Places worth living in the Valley (Phoenix, Scottsdale: hoa fees, cul-de-sac, jobs)

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by 30apples

with young children, I'd imagine you'd want a place in a good school district. Madison #1, at Missouri and 16th St. is a excellent district. The neighborhood just to the east of it, Beverly Park, is a lovely area and quite safe for children. From this area, you are right near the shopping areas along 20th St. and Camelback. The commute to work at Washington and Central would be about 30 minutes or less. Also, in about a year, the train line which goes down Central will be open, and it's only a few minutes from Beverly Park. The established neighborhood of Beverly Park is between 20th St. and 19th st. and just north of Missouri. People who live there area don't spend so much of their time in the car. There are large trees and lots of greenery in the area and small quiet streets- pleasant and safe for children and a great place to take a walk!
Some areas in the valley have not seen the big drop in house values due to their location and/ or landscaping/ construction type. Beverly Park is one of those locations which have held their value. You might like to check it out. good luck wherever you end up.

I know of what you speak of.........the above enclave as well as along Central N of Bethany Home up to the canal S of Sunnyslope is gorgeous

[ptbrennan]

Like Arizona Annie, I disagree with the anti-Laveen and Avondale poster. You can quickly find that I have defended Laveen on many other bulletins, so I'll try not to repeat myself. Just make sure you visit Laveen while house hunting. It takes me 15-20 minutes to reach downtown during rush hour, and I love it here.

Originally Posted by Arizona Annie

I respectfully disagree with biophase. Avondale has a small town feel to it with friendly diverse people. There are good and bad areas just like with any city or town in Arizona whether it be East or West Valley. The West Valley area has grown a lot over the last few years and just about everything is available there. No Nordstrom or AJ's Fine Foods in the area yet but hopefully it will just be a matter of time. Plenty of other shopping opportunities, movie theaters, medical facilities, restaurants of every type and golf courses everywhere. We chose the West Valley over the East Valley to avoid the dust wall every Monsoon.

If you like big developments then you might like Estrella or Verado but if you want some space between you and your neighbors and a yard large enough for your children to play in rather than bringing them to the neighborhood park, then you might be disappointed with those areas. However, they do have their positive points. Personally, we didn't like that both have only one road in and out.

Best of luck to you in your search.

[Great Joy]

Welcome to AZ!

I agree with Ponderosa that Estrella is beautiful. That was one of the master planned communities we looked at when we were house hunting, and we really liked it a lot.

I also think Arrowhead, Scottsdale, and Verrado are nice too. I don't know enough about Ahwatukee, Laveen, Beverly Park, or the specific McCormmick Ranch area of Scottsdale to comment about them.

About Avondale, Litchfield Park, and Palm Valley, I agree there are some nice and beautiful neighborhoods. However, be careful within some of those areas there are superfund sites where there was water contamination. Not all of the areas within Avondale, Litchfield Park, and Palm Valley are included in the superfund sites, but some areas are. We found that out when we were looking at homes there because it was disclosed on the homes' property reports.

Another place worth living in the valley is Vistancia. We love living here. We chose Peoria because of the schools, and we chose Vistancia because it's amazing mountains, miles of paved walk/bike paths, indoor gymnasium, water park with pools, slides, and dancing water fountain, clubhouse, tower, multiple parks, tennis courts, spa, and golf courses, location, and the retail center with restaurants, grocery store, pharmacy, etc. Additional retail and office complexes including a medical center as well as the expansion of the 303 highway are in the future plan for the east side of Vistancia too. We love Vistancia for all those reasons...and now also because of the community. We've made so many wonderful friends here. Everyone cares about one another in the community...so much so that we feel like we're "family". We're a mixture of AZ natives and transplants from around the US. We have friends here from AZ, CA, MI, IL, MS, CO, NV, PA, NY, UT, and FL. Several of our good friends here are from Chicago.

