Home Search (Phoenix, Glendale, Tempe: sales, apartment complex, for rent)

[afghaniprinzess]

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum.

I am going to be relocating to phoenix from boston early next year. I was wondering if anyone knows what is the best areas to buy a home in currently? I have read that the baseline area has many "ghetto" areas. I was looking into homes in buckeye, gilbert, goodyear, avondale, glendale. However, I dont know about these cities in terms of safety and whether or not it will be a very far drive if i get a job somewhere in phoenix. The thing is me nor my husband have a job out there yet. However, iam a nurse and hes a teacher so i think it will be easier for us to first find an area we like and then search for jobs in that area since phoenix is so big. But we also dont want to be toooo far from phoenix even if we live in the suburbs and have jobs there bc i have family in the phoenix area.

Can anyone give me their opinion of good areas, good hospitals, good school districts..distance of the cities ive listed to downtown phoenix? Also, if anyone knows of builders that have specials going on right now? And any other advice will be great!

[MotleyCrew]

I think teachers are in demand here. You should come and take a little time to see the different areas. There are many of them and they all have different pro's and con's. Some are hilly, but further away from the city core, some are a little farmy/flatter and are still further away. The closer into the city you go, the more expensive the homes become and the neighborhoods more diverse. Glendale (north) is very nice, parts of Goodyear have some great new developments and Estrella Mt. is one, Buckeye has Verrado, Peoria has Vistancia, West Wing, Sonoran Mt. Ranch, Gilbert has many positive posts here from the people who live there. Do you need a large variety of shopping near your home? Go to the City by City post at the top and see some of the different discriptions. Best of luck to you.

Here in Vistancia, Shea Homes has some very reasonable fire sales going on right now. There are 9 or so different builders here and I believe they are all having "end of the year" sales. Trend has a very nice town home community here as well and the homes start around $169,000. The resales are tempting as well.
Schools in Peoria have made the "excelling" list and this is the reason we have moved here. The new elementary school in Vistancia also received very high marks for its first year.
The drawback is that you will be in traffic and it can take 1 to 1.5 hours to drive into Phoenix and as little as 45 min with little traffic. Gilbert may be the closest choice as far as drives go. I do not know about the schools there, but the others will probably be filling in the blanks. Good luck to you.

[Nice Nice Baby!]

Teachers and nurses are in such high demand, you could be working anywhere! Then you don't know much about the area and want to find out about it on here, but Phoenix is WAY too large of an area to describe on this post. To be simple, there are bad areas but many nice areas to live, and affordability is an issue. If you go out further and have a longer commute, you can have a nice place for less $. You can also spend the same amount of $$ for rent in a high end neighborhood apartment complex in Phoenix instead of buying. Get out here during your cold and dreary winter to figure it out!

[TheSchultz33]

Check out Casa Grande, AZ - 39% population growth since 2000. Cheaper housing than Phoenix and they NEED nurses and teachers! Lots of new housing devlopments. Not sophisticated as Boston - but hey - no snow! Good luck.

[ILoveAZ]

I'll suggest Gilbert. Most areas are nice and it's a great family community. I just read an article that said almost every Gilbert district school scored Excelling (the top rank) and the Higley district (which is also in Gilbert) have all scored Highly Preforming except Higley elementary which scored Preforming Plus. Here's the ranking in order because I just confused myself even, LOL.

Excelling
Highly Performing
Performing Plus
Performing
Underperforming
Failing

We have 3 new hospitals, 2 in Gilbert and the other one is in Gilbert or just outside. Also, lots of Dr's offices near just about any housing development.

[Great Joy]

afghaniprinzess, welcome to the forum and soon to Phoenix!

I agree with Nice Nice Baby that teachers and nurses are in high demand all around Phoenix. With your careers, I would focus on buying a home in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Phoenix because the outskirts tend to be safer and have nicer and more affordable housing. Due to the development surrounding Phoenix, you can also work where you live.

For example, Vistancia, northern Peoria, (where we live) is only currently 15-20 minutes from two different big hospitals. A new large regional hospital is planned to be built on the east side of Vistancia too. We have great schools also. 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 are very happy with this school and its administration. I know our high school has great ratings too.

Here's a link to a thread that contains more info about Vistancia as well as other great areas around Phoenix to consider: Places worth living in the Valley

Best wishes to you in your search!

[FunkyPioneer]

LOL, the reason the teachers are in high demand is because they are poorly paid and the school systems are a mess there. Look in to teaching private school, your regret public.

[Great Joy]

Originally Posted by FunkyPioneer

LOL, the reason the teachers are in high demand is because they are poorly paid and the school systems are a mess there. Look in to teaching private school, your regret public.

You began with "LOL". You're making a joke and laughing, right? I think the reason why teachers are in high demand in AZ is due to the population growth rate. At least, I know that the real reason Peoria needs more teachers because there are lot of people moving here.

[exlexisnexis]

I love Arizona and am from Boston but you will probably visit downtown Phoenix once in a blue moon. Boston has a downtown area packed full of everything under the sun,Arizona is very different downtown Phoenix is extremely small with very little in the way of entertainment.
I would not buy a home based on its proximity to downtown Phoenix unless you are considering future appreciation.
I think you might consider Tempe near ASU as that has a faint echo of the Boston downtown lifestyle.
I think you will like it here, it is like living in Florida(without humidity)but having Vermont 2hours away.

[FunkyPioneer]

Originally Posted by Great Joy

You began with "LOL". You're making a joke and laughing, right? I think the reason why teachers are in high demand in AZ is due to the population growth rate. At least, I know that the real reason Peoria needs more teachers because there are lot of people moving here.

I start with LOL, because the school system is a joke. I have had many friends take a job and leave in a year because they hated it so much. All I have to say is research very carefully before you accept a position, and look for a private school if you can.