thinking of moving to coolidge (Phoenix, Mesa: foreclosures, rentals, HOA)

[babypeanuts]

My husband, six children and I are planning on moving to arizona in september and cant decide on a town. Looking for something not too far from Phoenix area. He is looking into a law enforcement job there. Need good schools for the kids from elementary to high school. Small town preferred. Also affordable rentals. Tempe is too expensive. Any advice is appreciated.

[observer53]

Why are you considering Coolidge? It's not a place I would pick. I don't have much current info about it, but the schools aren't that great. I'm sure you could find something cheap to rent.

You want a "small town" not far from the Phx area, but you were considering Tempe (which is not that small) but for the cost???

[drb85650]

It'd be easy to assume he is looking into Depart of Corrections perhaps? The proximity of Coolidge to Florence and the prison complex and all.........
I'd certainly visit first. Haven't been there in years, but as I recall it was a decent little place. Just sort of "out there" on its own. Florence has little to offer, no shopping. However the south end of Queen Creek is less than 10 minutes away....Wally world, Frys etc......
Has he secured a position? Most places are under hiring freezes, DOC is not.

[altus2006]

If you search Coolidge in this forum you will find a lot of info on it. What I remember most are people complaining about the gangs in the schools and most did not recommend living there.

altus2006

[amatrine]

I would also live in Queen creek and drive to Coolidge to work, not live there.
Its an old town, and pretty run down. Lot of violence there. The nicer homes get broken into a lot.
My brother lives in QC, and works in the prison in Florence and it is a 20 min. dr. To Coolidge is a half hour drive from there. Not that bad, and not a lot of traffic out there.

[lostnaz007]

I live on the Florence/queen creek border and i work in coolidge. I love it here. My kids go to the Anthem scool and it is great. The class sizes are small and they get the attention they need. We have lived here for 2 years and we have never had any problems. Even with all the stuff you hear about coolidge i have never witnessed any of it. But I still would choose Queen Creek over coolidge.

[rx2man]

I live in Coolidge and wish I did not, in fact am short selling the house right now. If it does not sell I am walking. Bought in June of 07 for 160K, is now worth 60K. With the drop in prices all the loosers from the other side of town moved to what should have been the nice part of town. Now the new area is bad as well. With all the foreclosures the HOA does not have any money to clean up the graphitti or keep up the landscaping. My next door neighbors house was broke into by the neighbor 2 houses away. Buying the house here was one of the poorer decisions I have made. I would head over to the Queen Creek area as well if working in Florence.

[coolmom]

Our family of six children moved from the Queen Creek area to Coolidge about 3 1/2 years ago.

Overall, I enjoy living here. Everytime I go "into town" like Tempe, Gilbert, Chandler I feel a little claustorphobic (sp?). My husband works in Mesa, I feel a little sorry for him.

As far as schools go, I guess I would say it's been more positive than negative and now there is a charter school, Imagine in Coolidge (you can google it), that gives us options out here. Four of my children attended this year and I've really liked it. Next year Imagine will be a K-8 campus.

The High School concerns me, but they do offer classes at Central Arizona Community College (here in Coolidge) and the High School also has a CAVIT campus that teaches vocational classes. If it's any consolation, I don't believe that Coolidge High completely warrants the reputation it has.

Coolidge has been hard hit by the mortgage mess, but this town has been around for decades so I'm sure that it will survive the housing crisis also. Some parts of the community seemed a little scary when I first moved out here, but there are so many ways that you get to know everyone from the community, you find out it's really not so bad.

I guess I'm saying that most people that came here to stay for a year and flip a house hate it. It's true that the HOA's aren't able to keep up with all of the maintenance, but I'm thinking that will work itself out.
Those of us that came with the intent to live here sort of like it. It has pros and cons but I wouldn't rule Coolidge out.

PS. My first house was in Mesa, my husband was raised in Mesa.

[hatinazmisncali]

I am from California, so to me nothing compares.we moved to Coolidge about 2years ago. We made the BIG mistake of buying a house there, now we are stuck!!! Coolidge is not the worst place on earth, if your renting it's ok, b/c you can always pack up and move as soon as you get tired of the small town living. I don’t recommend anyone buy here, the town is old and I don’t see any upgrades coming along soon. On the flipside, my husband’s friend just rented a brand new house in Coolidge for around $700 or so. As far as the schools go, that too is not a good thing. I am almost embarrassed my daughters are Graduating from there. But we are stuck and can’t change that. GOOD LUCK ON YOUR MOVE

Originally Posted by babypeanuts

My husband, six children and I are planning on moving to arizona in september and cant decide on a town. Looking for something not too far from Phoenix area. He is looking into a law enforcement job there. Need good schools for the kids from elementary to high school. Small town preferred. Also affordable rentals. Tempe is too expensive. Any advice is appreciated.

[hatinazmisncali]

I agree with you. not only did we make the mistake of moving to Coolidge, but we bought a house that seems like it was made by blind man. We have "sewer" but have had backup in our bathrooms so many times its ridiculous..i went to the city to make sure the house should be lived in, and they even admited there was no final inspection done on the house...So we dont even know if we should be living in it. I am so tired of living here i wish i could just walk away, but unfortunately a family member helped us, so were STUCK!!!!!