The residents here are very active in the Vistancia community events as well as the schools. We came from a school with lots of parent involvement, so it is great to see a lot of parent volunteers at Vistancia Elementary (K-8) too. Vistancia High School (9-12) is also planned to built here within the next few years. Even though last year was Vistancia Elementary's first year, they did a phenomenal job. A news article in The Peoria Republic reported: "The Peoria Unified School District came out on top of recent AIMS test results, with district passing averages surpassing state averages in every category. Some schools shined in various categories. At Vistancia Elementary, 99 percent of seventh-graders passed the writing test." We were very pleased with Vistancia Elementary last year and are happy so far this year too. The teachers and staff are great, and they have an excellent pre-school program also.

Be aware that some communities claim they are Master Planned Communities; however, they really aren't. Some only have "tot lots" and paths. Some don't have pools, tennis, etc as well as an organized community team that manages and plans resident activities and events. I've met people who live in some of those "other" communities, and they have told me they have a hard time getting to know the people in their neighborhoods. Vistancia residents are well connected because of the community team's newsletter, website, and activities. Due to the community-wide events, our circle of friends has grown fast. There are so many activities to choose from here in Vistancia. For kids, there is tee ball, dance, soccer, tennis, basketball, Kidz Art, family movie nights, parties, and trips to local special events like sport games and Halloween mazes. We even had an event called Winter Wonderland when snow was shipped in for the kids to sled down the hill. For adults, we have men's poker, women's bunko, mom's club, wino's club, walking club, adult basketball, karate, kickboxing, mat pilates, meditation group, mountain biking club, social volleyball, swimming, tennis, golf as well as other events occuring in the next few months such as a photography class, a charity walk, a Habitat for Humanity charity building event, and several festivals.

Have you visited Vistancia yet or have you seen it on the internet? When you see it in person, we know you'll be impressed. We were when we first saw it and still are. Even when our friends came to visit us after we moved, they said, "Wow...you are living in a resort!" It made us realize then that yes, it is like a resort...like being on vacation, except we live here. It has even won multiple awards including Best Master Planned Community of the Year (in all of the US) by the National Home Builders in 2005. Vistancia has many builders and plans to choose from with prices ranging from $169,000 to over $1 million.

I envy you because now is a great time to buy! Best wishes to you in your search!

[Arizona Annie]

Originally Posted by Great Joy

Welcome to AZ!

[font=Arial]Another place worth living in the valley is Vistancia.....

Wow! It sounds perfect!! Is there anything negative about the place? After reading your post, I want to pack up and move tomorrow.

[sablebaby]

Originally Posted by Arizona Annie

Wow! It sounds perfect!! Is there anything negative about the place? After reading your post, I want to pack up and move tomorrow.

Definitely. If you have to commute to downtown phx, forget about it! I heard it was crazy over the Labor Day weekend with traffic up there getting to the lake, but I figured that would happen. It is REALLY out there.

[Great Joy]

Vistancia used to be "out there", but in only a few short years we are no longer "out there" as we used to be due to the rapid growth. Some of my friends here moved from Fletcher Heights, Terramar, Arrowhead, and other places closer to central Phoenix. When they lived in those places, people used to say those other neighborhoods were "out there", but those communities are no longer. Vistancia is quickly losing that "out there" perception too. And, there are subdivisions that are already in the planning and development stages that are further north and west than we are. Besides, take a look at this cool map: http://aznb.com:80/map/map.php There are many subdivisions that are more "out there" or further away from central Phoenix than Vistancia is in areas like Carefree, Cave Creek, Fountain Hills, Apache Junction, Goodyear, Chandler Heights, and Queen Creek. I've met people who commute into Phoenix that live in subdivisions that are not shown on this map that are "really way out there" in Maricopa and Buckeye. And, you should see the new subdivisions in Tucson. Talking about "way out there". Are they ever! You have to drive for miles, and I'm talking lots of miles with nothing in between...just desert...before you reach each new subdivision.

