It's no secret that Californians are bailing out of the state in droves, and a lot of them end up here in Prescott. In this episode, we explore what makes why Prescott so popular with these emigres.Video Transcript
hello hello and hello and hello hello again this is Diana Randall bro here coming to you from Prescott Arizona we are excited today to talk to you a little bit about why do most Californians come here yeah yeah we get a fair number of California probably the Lion’s Share of people coming in are from California because it’s close a lot of people are starting to find out about Prescott and people ask why are The Californians coming here but it’s attracting them what is attractive and they’re not from California but you’re thinking yeah you you might uh you you’ll hear some things that will sound similar to you so we thought we would take the time and document exactly what we’re hearing so what we hear a lot about and it’s kind of sad sometimes people are in the car lifelong Californians born and bred um kind of have a little catch in their throat a couple little tears maybe and they talk about you know why they feel like they have to leave they don’t want to but the cost of living there has just been become so prohibitive for them they are very concerned that they have a huge Nest Egg but predicting out and projecting out they might run out of money yeah and what we’re hearing too is it’s getting worse not better in particular taxes uh the they can never get enough taxes right uh the government is taking on things that will cost more money they’re not looking to save money so it’s you know they’re saying that’s going to get a lot worse before it gets any better and every time they think okay that’s it I mean I think this is it now I think I think they’ve taxed where they could they come up with something else new overnight and so people are really struggling to keep abreast of these cost increases especially as a retired person and it would be different if you’re getting a lot for the taxes that you’re paying but based on what they’re saying what they’re saying you know the the highways have fallen apart you know you hit potholes in the middle of the interstate uh the fire safety fire safety cup with prescribed Burns Law Enforcement has been cut way back so there are places now that uh you know don’t feel safe anymore uh so sort of the tax value proposition and and again you know particularly if you’re retiring uh you know you’ve got a short window and most people think that it’s going to get worse before it gets better and it won’t get better on our watch so to speak you reach a certain age it’s it’s it needs to be fixed and I I don’t know about you but I think if I’m spending so much on taxes I want to be living in Nirvana it should be like an amazing town and City and and no potholes and this is just the pressure Crusher Humanity yeah too so you know traffic air pollution air pollution and all these things our daughter travels a month an hour to work and an hour back and it’s it’s hard yeah it’s tough so that’s why they’re leaving okay so uh since some of them are coming here that would imply that we don’t have those things and we don’t uh but uh there are other places around that you can go to that won’t have those things and so you could improve your life um so we’re not going to bother going through saying you know our taxes are low we’ve said that elsewhere yeah I think what we should focus on is why do they pick specifically Prescott to go to as opposed to some of the other places that they’ve considered and the biggest thing is it is so close to California so if you’ve still got family and grandkids but you’re trying to protect your nest egg and you come here it’s a six hour drive to Los Angeles six hour drive to San Diego we now have daily flights from our local Regional Airport here in Prescott right into LAX 50-minute flight so as well as Denver yeah um so that is very helpful it’s it’s great to be close enough frankly that’s why we came here to be closer to our daughters um we weren’t ready to go into a big city like L.A we just we couldn’t do it um the other thing people love the close proximity I mean it’s just great for holidays easy for kids to come see you get out and get back home and vice versa the other thing is weather here yeah other places that are close uh but most of them are like a desert right it’s uh you know you feel like a camel or Idaho is a big one severe Winters yeah so we don’t have severe Summers or severe Winters here the weather here is beautiful we have four seasons arguably five seasons including the monsoon season but they’re all beautiful they’re all wonderful uh there’s no time in the year where you you will feel you absolutely have to get out uh and you’re stuck in your home every day that doesn’t happen 120 does not happen here a hundred rarely happens yes uh in the winter we don’t have piles and piles of snow that don’t melt off it’s just enough to be beautiful and enjoy and then it’s gone so weather’s huge here especially if you’re a fan of four true Seasons yeah our town has it yeah it’s beautiful here second thing yeah beautiful it’s beautiful surrounded by mountains and and different sections of Prescott you either have the rocks or there you have beautiful trees then you might have um the the Dells yeah it goes on and on yeah it’s absolutely you go into the grocery store and you’re seeing the Dills at your view as you’re driving to the grocery store yeah because that’s hard you know California we get California’s beautiful you can see it you know but there are sections of of California that are just gorgeous yeah I get that so you don’t want to go someplace ugly um we’re not ugly but it’s beautiful yeah the other thing is we’re just plain fun it’s fun everybody here is is just uh just a lot of fun uh Whiskey Row we have a lot of culture here we have a lot of theater we have a lot of music huge music scene yeah huge dancing scene and um art galleries it goes on and on and on there’s always something going on here and it’s fun stuff for people of a certain age so like we visit our kids in Los Angeles there are lots of really fun things for young people to do that we wouldn’t be interested in doing when we describe fun we’re describing the kinds of things that people our age would like to teach for the old folks a lot of retiring yeah yeah if you want to golf you want to enjoy a good life you want to go have a good meal you want to go see some good music yeah uh this is the town for you yeah you might not find a rave you know I don’t know what two young people do now I don’t know yeah it’s not that kind of thing it is fun it’s the kind of thing that retired people really enjoy it’s a good time lots of things to do don’t think oh it’s a little town there won’t be much to do there’s a lot to do here it’s a very besides all the the physical riding bikes hiking uh you know as I said golfing I mean we even have indoor pickleball courts now at the shopping center so you can play year round yeah yeah and it goes on and on and on yeah so if you look in our our Channel we’ve got you know just tons of videos about living here and you’ll see all kinds of fun things that we do and we’re working yeah my friends are retired they they they’re really hard they ride their Jeeps they go up in the Rocks yeah yeah they had the time of their lives maybe one day we will too but we’ll see but in the meantime we live vicariously our retired friends that’s right and we just love the town and and we do a lot of the music scenes so yeah anyway so that’s our little tip of why what is driving people out of you know maybe California and it’s what is attracting them to come here and obviously cost of living gasoline everything everything Insurance remarkably taxes remarkably less I mean stunningly less than some of these places you’re looking to get out of California particularly if you retiring looking to get out of California you need to come check out Prescott it’s so close and so easy to get here if you’re thinking about Idaho or Texas or Florida Halfway Around the Globe you know just drive a few hours or hop on a plane come here first come here and at least check it out because you’ll be pleasantly pleasantly surprised as we were the weekend so that’s our little tip for the day so we hope you’re having a wonderful day out there and and hope to hear from you soon bye
