By Jennifer Lewington | Special to The Globe and Mail
This is part of a series of stories on retirement and second home destinations in North America.
With retirement only a few years off, Ontario residents Paul and Karen Sullivan weighed the merits of a possible winter getaway property south of the border.
They had their eye on Arizona – but not right away – for its absence of hurricanes, no extra taxes for out-of state buyers, warm, sunny winters and low-maintenance properties without lawns.
They paid cash for a three-bedroom house that looks out on a golf course in an upscale gated community in Anthem, 35 minutes north of Phoenix. The five-year-old home sold for $399,000 before the 2007 financial crash, but the Sullivans got it for $269,000.
