Re: Kalifornia or Arizona
Anyone who thinks that NorCal has lack of desis doesn't know what they are talking about. Forget desis, talk Pakistanis only. Bay Area is full of highly educated, professional and well off Pakistanis, who'd be in your field, i.e. IT. There are families with kids of the same age as your kids. This should be your sweet spot. Not a huge mass of desis you have no wish to hang out with.
Real estate is expensive, no doubt. Traffic can be bad, but is much better than in SoCal, and also techies usually have flexible times, so can beat the rush hour traffic by leaving home late. Commute depends on where you live, and if you are smart, you can end up with a reverse commute and still have great schools for your kids.
All kinds of halaal meat shops, Islamic schools (Sunday or full time) and cultural scene.
Arguably the best climate any where, with mild winters, and mild summers. No snow. Skiing and Nevada is 3 hours away. Beaches are 30 minutes away. Hiking trails less than an hour away.
And the best part is job opportunities, especially for IT professionals. Almost all brand name IT companies have campuses in the Bay Area. Many have head-offices here, including Cisco, Intel, HP, Adobe, Yahoo, Google, EBay, Apple, AMD, Sun, Lucent, Nortel, Novellus, Applied Materials, Altera, KLH etc ... you name it.
I have never been to Arizona, so can't compare, but NorCal is definitely a better place to live than Houston (this according to several families that moved from there).