450RRRR

im 46 years old and maybe looking for a change in my life.was thinking of relocateing fom florida west coast to lake havasu city..never even been there...tell me what i should know..im sure there is a good and bad side of town..any work..part owner of a a/c company here..not ready to retire yet.just in general everything i have read is good...want to spend more time on my boat and less time doing everything else..tell me anything...good or bad ..thanks

derrickc

Great place during the summer months for boating. You may be surprised how small it is coming from Florida. Check out riverforums.com

boatcrzy

Like every place else there are good and bad. Gets blazing hot in the summer, like 120+. If you are on the lake it is all good. We spend alot of time their, (have a house), and love it. Maybe because I know I dont have to stay there full time?? I would take a trip and spend some time, you might love it or not.



Dave

vegaskeith

Check out desert storm shoot out in April.

ShadBurke

Summer is great. From April to October specifically. Outside those months, the bllue haired snow birds arrive in serious numbers with their RVs and relax. Not much happening in the off-season. I wouldn't be happy there, but that's just me.

If you are into the "older" crowd, depends briefs, eating dinner at 4pm, and going to walmart as an official outing for the day, then during the winter, this might be the just the place for you.......

Havasu summers aren't like they once were. Adult movies being filmed on the lake with anybody filling in as an "extra", laxed clothing rules, MTV, etc. etc. .......

O well, life moves on I guess. )

)

PokerRun388

everyone has given you great info.... Its the low desert, so very hot summers, and cold/chilly evenings in the winter... never snows, rarely rains and is a very small town in the middle of the desert.... nearest major airport is Vegas,, so anyone visiting you from FL will have to fly into Las Vegas,, and drive 2hrs to Havasu.. so that sucks.... Houses are cheap their now,, some 60 to 70 boat deep garages etc.....My parents live their and I'll be there next week.. 60s day and low 40s at nite.... summers 110 to 115 from mid june to early sept... 80s at nite...way way different boating from anything you'll see in FL .boats are alot smaller,,.. its a quiet,, small community if thats what your looking for....weekends in the summer months the towns very crowded with Cali ppl, however during the week its very quiet.......

You should fly in Las Vegas,, rent a car and come visit for Desert Storm Poker Run april 27/30 and look around....

two communities you can google are very nice,, 1 is gated and my parents live there.... here they are...

Canterbury Estates, Lake Havasu
LakeSide Estates, Lake Havasu

Also if your just looking for a 2nd home and want to visit but still live in FL check these mobil homes out,,,

Islander RV Resort, Lake Havasu City, AZ
(they have a private launch ramp) very clean, very nice...

Keep us Posted!!

thisistank

All good advise.

Why are you looking to leave Sarasota? And what are you expectations of Havasu? What type of boating do you do? Long distance, party float, destination boating, etc?

Being in the AC business, you'll be good to go with work out there I would think. Other than that, there's not much "industry" to speak of out there.

Having spent a LOT of time in Havasu and some time in Sarasota and Ft. Myers, I'd say you would not like Havasu. Completely different worlds. Havasu is very small. It's super crazy packed all summer with tourists and it's actually pretty packed in the winter with the "snow birds". You're used to the heat in Fl. so I don't know if the 120 dry desert heat of July/Aug would bother you so much.

As others have said, Desert Storm is the premier event of Havasu and you will definately have a great time, but if you truely want to see the city, come in May - Sept/Oct. Desert Storm isn't really a true depiction of the city/lake.

450RRRR

thanks eveyone for the info...
as far as dealling with the blue hairs ..well i do it everyday here in sarasota.i normally working on long boat key...nothing but retiries..
temp wise 115 cant be much worse than our 95 with 95% humidity.
one said smaller boats..i just have a 27 donzi..cant think that would be a problem..do i need mufflers
how do people use the lake ..to boat or to float....are there places to open them up...really how big is this lake
i have been in this area for almost 25 years....just looking for a change...dont want to have to worry about a hurricane blowing my house down or flooding it out..or not being able to get insurance.....ect...ect....
i m from a small indiana farm town...i would nt mind being back in that small town feel...i just dont want to go to indiana to get it,looking at population stats from the last census.well it looked very good place to be

any twisting roads to take the bike on

thisistank

Ha! Well, I stand corrected! I figured the blue hairs wouldn't bother you being from Sarasota and the heat wont kill you being used to some brutal summers there.

And no, you don't have to worry about flooding (for the most part, there's tsunami's every once in a while but rarely do any real damage) and of course no hurricanes.

The lake is something like 30 miles long with out going into the river. There's all sorts of styles of boating you can do. On any "non crazy weekend" (holidays/poker runs) you can find coves to wake board, tube, you can find people rafted up partying in various parts of the lake or chillin in the channel, you can go explore the upper river which you can actually get to Laughlin by (but it gets dicey with sand bars after Topac).

It actually sounds like Havasu might have what you're looking for. Not to mention as Pokerrun388 pointed out, the housing market is pretty good there right now (for buyers). I definately recommend coming out for Desert Storm but also coming out on a regular summer weekend.

Good luck, keep us posted.

STV_Keith

The big thing for you, not ready to retire, is that the job market there sucks. I love vacationing there as much as possible on the weekends with my short 2.5hr drive from Vegas, but I couldn't live there. No decent paying jobs there unless your in the medical field or something, and even then it's iffy.