Petsmart-Phoenix Question (Scottsdale, Peoria, Surprise: houses, neighborhoods, construction)

[Dakota85]

I may possilby be coming to work for the Petsmart corp office which I believe is north a bit from downtown phoenix. Our family would be moving there from the south east region of the US.
Are Anthem and Rovey farms nice places to live, good school systems etc. I read allot that traffic to Anthem is horrible, but is it close to the petsmart corp office whose area code is 85027 and Anthem is 85086. Mapquest says its about 13 miles north of petsmart corp office.
While the Rovey Farms zip 85305 shows it to be about 18 mile south west from petsmart corp office by the 101 loop.
Which is a nicer place to live, which is easiest to drive. I have elemtary school age children thus how are the schools in those areas?
Or if everything works out and we do move there are there other nice communitys within 20 miles of their corp office for families with young school age children for houses around the 350K price? My wife and I are oriignally from the north east but have been in the south east the past ten yrs, sick of hurricanes.
Any feedback provided would be greatly appreciated by our family.
As well is there anything else we should know?
Also how bad is this valley fever thing I reda bout, we have a 3 yr old lab as well which concerns me beside the health of my children.
Thanks

[sablebaby]

I live just about 3 miles from the Petsmart corp office. Anthem would be a nice place to live, but yes the traffic is an issue. I'd chose that over Surprise ANY day, as the traffic in Surprise is just as bad, but much further out.

However, if you're coming out to visit to check out areas, please put north glendale, especially the Arrowhead Ranch area. That would be the zip 85308, 85310. It would be a CINCH of a commute, just a few miles on the 101, plus it's one of the best communities in the valley, imo, of course. You could also check out the neighboring north Peoria area as well, that's just another couple of miles away along the 101. Zip 85382. That's a nice place to live as well. With both of these areas you'd be within 5-10 miles away from work and in very nice communities. I also hear the schools in these areas are good.

[Dakota85]

Thanks so much, my wife and i greatly appreciate the info

[sablebaby]

No problem! If you take the job at Petsmart, you will find yourself in a really nice area to work. TONS of shopping all around, lots of freeways to get around, and really safe place to walk around. It's a much better place to work than say, downtown, plus an easier place to commute to.

Also, another place that's BOOMING big time is at I-17 and Happy Valley rd, on the east side of the freeway. There's tons of newer homes that were built in the last year and more being built. Lots of shopping there, but more is being built right now. Lots of commercial buildings being built. I live just a mile on the other side of the freeway and feel that this will be one happening place in the near future (and highly sought after). I just moved to this house Feb of last year and everything has happened since then. Check "Norterra" as the main area subdivision and zip 85085. My area on the other side is the 85310 zip.

If you need or want anymore ideas of places to live, let me know, I have more. It's a great area overall!

[Dakota85]

Thanks again, really appreciate the info. I am printing it all out, checking it out on realtor.com etc. I have a third interivew with them this week, a video conf call so we will see what happens, but at least I will have some info that may help make a desc down the road . If we come out then we will have areas to check out thanks to your help. Thanks again.

[jlhct]

Originally Posted by Dakota85

Thanks again, really appreciate the info. I am printing it all out, checking it out on realtor.com etc. I have a third interivew with them this week, a video conf call so we will see what happens, but at least I will have some info that may help make a desc down the road . If we come out then we will have areas to check out thanks to your help. Thanks again.

I also live very close to the area where Petsmart is, and there are decent houses all over that area. The area is also pretty cool because it's central to a lot of places (about 10-15mins to Scottsdale, about 20-30 mins to the airport)

[JMX]

Anthem is a family-friendly community from what I've been told. It's worth checking out.

The traffic on I-17 is bad a lot of the time because it's only two lanes in each direction north of the 101. There are plans to widen it, but who knows when that will be done. And now they've started building two new interchanges between Happy Valley Rd. and Carefree Hwy, so that construction makes the traffic worse. And when those interchanges are finished they will probably just dump more traffic on I-17. So it's going to get worse before it gets better. But if you chose the Norterra or Tramonto neighborhoods, you could avoid I-17 by using Norterra Pkwy (a.k.a. North Valley Pkwy.)

Another thing to keep in mind is that the heaviest commuting traffic on the 101 is going eastbound in the morning and westbound in the evening. So you could make your commute easier if you lived east of Petsmart (such as zip codes 85024, 85050, 85032, etc.)

Good luck with the interview!