Queen Creek (Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale: renting, houses, employment)

[cabolissa]

What are your thoughts??? Relocating from CA and want a newish, family friendly neighborhood, 4 bedrooms under $200K. Don't want to commute more than (20 miles) each way to work. Am a Paralegal, husband Restaurant Mgr.
Any pics would also be great!!!!!!!

[surferguy]

kinda way way out east. but yeah you can get a house under 200k

[sh9730]

Check out Casa Grande also...PLENTY of houses for 150K-200K and its bout the same distance to PHX but right on I 10 vs QC which has a long road to the nearest freeway. Also lots more infrastructure in CG including a new mall with several restaraunts etc.

HOWEVER commute into downtown PHX is gonna be 40-45 mins (no traffic) from EITHER place. But if you only have to go to Tempe,Chandler or Mesa, its under 30 mins from CG and prob bout the same (depending on where in Mesa QC could be closer to east Mesa) from QC.

More infrastructure in CG than QC for now....but eventually both will be the same. QC has ALOT more houses on market right now and is cheaper than CG overall.

[thegirlinaz]

The reason the prices are so great out there is because of the commute. Either get a great house at a great price but have a long commute... or pay a lot more for not as nice a house but have a short commute. Plus, it just depends where you actually get a job.

[cabolissa]

Originally Posted by thegirlinaz

The reason the prices are so great out there is because of the commute. Either get a great house at a great price but have a long commute... or pay a lot more for not as nice a house but have a short commute. Plus, it just depends where you actually get a job.

Yeah, I get that... I guess what I'm wondering is, where else is there to work as a paralegal rather than downtown???

[61scout80]

listings like this tell me QC is a great value right now Single Family Home - 1225 E RENEGADE TER, Queen Creek, AZ, 85242 - Realtor.com


Also consider the city of maricopa, closer to phoenix than casa grande, great value right now and there is a lot of commercial development under construction right now. I feel once maricopa has its new one million square feet of additional commercial space open the home values will see an increase. that means getting here while there is a limited amount of retail open would mean better value.

there are law offices in every city here, www.jobing.com, www.careerbuilder.com and www.monster.com are a good source of job listings. If your considering moving to queen creek, maricopa or casa grande you would ideally want to work in those cities, or short commutes would be chandler, gilbert and the south east section of phoenix known as ahwatukee (ah-wha-teo-key).

[silverbear]

I've got to take issue with the claim in this thread and the other one the OP started that there are law offices everywhere. That's true in the sense that there are small offices that handle DUI, divorce, criminal defense, etc. There are also a few satellite offices of major firms in the suburbs. For the most part, however, the big law firms are in Downtown and Midtown. Likewise, in-house legal departments tend to be at corporate headquarters in major employment centers like Central Phoenix and the Scottsdale Airpark. Queen Creek and Casa Grande are both going to be a long haul from any of those likely workplaces.

My recommendation would be to live more centrally, even if it means renting for a while -- or at least live somewhere with an express bus to Downtown. While your commute would still take an hour, you could at least use the time to read or do something productive. Also, the strategy being used -- choosing a place to live and then looking for a job -- is the opposite of what I'd recommend. It's usually much better to figure out where you'll be working first and then find a good place to live within a reasonable distance of that site. Be careful not to go too much farther out from the center than your work location, though, because you could always end up being transferred to another site on the other side of town.

[aj661]

If you want to live in Queen Creek, you might want to see what Pinal County has available in the way of paralegal jobs. Florence is nearby and it's the county seat. The Superior Court building is there just off Hunt Hwy and SR79. Not much in the way of restaurants there outside of fast food places.

Link to Pinal County Human Resources:
https://www.pinaljobs.com/applicants...=1216273142935

Just doing a quick search, I found at least one opening there for a paralegal II in the public defenders office.