Jeff,
I've lived here all of my life. It's sort of tough answering an open-ended question like that, but here is a partial attempt. Feel free to ask me any more specific questions that occur to you.
A salary of $33K isn't bad. Lot's of people make it on less.
Phoenix is BIG. At one time is was the sixth largest city in America. It's surrounded by a number of other cities. Acutally, these other cities sort of flow together with Phoenix.
Phoenix is HOT. A few years ago, the temperature got to 122 degrees F. The airliners declined to take off until the temperature subsided. Typically, the high temp in the summer is maybe around 110. On occasion, the winter low temperature gets below freezing.
The roads are all laid out grid-like. North-to-South and East-to-West. More freeways have recently been built. Rush hour traffic can be bad; usually the traffic is not a problem.
People from around here speak English without an accent. They usually do not dress in cowboy hats and boots, or anything like that.
Houses usually cost around $80,000 to $150,000 - something like that. Of course you can spend as much as you want on a top-end home. I bought my older home 9 years ago for $65K. I'm led to understand that the going rate for homes in my neighborhood is now around $90K-110K.
Most of Phoenix is fairly nice. Towards the middle/South of town, and towards the West of town there are some "bad" areas.
Phoenix is pretty gun friendly. It is an open carry state with a "shall issue" CCW law. There are a number of indoor ranges; and you can drive for about an hour to get to areas suitable for shooting out in the desert.
Phoenix is close to the middle of the state. You can reach cool forests, raw deserts, streams, lakes, snow (in the winter), etc. within about a two to three hour drive. In town (or the surrounding towns), there are numerous parks. Some of these are fairly large, with natural-looking grounds which include small mountains and desert plants.
All things considered, I think the Phoenix area is a great place to live.
Best regards,
Chuck
) an e-mail.