El Mirage, Anybody? (Phoenix, Surprise: hoa, work, subdivision)

[Misti]

Hi all,

I recently moved from Orange County, CA to El Mirage AZ.
I am sorry to say I would have to disagree with some of the comments posted on this thread. Yet development in our city may be a bit slow, it is not a bad area. We live in a new development and love it here. I feel bad for all of the people who still think El Mirage is the same city it was 10 years ago. Please remember every city has ‘bad parts or bad areas’ that doesn’t mean the whole city is a bad place to live.

Misti

[AZteacher123]

I thought I would comment on this thread since I am currently a resident of El Mirage. I am an AZ native and have lived all around the valley from Surprise to Gilbert and several places inbetween. El Mirage has it's positive attributes, too although none were mentioned. It is family oriented and small. It functions just as well as any other city I've lived in. That said, please remember that every city has it's negatives and positives. The schools seem to be decent although I prefer my children go to Litchfield School District schools (the district I work in). I did live in Surprise and for the most part, it is a really nice city. I just didn't like how far it was from a major freeway. I lived in Gilbert for a few years and worked in a school there. Every school district has schools of varied quality, as well. Although El Mirage was low on my list when shopping for my current home, I have been very happy here for the last two years. I like that it's smaller and I have access to the larger cities nearby. Arizona has so many cookie cutter homes so if you want varied design and originality, you'll have to spend a lot more. I'm not trying to argue with anyone but believe El Mirage should be put down people who live here.

[AZteacher123]

Hi Misty. Thanks for putting in a positive comment about our city.

[CodyW]

Having lived there for a while - I guess my main complaint was with Sundial, not the rest of El Mirage. I didn't really spend enough time there to experience all of the city, but, from what I saw, it was a pretty generic suburb. Save for that awesome mexican food restaurant on.. What was it, Thunderbird? I think?

That, and the Dysart district's schools were PACKED in 2004. I dunno if they've added more schools, or if it's stayed the same. But GEEZ. Being referred around the district to 4 other schools is NOT good. Its horrible how these districts have to play catch-up with themselves every year.

I hear the same things are going on in Buckeye, Goodyear, and Avondale, too, though. So its probably not uncommon. Like WestPark School in Buckeye that opened last month, its just about filled to capacity now.

[june]

Originally Posted by Misti

Hi all,

I recently moved from Orange County, CA to El Mirage AZ.
I am sorry to say I would have to disagree with some of the comments posted on this thread. Yet development in our city may be a bit slow, it is not a bad area. We live in a new development and love it here. I feel bad for all of the people who still think El Mirage is the same city it was 10 years ago. Please remember every city has ‘bad parts or bad areas’ that doesn’t mean the whole city is a bad place to live.

Misti

Bravo! You tell them. My family that lives in peoria and other areas are the same about different towns, if it isnt within 10 miles of them it aint no good!

[sablebaby]

Originally Posted by june

Bravo! You tell them. My family that lives in peoria and other areas are the same about different towns, if it isnt within 10 miles of them it aint no good!

I researched the heck out of El Mirage and have had several friends live out there for several years. I watched several brand spanking new areas go down the toilet in a matter of 2 years. The main problem was that some of the communities do not have HOA's, which meant that there were numerous cars packed in the front yard and crap everywhere. I couldn't believe my eyes! This is in edition to the old parts of el mirage that are scary. The problem was that the houses were costing $60-75,000 back 10 years ago, so everyone that couldn't afford a nicer area moved out there. It's hard to clean up a bad rep.

[markas214]

LOL. Look at a Google satellite view of El Mirage. All the homes have like 7 junk cars, boats, RVs, etc. in the yard. Dirt allies to the rear of the homes. I can here the theme song from Cops as they chase the old junk '81 Buick through the dusty ally. Bad Boys, bad boys, what'cha gonna do?

[Jammie]

El Mirage has never been on my list, but I do have to say that the pics are very nice.

[jco]

Originally Posted by MovinFromUT

I'm actually glad that you started this thread. We will be moving to AZ in the next couple of months (hubby is already out there living in a hotel), and El Mirage caught my eye, but I knew nothing about it. Surprise, Goodyear, and Glendale also caught my eye. NOW I know that El Mirage is not a place for us. Another poster stated that they live in Surprise. When I looked at Dysart High School on greatschools.net, they didn't have the best ratings. Does anyone live in that school district that feels differently?

Dysart Unified School District has three high schools. Two are in Surprise (Willow Canyon and Valley Vista) and one is in El Mirage (Dysart HS). Willow Canyon started off poorly, but the district cleaned out the administration, and they are on the way to a slow recovery. One thing they have going for them is the IB program. Valley Vista is the best of the three schools. They have an awesome principal and a lot of the really good teachers in the district transferred to this school when it opened. Dysart is the longest standing school, and despite the facelift, it still majorly lacks.

[jco]

Originally Posted by Misti

Hi all,

I recently moved from Orange County, CA to El Mirage AZ.
I am sorry to say I would have to disagree with some of the comments posted on this thread. Yet development in our city may be a bit slow, it is not a bad area. We live in a new development and love it here. I feel bad for all of the people who still think El Mirage is the same city it was 10 years ago. Please remember every city has ‘bad parts or bad areas’ that doesn’t mean the whole city is a bad place to live.

Misti

What area of El Mirage do you feel is better? (I'm not challenging you; I'm curious to know.)