of our local casinos. Yes casinos, the Valley has 5 casinos off major freeways, with another 3-4 casinos scattered 20-50 miles away from Phoenix. We have art museums, science museums, symphony hall and a children’s museum (like other major cities). We are currently the only North American stop for the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Art Collection World Tour. We also host the yearly World-Famous Barrett-Jackson car show.

 When it comes to sports, Phoenix is one of the only American cities with all Major Sports Teams: NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL as well as the Multi WNBA and Arena Football (AFL) championship teams. We also have a growing Professional Men’s Soccer club.  There are only 2 states that have the MLB Spring Training (Arizona and Florida). However, all 15 teams play in Maricopa County (compared to all over Florida). We just hosted the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship (Final Four). In the last few years, we hosted the Super Bowl (twice), NFL Pro Bowl, NBA All-Star Game, MLB All-Star Game as well as the yearly largest show on grass: PGA Phoenix Open. The Waste Management Phoenix Opens has around 200K people visiting the golf course each day for a 4-5 day period. 
 
 I could go on and on about Arizona, including the cities, lakes, rivers, mountains, hiking trails, the food, but I wouldn’t do it justice… there are too many good things to mention.

• Chef