Irish Family moving to Phoenix (Tucson, Scottsdale: real estate, apartments, rentals)

[Smegg]

Hi all,

We are an Irish couple moving to Phoenix for three months in the new year with our young family. We would appreciate some advice on recommended areas to lease an apartment in an area with suitable amenities for a family (crèche, park, café/restaurants) yet commutable to the C.B.D. All advice welcome.

Many thanks, Smegg

[Kimballette]

Many more details needed to provide any useful advice. The Phoenix metro area is over four million people and covers a vast area geographically. Where are you working, or are you attending school? Do you have children? Ages? What's your budget? Will you be driving once you arrive? I think of a crèche as a Nativity scene, so I apologize for not understanding your question there. And what is the "C.B.D.?" Central business district? We don't have one. Businesses are scattered all over the valley.

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by Smegg

Hi all,

We are an Irish couple moving to Phoenix for three months in the new year with our young family. We would appreciate some advice on recommended areas to lease an apartment in an area with suitable amenities for a family (creche, park, café/restaurants) yet commutable to the C.B.D. All advice welcome.

Many thanks, Smegg

People here tend to use the word creche to refer to a nativity scene, typically at or near a church, at Christmas time. I think that you are looking for what we call a day care center.

[Smegg]

Hi Kimballette,
Sorry for the vagueness of my first post. Let me elaborate. Work will be based on North Central Avenue, but will involve some travel throughout greater Phoenix (we will have transport immediately) . We have a two year old son who will need day care. Scottsdale is an area that has been recommended to us, however it seems like quiet a commute to North Central (budget is yet to be confirmed).
Many Thanks,
Smegg.

[ji603]

No creche or wobbler rooms here. Day care costs are absurd, unfortunately. Keep in mind that phoenix is large and spread out- try to live near one's work.

I'll point you to this, too - they might recommend a place or two that is less culture-shockish.

http://www.azirish.org

(Americans are all too happy to tell you they're Irish too.... Six grandfathers ago. Take that with a grain of salt.)

Welcome

[Arizona Mike]

Hope you have a pleasant move and you find Arizona congenial. You might consider looking at the Arcadia district, which is fairly close to the central business district, if you are looking for a rental house. This is an older neighborhood that has become more popular with young professionals, especially those with families (causing a rise in home values and rentals as a result), but with more upscale shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants, etc. around it. Scottsdale also has a lot of nice places to rent, but becomes a little more downscale and less desirable to the South. Northern Scottsdale has more of a suburban feel to it. Zillow: Real Estate, Apartments, Mortgage & Home Values in the US is a popular site for checking rental properties and real estate.

There is a light-rail that serves the area you will be working in, you may wish to consider the areas it serves when looking for a rental if you like to use community transit: Providing Public Transportation Alternatives for the Greater Phoenix Metro Area | Valley Metro |. If you like to use a bike to commute, the light rail works pretty well for working your way around in combination, although Phoenix isn't notably a bike-friendly city. If you want to get around and explore the desert, or the cities around the Valley, you'll want a car.

Downtown Phoenix, which is to the south of the CBD that runs along Central has become a lot more active in recent years, with major sports arenas and satellite campuses for Arizona State University, and the amenities to support them (restaurants, bars, shops, museums). There are some nice places to live in downtown. Crime has gotten to be much less of a problem there (probably safer than most large cities in the U.S.), but I don't have the experience of living there with a young family.

There are some recently constructed rental townhouses and condo properties on the northern end of the Central, I would say north of Thomas or Indian School, which look nice. Depending on your budget, there are some very nice older homes in the Encanto area that have more of a neighborhood feel. I'm not sure what the rental market for homes is currently like there.

[Smegg]

Thanks Arizona Mike for your response, some great advice. We're very excited about the move.

I will have a car so plan to drive to work. I've got some more information about where I will be working (North Central, Deer Valley Village and Chandler) so do you think Scottsdale would be the most suitable area to live for commuting between these 3 areas? Would North Scottsdale be nicer (and easier to commute from) than South Scottsdale (budget is not a major concern)?

How long would the commute be from Scottsdale to these 3 areas if driving?

Would anyone have any advice on day care for a two year old in the area of Scottsdale (any recommendations?)

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by Smegg

Thanks Arizona Mike for your response, some great advice. We're very excited about the move.

I will have a car so plan to drive to work. I've got some more information about where I will be working (North Central, Deer Valley Village and Chandler) so do you think Scottsdale would be the most suitable area to live for commuting between these 3 areas? Would North Scottsdale be nicer (and easier to commute from) than South Scottsdale (budget is not a major concern)?

How long would the commute be from Scottsdale to these 3 areas if driving?

Would anyone have any advice on day care for a two year old in the area of Scottsdale (any recommendations?)

Your commute time will depend on the area in N. Scottsdale but will depend which area you're going to and what time you depart and return. On most freeways, the time of day will determine whether you are going "against" or "with" the traffic. Others may disagree but traffic is generally not too bad here - it's nowhere near as congested as most major cities, like Los Angeles. It's hard to say without knowing exactly where you would be living (Scottsdale's borders have expanded year by year so it now covers a pretty sizable area, north to south). You have several major freeways cutting through the Valley - the 202 is a big east/west loop that runs from out in the east Valley into central Phoenix and joining up with the 10 (which runs east/west through the southern end of the Valley, before dipping south through Tempe and continuing down to Tucson; The I-17 runs north/south in the west Valley, continuing north up to Flagstaff; the 101 cuts North from the 202, and then turns east west in the north Valley, then looping south to meet up with the 10 in the far west Valley; and the 51 in east Phoenix runs north/south between the 10 and the 101. A map makes it all clearer, but using some combination of those, you can get most anywhere in the Valley pretty easily. I live in North Scottsdale and can hop on the 101 or 51 pretty easily to get where I need to go.

Phoenix and most of the Valley is laid out on a simple N/S/E/W grid. Central is the dividing point, with numbered streets running north and south (numbered avenues going up and west from Central, and numbered streets going up and east from Central.) Named streets run east and west. A GPS will make getting around a lot easier.

My kids are all too old for day care, so someone else would have to give you better advice. A lot of people use contacts they develop from other parents. Craigslist is a common option for finding in-house daycare/nannies/babysitter but who knows what kind of person you'll get. There is a site called Daycare Match Helps Families Find Local Child Care in Their Area! that matches up providers (in-home and nurseries) and out, but I don't have any experience with it and I don't know what kind of vetting they provide. There are a lot of daycare centers in the North Scottsdale area (including more specific types like Montessori, religious, etc.) so it may be best to start looking in your area once you arrive (I know that can be hard when you need to start work quickly.)

[rgscpat]

Deer Valley and Chandler can be something like 40 miles apart. Finding a place that makes Deer Valley and north Central areas easy to get to is probably do-able and you might just have to so-to-speak grit your teeth and endure some discomfort for the Chandler commute, assuming it's a minority of your work travel. Perhaps if you are fortunate, you might be able to time the Chandler trips and some of the others to be contra-flowing most of the road traffic.

For example, the Loop 101 on the east side of Scottsdale tend to be slow going north in the morning rush hour, and slow going south in the evening rush hour ... particularly near the 202 loop. Going east form Tempe and eastern Phoenix on the 202 is easier in the morning and harder in the evening. You might want to download a traffic/road congestion reporting utility onto your computer, something like traffic.com, and look at it during Phoenix-area rush hour periods.