Can You Tell me About Peoria? (Phoenix, Glendale: to rent, low crime, houses)

[martina26]

I am moving to Peoria in a few months. Can anyone give me an honest opinion of the city? I want to know about crime, weather, jobs, the good part of town and the bad part of town. What is the reputation of the city? What is the traffic like? Anything you can tell me will help me out so much as I have never been there. I can't find much on the web about Peoria and want your first-hand accounts.

Thank you!

[MotleyCrew]

I will try to help you with what we do know about Peoria. We have been here for 2 years now and love it more and more. The northern parts of Peoria are my favorites, Thunderbird north. Some of the older neighborhoods are south of that and although not horrible, just worn more and tend to all look a lot alike. Crime is a bit worse the further south you go. Shopping here is decent with the Glendale, Arrowhead Mall right at our border, new shopping coming to the Lake Pleasant/ Happy Valley area as well as the expansion along the 303 loop. We like the 83rd and Bell area with all the restaurants, movie theater, with more coming all the time. Have you found a place to live yet? If you are renting, there is no shortage of homes on the market here to rent as well as to buy. Are you commuting or are you working in Peoria? Traffic can be thick, but not as thick as say, San Francisco traffic, or New York traffic. You just need to slow down a bit and be patient, you will get to where you are going eventually.
Sunrise Mountain High School has proven to be a very good high school. I have not heard many complaints about the elementary schools and we have scored highly on the AIM test recently.
Jobs? Depends on what kind of jobs. You might try the city and check online, Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com. If you work for the courts, then you would be going a distance to the courthouses. Weather is hot until it cools down, we don't know when yet.
If you need help on finding a place to live, just let us know. I will glady offer my humble opinion (Vistancia, Vistancia, Vistancia). Just teasing, there are numerous wonderful neighborhoods to choose from. Hope you enjoy and let us know how you like living here.

[sheena]

Originally Posted by martina26

I am moving to Peoria in a few months. Can anyone give me an honest opinion of the city? I want to know about crime, weather, jobs, the good part of town and the bad part of town. What is the reputation of the city? What is the traffic like? Anything you can tell me will help me out so much as I have never been there. I can't find much on the web about Peoria and want your first-hand accounts.

Thank you!

What part of Peoria? It could be nice or it could be not so nice? Why did you pick Peoria if you haven't visited? (Just curious) I moved to Phoenix and never visited first. We didn't have this forum back in 1988 and we ended up moving to an apt on 27th Ave and Northern We didn't last long there.

[Great Joy]

martina26, welcome soon to Peoria!

General reputation of the city is very good with lots of nice neighborhoods, affordable housing, good shopping, and good city amenities including sport facilities. It's definitely a city with lots of fabulous growth occurring. Here's the city's website link: Welcome to the City of Peoria, Arizona

Peoria has one of the best school systems in the greater Phoenix area. Some specific schools are better than others.

Overall crime is low; but southern Peoria has some not so nice areas that the city of Peoria is trying to revitalize.

The weather in Peoria is the same as all of the entire Phoenix area; however, we do notice that our temps in northern Peoria are lower (by a few degrees) than most of the rest of Phoenix.

We think traffic here is a breeze. Sure it can get slow at times, but most of the time you can travel the speed limit.

[cdnmumof2]

I too am looking at Peoria. Are there any gated communities in Peoria?

[WantingoutofAz]

Originally Posted by cdnmumof2

I too am looking at Peoria. Are there any gated communities in Peoria?

There are a few gated communities up in Vistancia. It is still Peoria but is very far out. Depending on where you are commuting to, it is a very nice, new masterplanned community. If you are worried about crime, north Peoria is pretty safe. I live in the northern part of Peoria but my neighborhood is not gated and I feel plenty safe.

[Great Joy]

Another development I'm aware of that is gated is a neighborhood called Pleasant Valley, which is also located in north Peoria. We've met two families that live there. One likes it. The other family (relocated from another state) doesn't because they've had difficulty getting to know their neighbors and making friends.

About Vistancia, it consists of 3 sub-communities. Trilogy (55+) and Blackstone (private country club community) are entirely gated. Vistancia Village is about 75% (guessing %) non-gated, but has about 25% gated neighborhoods within this community. We live in Vistancia Village in a non-gated neighborhood. Of all the friends we've made throughout Vistancia Village, everyone we know feels safe whether or not they live in a gated neighborhood. None of us or our friends have had anything bad happen to us here. I think it also has something to do with the residents caring and watching out for each other and our children here. We feel safe because we are safe since northern Peoria is a very low crime area.

So I agree with WantingoutofAz that living in northern Peoria you can live in a gated or non-gated neighborhood and be safe. Best wishes in your search!

[MotleyCrew]

We flew over AZ yesterday and found Vistancia right away. The development is getting closer and closer all the time. Soon we will be in the middle of the mix.

[ZaVaZ]

The cop cars look like something outa the movie iRobot.

[Great Joy]

For those considering Peoria, here's an article that was in yesterday's Peoria Independent newspaper that states many Peoria schools are "excelling":
NewsZap.com

Here are a few direct quotes:
"The profile announcement follows the District’s 2006-07 academic success on the AIMS assessment results, which show district students continue to exceed county and state averages, in some areas by more than 35 percentage points."

"All high schools in the Peoria district are labeled as “highly performing” or “excelling.”"

"Elementary schools in Peoria are exceeding standards as well."