Living in Verrado (Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale: income, zoning, custom home)

[DennisJ]

In response to Verrado not being far from the "bad" areas of west Phoenix, Verrado is actually nicely removed from the economically impacted areas of the west valley. There is another master-planned community in the West Valley Estrella Mountain Ranch. Not only is this community 25 miles west of Phoenix, but then also 8 miles south if the I-10.......!

[DennisJ]

I recently went through a community called Estrella.....I really like the lakes there.

[marty13]

Verrado is a quite and very friendly place to live… We love the fact that all our neighbors are our close friends and we have weekends get togethers and several of our neighbors have the keys to our house… I am a little worried about the lower end people coming into to area because the price of homes has dropped. But right now I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

[MotleyCrew]

What are the prices for an entry home in Verrado now? They were on the higher end of the price sheet when we looked. I really like the city square they have.

[RelocateToAZHomes]

Prices in Verrado start at $197,000 for a 1300 sq ft 2 bed 2.5 bath single family home. Although you're for the most part going to be looking at $260,000 to $400,000 for a nice selection of homes. Prices top out at about 2.8 million for an amazing estate. Currently Verrado has 162 homes on the market.

Although that area is very nice and would make a great place to live , it will never be Scottsdale in my opinion. Scottsdale is Scottsdale and has an amazing amount of ammendities including over 200 golf courses, amazing resorts, dining, excellent location to the 101, airport etc. etc.

Good luck on the search!

[RJMay]

I've lived in this community for just over 2 years. I realize this post is concerned about housing prices/investment. I thought I'd share some of my observations as an "insider".

When I first got here, I had my reservations about all of the touting of "community". I was waiting to be handed a cup of complementary Kool-Aid. It turns out, it's all for real. There's an Assembly office that acts as the central hub of Verrado and busts its butt to nurture this feeling of "community". We just had our Founder's Day celebration this weekend where it started with a cocktail party on Friday night. On Saturday, we had a picnic in the park where the locals put on a talent show, sponsored by Main Squeeze, our local smoothie shop. That evening we had 3 bands perform on the village green, where the headliner was Blues Traveler. Previous years, we enjoyed the B-52s and Train. On Sunday we had a community softball tournament followed by a BBQ. That's just one weekend here. There always seems to be something going on here. There are somewhere around 20 social clubs in Verrado. I'm an ADMIN for the Volleyball Club here where we meet twice a week in the evening and manage to fill 2 courts. In my 42 years, I've never been anywhere where I've made so many friends in such a short time. Everyone I know is genuinely nice. I wave at people all the time.

I do have a slight gripe that EVERYTHING I might need isn't here, but Phoenix is just down I-10 where you're bopping along at an easy 65-75 miles per hour. I can be at the airport in probably 30 minutes. We do have small stores here, but that's because commercially only Phase 1 is complete. Phase 2 is in progress where another commercial area will be built near Verrado Way and Thomas Road, near a new fire station. There is a BIG commercial area being graded at Verrado Way, south of I-10, where I've heard Target and Home Depot will be built, to name a few. It also appears that Verrado Way will be run out to Yuma Road. I read here where there was concern about only having 2 ways in and out of the community.....and the downside is what? Why wouldn't you want to live somewhere that has EASY access to everywhere, yet you don't have everyone and their mother driving through your streets? 3 miles west of Verrado Way is Watson Road, where there's been a serious commercial boom just off the highway. As of now, there are major names already in operation like Lowe's, Wal*Mart, Fry's, Cracker Barrel, Office Depot, Wendy's, Pet-Smart, KFC, Wells Fargo, Chase Bank, and many more that I can't list off the top of my head. From what I've heard, Buckeye is going to have 32 new communities, but I doubt any of the others will have the feel or the amenities that Verrado has.

I just wish I could have been here 40 years earlier.

[foma]

We do not live in Verrado but we did attend the founder's celebration last weekend to just "check it out" and I have to say one thing about Verrado that I didn't really like: this sort of elitism feel to the community. The concert honestly just felt like one big marketing ploy by the builders to attract more people.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the area and would love to move there but honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with the people that lived there. I saw some diversity but not really "integrated diversity". The white folks mainly hung out with themselves and the minorities hung out with their people. Plus, what was with blocking off the entire concert area? It almost felt like Verrado says it's a community but they close everybody in with fences for a founders day celebration? Plus, I saw signs posted that said no coolers, no this no that ... a lot of rules (which I guess if you think about it can be a good thing).

Anyway, that was my 2 cents about last weekend. Everybody just seemed kinda snooty but I guess you guys are just proud of your community. We are still considering the community b'c if anything, Verrado is safe and happens to have one of the few decent schools around the west side.

I'm totally not trying to "say anything" about Verrado. It's just my impression from that night.

