Looking to move soon to Arizona (Phoenix, New River: real estate market, apartment, rentals)

[karma]

Hello. I was reading the last post so I figured I would sign up.

I now live in California where it is way to expensive to stay. My grandma always loved AZ and my family has decided to move there.

We are looking at Cave Creek, it has a climate that I feel I can handle. It is close to larger cities so we can get jobs.

Would it be better to live closer to Phoenix? I don't want to live in a large city, and I don't mind some driving to get to work either, as long as it's not all day

How hard is it to rent in a small area like Cave Creek, New River or Carefree? Which newspaper should I be looking in for rent and job info?

Thank you for any help you can give.

[hilding]

I actually just moved from Phoenix after living there for a little over 8 years. The location of where you want to live will primarily depend on the type of work you do. Cave Creek is beautiful and still semi quaint. There are rentals there, but you will pay top dollar. If you go to Forrent.com or one of those web sites, you should be able to put in Cave Creek and the distance you are willing to be from it to get a good choice of rentals. I was an apartment manager in Phoenix for the majority of the time I was there. Phoenix has become really huge and the traffic is pretty out of control. Again, it really depends on the type of work you do. One nice thing is that Phoenix is growing a lot in the Cave Creek and Carefree areas and depending on the type of work, there are a lot more opportunities now than there were a few years ago. I really wouldn't recommend being closer to Phoenix unless you have to work right in the city for some reason (from Cave Creek the commute would be insane!) Much of the research can just be done online. Careerbuilder.com is probably the easiest and most thorough list of job opportunities. You can even specify that you want to be in Cave Creek and put the distance you are willing to travel.
Good Luck! I hope this was a little helpful.

[karma]

Thank you very much for the info and the commute info too UGH

[2ndsight]

i'm presumin..but if you are from calif..its nothing to go from cavecreek to downtown..in the worst of traffic max 35minutes...
carefree is the shizitzzz..got green?...mucho laidback and beautiful. New river lots O space and horse country.but,another 30 minutes on your drive also..probably too far.
can't lose either way..welcome home.
check out; google earth..free download its like being in a helicopter..

[karma]

thank you 2ndsight. we were already figuring to comute 30-40 minutes, that is no problem. It's the price to pay to live outside the big city, where I DO NOT want to live. I'll work there but not live there.

Carefree was one of the place we are considering too and it's nice to know about green, all I see of AZ is desert and here in cali I'm used to the green stuff, but will deal without it if I must. Thanx for reminding me about google earth, I totally forgot about it.

[AzSCS]

Hello all -

There's a fantastic new book out on Where to Live in Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun. It has house prices and commute times for every area, as well as schools, shopping, dining, and leisure, all very well-organized. You can find it at http://www.wheretolivebooks.com/
Good luck!!

[tip28]

I just moved here in august. I have the same issues you did, dont want to live in the city. Well i found a great little growing town called Maricopa, AZ. I drive to downtown Phoenix every morning to work. about 2 blocks from the ballpark in the heart of downtown. It takes me 40 min everymorning but well worth it. My rent is only 1000 a month for a three bedroom 2 bath 2 car garage house that has never been lived in before. The community is great my child can play in the street and now worry about being run over. Everything from movies, fast food and grocerys is just 1/2 mile from my doorstep. Look into it you will find it to be a great place.

[karma]

Originally Posted by tip28

I just moved here in august. I have the same issues you did, dont want to live in the city. Well i found a great little growing town called Maricopa, AZ. I drive to downtown Phoenix every morning to work. about 2 blocks from the ballpark in the heart of downtown. It takes me 40 min everymorning but well worth it. My rent is only 1000 a month for a three bedroom 2 bath 2 car garage house that has never been lived in before. The community is great my child can play in the street and now worry about being run over. Everything from movies, fast food and grocerys is just 1/2 mile from my doorstep. Look into it you will find it to be a great place.

Thank you, this is great to know as I have kids.

[jrmarshall]

Cave Creek is pretty, but becoming part of the city. New River is out of the city to the north, but if you hop on I-17 it shouldn't be any longer of a commute than from Cave Creek. It will definetly be more affordable! Cave Creek/Carefree will be expensive for rent...Figure at the very low end $450,000 to buy a home. My husband and I are currently searching the real estate market right now and that's what we are seeing....My sis is a realtor in that area and she says you would be hard pressed to find anything for less.

We are looking into Black Canyon City...North of Phoenix Metro area. We just got back from a visit to AZ and we clocked it as 8 minutes on I-17 to get to the North End of the City Limits. Not bad...The mountains are beautiful!!!!!in Black Canyon City area! Good Luck!! We are at the same stage right now...but we need to move ourselves, 2 children, 3 horses, a growing herd of Boer goats, 2 dogs and a cat! Wheew!

[foxe]

Hi lived in that area for 10 years - mesa - hopefully you don't own a motorcycle because they have a noise ordanice and write tickets like crazy. it is an expensive area, doesn't really matter where you live in the valley, the traffice is unbelievable especially when the snowbirds show up. they are constantly adding roads but are still behind the eight ball. the gas prices are similiar to ca - because az is a wanna be state anything ca does az usually follows suit. its very expensive to ins and reg. a car the pollution is unreal. i went from asthma to copd in less then 10 years. sorry not much good to say about the state and it is getting to be really crime ridden because of the border problems