Convenience of Buckeye (Phoenix, Sun City, Surprise: 2013, foreclosure, houses)

[ARIZONA4SUN777]

Is Buckeye fairly close to central Phoenix via car? I noticed the houses seem cheaper there. Overall, is it a nice town? Thanks

[S. Chris Webb]

"Is Buckeye fairly close to central Phoenix via car?"

Short answer, no. But some parts are really, really, far. Buckeye is huge by area, covering 145 square miles of annexed lands. New subdivisions were built out in the boondocks in the boom around 2002-2004, because this was some of the cheapest land builders could get a hold of. Fast forward to 2009-2010 and these subdivisions almost seemed like ghost towns, as this area was one of the hardest hit by the foreclosure bust, and nobody wanted to buy here because there was plenty of inventory in the more central areas. Now in 2012-2013 prices might be going up and more people buying as there is very little inventory to choose from. Buckeye will still have a long way to go to catch up to the former appreciation. It's a nice, inexpensive place to live, if you don't have to commute to Phoenix. If you want to know how far a particular home is from central phoenix, plug the address into Google Maps and "get directions" to Phoenix.

[LBTRS]

Definitely not "close" to central Phoenix and would not be the ideal place to live if you worked in central phoenix. Goodyear is about as far west as I'd want to be if I worked in central phoenix and that still isn't ideal. There are lots of people that live in Buckeye and commute downtown everyday so it is doable. My best friend lives in Buckeye and works right downtown and his commute is right around 50 minutes.

[Goober13]

Buckeye has primarily been an agricultural community for years with virtually nothing there but cotton fields and a Circle K convenience store. I mean no more than a few thousand people with the closest area for shopping being Litchfield Road in Goodyear.

This changed over the last 8-10 years and now it has a population of about 50,000 people. Traffic can be bumper to bumper during commute times and Interstate 10, the main highway from there needs more lanes west of Goodyear.

I would suggest Laveen for affordable newer homes with a fairly easy commute, which is just south and west of Downtown Phoenix.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Goober13

Buckeye has primarily been an agricultural community for years with virtually nothing there but cotton fields and a Circle K convenience store. I mean no more than a few thousand people with the closest area for shopping being Litchfield Road in Goodyear.

This changed over the last 8-10 years and now it has a population of about 50,000 people. Traffic can be bumper to bumper during commute times and Interstate 10, the main highway from there needs more lanes west of Goodyear.

I would suggest Laveen for affordable newer homes with a fairly easy commute, which is just south and west of Downtown Phoenix.

That is just not true. Buckeye was a true community with a REAL downtown, churches, high school, elementary schools, shops, restaurants including a Sonic, gas and tire, an IGA supermarket welding services etc - LONG before the sprawl swept over it. All that is still there. They built the new stucco-Buckeye up near I10, but old town Buckeye is along MC85 near Miller.

Not only that but I10 has 6 lanes all the way out to Verrado and while it is busy during rush hours it is rarely bumper to bumper anymore by a long shot except on some holiday weekends when everyone is going to Cali.

[Goober13]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

That is just not true. Buckeye was a true community with a REAL downtown, churches, high school, elementary schools, shops, restaurants including a Sonic, gas and tire, an IGA supermarket welding services etc - LONG before the sprawl swept over it. All that is still there. They built the new stucco-Buckeye up near I10, but old town Buckeye is along MC85 near Miller.

Not only that but I10 has 6 lanes all the way out to Verrado and while it is busy during rush hours it is rarely bumper to bumper anymore by a long shot except on some holiday weekends when everyone is going to Cali.

I said VIRTUALLY nothing there. It was a very small agricultural community with explosive growth. It was like many rural towns/villages like you find in the farm country of the Upper Midwest. It lacked enough population to support the bedroom community types of chain stores and restaurants it now has. And I said during COMMUTE times it gets congested, and more lanes could be useful.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Goober13

I said VIRTUALLY nothing there. It was a very small agricultural community with explosive growth. It was like many rural towns/villages like you find in the farm country of the Upper Midwest. It lacked enough population to support the bedroom community types of chain stores and restaurants it now has. And I said during COMMUTE times it gets congested, and more lanes could be useful.

I guess nothing is a relative term. If you are comparing it to the shopalopolis that is the Phoenix metro, then there is virtually nothing. But it compares well to thousands of itty-bitty towns across America including the one I grew up in that was smaller and had a whole lot less than downtown Buckeye has.

[ILikeEveryone]

We checked out the Sun City Festival in Buckeye, and in general, we really liked Buckeye. But it was just too far out for us.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by ILikeEveryone

We checked out the Sun City Festival in Buckeye, and in general, we really liked Buckeye. But it was just too far out for us.

Is Sun City Festival in Buckeye? Seemed closer to Surprise when we looked there but that was 4 years ago so maybe I'm not remembering it correctly.


ETA: Just looked at map and it says Buckeye but it is nowhere near the actually town of Buckeye. The commercial part of Buckeye isn't nearly as "far out" as Sun City Festival is. As I said, Surprise is closer to Sun City Festival then the actual downtown portion of Buckeye.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

Is Sun City Festival in Buckeye? Seemed closer to Surprise when we looked there but that was 4 years ago so maybe I'm not remembering it correctly.

You are correct.