[Stumblina]

Originally Posted by foma

We do not live in Verrado but we did attend the founder's celebration last weekend to just "check it out" and I have to say one thing about Verrado that I didn't really like: this sort of elitism feel to the community. The concert honestly just felt like one big marketing ploy by the builders to attract more people.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the area and would love to move there but honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with the people that lived there. I saw some diversity but not really "integrated diversity". The white folks mainly hung out with themselves and the minorities hung out with their people. Plus, what was with blocking off the entire concert area? It almost felt like Verrado says it's a community but they close everybody in with fences for a founders day celebration? Plus, I saw signs posted that said no coolers, no this no that ... a lot of rules (which I guess if you think about it can be a good thing).

Anyway, that was my 2 cents about last weekend. Everybody just seemed kinda snooty but I guess you guys are just proud of your community. We are still considering the community b'c if anything, Verrado is safe and happens to have one of the few decent schools around the west side.

I'm totally not trying to "say anything" about Verrado. It's just my impression from that night.

Sometimes first impressions can be wrong. Think about a first impression you got on a particular person and later found out you were totally wrong about that person! I agree that Verrado does have an "upper crust" sort of feel, but then again, the homes there ain't cheap! (although they have come down quite a bit in price). Anyway, I understand you're not "bad mouthing" it. Give it another chance! I too love the area and it is high on my list of places to consider living when I get to AZ (if the prices don't shoot back up!)

[RJMay]

Originally Posted by foma

We do not live in Verrado but we did attend the founder's celebration last weekend to just "check it out" and I have to say one thing about Verrado that I didn't really like: this sort of elitism feel to the community. The concert honestly just felt like one big marketing ploy by the builders to attract more people.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the area and would love to move there but honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with the people that lived there. I saw some diversity but not really "integrated diversity". The white folks mainly hung out with themselves and the minorities hung out with their people. Plus, what was with blocking off the entire concert area? It almost felt like Verrado says it's a community but they close everybody in with fences for a founders day celebration? Plus, I saw signs posted that said no coolers, no this no that ... a lot of rules (which I guess if you think about it can be a good thing).

Anyway, that was my 2 cents about last weekend. Everybody just seemed kinda snooty but I guess you guys are just proud of your community. We are still considering the community b'c if anything, Verrado is safe and happens to have one of the few decent schools around the west side.

I'm totally not trying to "say anything" about Verrado. It's just my impression from that night.

I don't see the segregation you hint toward. For instance, the only time I ever experience a group of "minorities" is when I'm on the volleyball court and a few people are speaking spanish to one another. I feel a little awkward since I only know a few of the curse words, but that's on me for taking 4 years of French instead of Spanish in high school. These are my friends and I don't think of them as my Mexican friends, or black friends, or Philippino friends, or white friends. I don't feel that I'm look upon as someone's "white friend" either.

The fencing off of a free concert? It is a marketing event since the intent is to draw people in. The fences and tickets were to produce an accurate head-count to gauge the success. I got to see Blue's Traveler for free.....why should I care about underlying motives?

No coolers? Well since Basha's is on one of the rear corners of the concert and 2 of their entrances would be off-limits to regular customers, is it not fair to them to restrict items that they sell? I know I went in between bands to buy a root beer. It's not like they marked up the their prices to gouge the concert-goers.

You might be confusing "elitism" with pride in one's community. It is a rare commodity these days, so I can understand the discrepency. I invite you to stop by Walton Park on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening for some volleyball so you can see how loose and genuine and fun our residents can be. There's no "marketing", no fenced off areas, no elitism.....just a bunch of people enjoying the company of others while getting a little exercise. This is just a morsel of what's great about living in Verrado.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by foma

We do not live in Verrado but we did attend the founder's celebration last weekend to just "check it out" and I have to say one thing about Verrado that I didn't really like: this sort of elitism feel to the community. The concert honestly just felt like one big marketing ploy by the builders to attract more people.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the area and would love to move there but honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with the people that lived there. I saw some diversity but not really "integrated diversity". The white folks mainly hung out with themselves and the minorities hung out with their people. Plus, what was with blocking off the entire concert area? It almost felt like Verrado says it's a community but they close everybody in with fences for a founders day celebration? Plus, I saw signs posted that said no coolers, no this no that ... a lot of rules (which I guess if you think about it can be a good thing).

Anyway, that was my 2 cents about last weekend. Everybody just seemed kinda snooty but I guess you guys are just proud of your community. We are still considering the community b'c if anything, Verrado is safe and happens to have one of the few decent schools around the west side.

I'm totally not trying to "say anything" about Verrado. It's just my impression from that night.

sounds like Gilbert........LOL I always thought people were more snooty there compared to Glendale. Some folks are really impressed with their surroundings.