Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Arizona > Phoenix area
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 01-17-2017, 11:52 AM
 
Location: Palos Verdes, CA
27 posts, read 39,050 times
Reputation: 21

Advertisements

Good morning,

We are hoping to relocate from Southern California to the Phoenix area this summer, and are looking to buy a horse property with access to a local trail system, and if that's not available, then at least a property large enough to have a small riding arena onsite. Our son is very involved in the 4-H Club, so looking for an area where he can have horses, chickens, potentially a few pygmy goats & a bee hive as well. (Looking for 3BD, 2BA, Office, Garage w/Workshop, pool access, good school district, safe area, budget under $750,000).

We need to be within a good commuting distance to Grand Canyon University (45 minutes or less seems like a reasonable goal), so I'm hoping you guys can point me in the right direction here. We've looked at Scottsdale, Cave Creek and Gilbert/Chandler areas, and we really like that Gilbert seems like a family friendly town and that it has lots of irrigation. I don't know about any trail systems that run through there though, and it seems like that might be the farthest commute to Grand Canyon University. Scottsdale and Cave Creek appear a little closer to GCU, and looks like there might be some trail systems we could access depending upon where the home is located, but I'm told the commute heading south from Cave Creek is a tough one.

Can you give us some good morning/evening estimates on what commuting time and patterns would look like from each of the 3 areas so we have a better feel for where we should focus our attention on? Any other suggestions or other areas to consider that would fit our needs would be really great too! And if this is not a good fit for this area, what else do you recommend? (Our main future focus is trying to find a good Christian university with a good selection of majors for him to attend for college years, but it has to be within commuting distance from home for financial reasons.)

Thanks so much for your feedback!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 01-17-2017, 12:03 PM
 
Location: Chandler, AZ
4,056 posts, read 5,074,802 times
Reputation: 6120
Not sure about commuting distance but the horse trail systems are more Urban in Scottsdale and Gilbert. $750k may be a stretch in Scottsdale as well. Queen Creek/South Gilbert/South Chandler will have some properties with access to either the Reservation trails and some pretty decent arenas...as well as a great school system for your son. There are some more Urban properties in Tempe/Gilbert (think 1-2 Acre) that are closer in but you may have to trailer to get any serious trail rides in.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-17-2017, 12:09 PM
 
Location: Tempe, AZ
1,484 posts, read 3,123,947 times
Reputation: 2380
You may consider areas of Laveen and South Phoenix (Zip Codes 85041 & 85042). There are a number of horse properties with multiple acres available right now well under your budget. It would be the shortest commute to GCU. There are miles of trails in the area as well.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-17-2017, 12:12 PM
 
Location: Chandler, AZ
4,056 posts, read 5,074,802 times
Reputation: 6120
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungle View Post
You may consider areas of Laveen and South Phoenix (Zip Codes 85041 & 85042). There are a number of horse properties with multiple acres available right now well under your budget. It would be the shortest commute to GCU. There are miles of trails in the area as well.
Yeah but the schools are sub-par...unless the OPs son got into the Agribusiness/Equine Charter school...

College Preparatory High School | Arizona Agribusiness & Equine Center (AAEC)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-17-2017, 12:13 PM
 
Location: Palos Verdes, CA
27 posts, read 39,050 times
Reputation: 21
Thank you for the suggestions. The Laveen area looks like the schools are rated pretty low, so that's a huge concern for us for high school years.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-17-2017, 12:23 PM
 
Location: Chandler, AZ
4,056 posts, read 5,074,802 times
Reputation: 6120
AAEC is a College Prep Highschool...GreatSchools has the South Mountain campus rated at a 5 but the Reviews are all 4-5 stars...the PV and Red Mountain campuses are rated as 9s...

Arizona Agribusiness & Equine Center - South Mountain - Phoenix, Arizona - AZ - School overview

May be worth looking into.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-17-2017, 12:24 PM
 
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
1,350 posts, read 1,355,852 times
Reputation: 1928
You can get a horse property for 750K but getting that and the schools will be more challenging.

Additionally, the commute times are going to be problematic from most of the places you mentioned. If you're working a 9-to-5 it could easily take you 1 1/2 hours or more to get from Gilbert to GCU. The same is true for North Scottsdale, Cave Creek, far north Phoenix, etc.

There are some nice horse properties hidden away in parts of Glendale and Peoria that I imagine you could afford that would have the most space for your budget. Trails may not be plentiful out that way, but you can't have everything on that budget and with a reasonable commute, so 2 out of 3 isn't bad. Schools are on a case-by-case basis out that way.

Your other option is that there are some older horse properties with access to the urban trail system, such as it is (or isn't) in the 85254 zipcode (which is famous for having a Scottsdale mailing address but actually being in the city of Phoenix). The rush hour commute from there would probably be an hour or slightly less most of the time. Schools over that way are pretty good, PVUSD is pretty good and SUSD is really good.

Of course, traffic is highly variable here, more so than California, so if you start work at 7a or earlier, or leave work after 6p, it's a whole different ballgame and your options open up somewhat in terms of distance.

Oh, also, in terms of Christian universities, there is of course GCU, which while for-profit, does have a number of Christian students and Christian majors/programs. The other option would be Arizona Christian University. It is private, evangelical and expensive by Arizona standards, but is growing and does offer a variety of degree programs.

I believe that's it for religious instruction in the state of Arizona except for a couple satellite campuses, e.g. Benedictine University at Mesa, about which I don't know much; not a lot of choices like you have in California.

Last edited by ScottsdaleMark; 01-17-2017 at 12:37 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-17-2017, 01:39 PM
 
14 posts, read 27,228 times
Reputation: 26
Consider Peoria. There are some properties that meet your description and are no farther to GCU than the other areas you are considering.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-17-2017, 01:43 PM
 
Location: Chandler, AZ
4,056 posts, read 5,074,802 times
Reputation: 6120
Peoria High Schools are 6s and 7s.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-17-2017, 01:56 PM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
19,372 posts, read 27,598,439 times
Reputation: 35972
Quote:
Originally Posted by KurtAZ View Post
Not sure about commuting distance but the horse trail systems are more Urban in Scottsdale and Gilbert. $750k may be a stretch in Scottsdale as well. Queen Creek/South Gilbert/South Chandler will have some properties with access to either the Reservation trails and some pretty decent arenas...as well as a great school system for your son. There are some more Urban properties in Tempe/Gilbert (think 1-2 Acre) that are closer in but you may have to trailer to get any serious trail rides in.
I think that the commute to GC University from anyplace in Gilbert, Chandler or Queen Creek would be unacceptable - certainly beyond the 45 minutes OP stated unless they are always traveling during off hours.

I'm not familiar with horse property, but my gut is telling me that OP's requirements don't match with the budget. Perhaps finding a home near a horse boarding facility might be a better alternative.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Arizona > Phoenix area

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top