Here are some website links that show the rapid commercial growth in and around Vistancia. In addition, more retail and office complexes including a medical center are in the future plan for the east side of Vistancia too.
Presently occurring development close to Vistancia:
Developers fill Peoria's hot corner
Presently occurring development within Vistancia:
Phoenix Commercial Advisors: Available Property

About commute time, I think it's actually very good here because Phoenix is organized on a grid system so there are many alternative routes even if one road is jammed. From my experience, Atlanta, Charleston, and Chicago are much worse. Ask most people who moved from other large cities (Los Angeles, NYC, etc), and they'll tell you the same thing. For example, it used to take me 1 to 1.5 hours to drive only 17 miles in Atlanta. Here in Phoenix, it only takes about 25-30 minutes to drive 17 miles. From Vistancia, it's a 45-50 minute drive to the airport (35 miles). These commute times in Atlanta and Phoenix are most roads almost anytime of the day, including rush hour and weekends. From what I've experienced there are only a few Phoenix roads that truly have "real slow/stopped" bumper to bumper traffic and those are the highways only when there is an accident, at some of the interchanges, and for certain timeframes during rush hour. I think rush hour here actually flows fairly well compared to the other cities I've driven in. Please know I'm not saying the traffic isn't bad here at times; however, I am saying that you will be able to drive the speed limit a long way from your home before you actually hit bumper to bumper traffic on the 101, I-10, or I-17 if you need to travel on those highways. And, if there is an accident on one of the highways, at least you can get off the highway and travel on one of the side streets to still get to your destination. In some other cities like Atlanta, even all of the side streets are jammed during rush hour so it really is slow/stopped bumper to bumper traffic no matter which road you're on. For Vistancia, several roads including the "303" and Lake Pleasant Road near us here are currently being expanded which will continue to optimize our travel routes and make our commute even better.

The only other negative I can think of is the drop in home prices, but that has happened everywhere. And, besides that is good for home buyers. These are the only negatives I can think of, but I think they're very minor. And, quite a bit of the new commercial development has recently opened and the future plans are quickly becoming a reality. In my opinion, it's definitely worth the drive to live in Vistancia.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by Arizona Annie

Wow! It sounds perfect!! Is there anything negative about the place? After reading your post, I want to pack up and move tomorrow.

Just the drive.

[MotleyCrew]

We also live in Vistancia and at first we did feel that we were a ways out there. Not anymore! We are four minutes up the road from a Super Target/ Home Depot center with many other commercial sites coming even closer now to Vistancia. We can take a golf cart down to our Safeway center that is at the entrance to Vistancia next to the waterfall. Some people feel the need to live right in the middle of the mix, but we are not some of those people. We chose to live out a ways to avoid the city issues. We do have airline pilots that live here in our neighborhood and they have no problem with the commute into the airport. My husband did tire of the drive into Tempe, so I am not saying that the traffic is easy, but he did feel that a drive into Scottsdale would not be a problem. It really depends on what you are looking for. Come and take a look and see if the drive is too much to handle.

[Arizona Annie]

It probably isn't a good fit for the original poster because Nicsnickers mentioned a 45 minute drive to downtown would be o.k. and it looks like the commute would be longer from Vistancia. However, my husband and I are now looking at it. We weren't planning a move but have started looking anyway after reading the positive posts on this thread. We don't mind being out a bit. I'm curious, what are the HOA fees there? I imagine they are pretty high with all the community ammenities.

[Arizona Annie]

Originally Posted by Great Joy

About Avondale, Litchfield Park, and Palm Valley, I agree there are some nice and beautiful neighborhoods. However, be careful within some of those areas there are superfund sites where there was water contamination. Not all of the areas within Avondale, Litchfield Park, and Palm Valley are included in the superfund sites, but some areas are. We found that out when we were looking at homes there because it was disclosed on the homes' property reports.[/font]

Here is the link for Arizona Superfund sites so you can do research if you are so inclined.
Arizona Superfund Sites
Actually, there are a lot of sites in the state. Examples: Avondale shows 1, Litchfield Park shows 3, Scottsdale shows 7, Phoenix shows 100+ (I stopped counting after 100).
Hope this helps.