Relocating to Goodyear (Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale: sales, rental, waterpark)
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Hello
We are a married couple 35 years old 3 children (15,10,7) relocating to Goodyear and need some info on the area good and bad. All inquires will help, Thank you.
Hello
We are a married couple 35 years old 3 children (15,10,7) relocating to Goodyear and need some info on the area good and bad. All inquires will help, Thank you.
We are also seriously considering moving to Goodyear when we relocate to AZ this week. We took two trips out to Phoenix and looked at the Palm Valley area, Litchfield Park, and Estrella Mountain Ranch (EMR).
EMR had the best overall feel and look to us, but the others are nice too. Their website is www.estrella.com. They have a waterpark for kids, a golf course, two lakes, and their schools are not overcrowded (from what we were told by the sales office and current residents).
The moderator, Ponderosa, has more insight to Goodyear however.
My husband and I have lived in Estrella Mountain Ranch for two years now, and we absolutely adore it! It is so gorgeous, which you apparently already noticed. We bought a resale home instead of a new-build (we like a house with the kinks worked out by the people who lived there before us!), and we couldn't be happier.
The entire development is beautifully landscaped with tons of huge king and queen palms and saguaro cacti, and lots of other varities of plants, trees, flowers, and shrubs. EMR has lots of hiking/biking trails, with clearly marked trail heads. Toward the entrance to EMR, there is a multi-million dollar clubhouse, free to residents (after one-time fee of $100 dollars per household)) with two beautiful pools, waterslides for kids, a big weight room with free weights and machines, rentable banquet/meeting rooms, a lounge, a cafe and coffee shop, and various classes, ranging from yoga to scrapbooking. EMR also has it's own little community store, gas station and video rental store, if you don't want to leave your neighborhood for these things.
EMR has two huge lakes with a "yacht club" run by volunteers, where residents can "rent" (for absolutely FREE) sailboats, kayaks, canoes, water bikes, fishing outboard motor boats, etc. One day, my husband and I went over there to check it out, and we ended up "renting" a kayak, canoe, water bike, and sail boat all in the same afternoon. lol. We decided to try everything! Now we mainly use the two-person kayaks when we go to the lake. It's so much fun and so relaxing...and it's free if you live here! There is also a really nice park along the beach of the south lake, with volleyball and basketball courts, a playground, restrooms, and lots of cabanas with grills. There are also two beautiful golf courses insdie EMR, if you or your family are into golf.
Every third Saturday of each month, EMR has a farmer's market up near the north lake, and on multiple occasions the ampitheater near the lake will host music under the stars, with the Phoenix Orchestra, as well as other events like pumpkin carving for Halloween and Tree Lighting for the holidays.
There are lots of neighborhoods in EMR, with home values ranging from around $250k to $1 million-plus, with a few prominent sports figures living here, as well. The schools are great, and each neighborhood in EMR has it's own character. I think buying in EMR will remain a great investment no matter how built up the rest of Phoenix gets, because we have our own little pocket of beautiful nature in what is becoming a booming city (Goodyear). When the mall and the spring training stadium come to Goodyear within the next couple years, we will be so close to everything, yet we'll remain slightly tucked away. Love it!
Sorry about the novel...I just wanted to put in my 2 cents, because you seemed to like EMR, but are unsure about it.
I want to move to estrella mountain ranch now, thanks to the above post, sounds wonderful. How far to you have to drive to get to a major grocery store, or a mall or to restaurants etc.
Currently, there are two major grocery stores nearby..Safeway and WalMart. The shopping centers that house these grocery stores also have Blockbuster, Quiznos, a veterinarian, Leslie's Pool Supply, UPS store, a gas station, etc. They're pretty much next to each other and take about 10-12 minutes from our house. If you want to check out the Goodyear website (http://www.ci.goodyear.az.us/index.asp?NID=974) (broken link), you can look at all the shopping centers that are scheduled to be built along Estrella Parkway (the main road leading up to EMR) over the next year or two....there are A LOT of stores, shops, restaurants, and even a hotel or two scheduled to be built within a 5-15 minute drive. Since we moved here almost two years ago, lots of stores have already been added within a ten-minute drive, including Walgreens, Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, It's a Grind (coffee shop), Subway, Brother's Pizza, Sherwin Williams, Verizon, etc etc.
Right now, in my opinion, the best mall nearby is Arrowhead in Glendale, which is about a 40-minute drive. Arizona Mills is about a 45-minute drive (without traffic), and Chandler, Kierland, and Scottsdale Fashion Squares are about an hour without traffic. There are malls in town, too, but I haven't been to them, so I can't tell you the times/distances...they might be closer. The end of next year, though, the Estrella Falls Mall will open at I-10 and Bullard (1/2 mile east of Estrella Parkway). If you're familiar with the Chandler Fashion Square Mall, Estrella Falls will rival it. It'll be a 15-minute drive from EMR. Harkins Theaters and Dillards have already committed to EFM, and I've heard that the developers are talking with Bloomingdales, Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel, etc, as well. You can read about the EFM and the shop/restaurants that will be in it/surround it, as well as the plans to build/widen roads nearby, on the same Goodyear website.
On Estrella Parkway, between EMR and I-10 (less than a 15-min drive) are Quiznos, Native New Yorker, Brother's Pizza, It's a Grind, Subway, Jack in the Box, McDonald's, and Oh! (Italian). Lots of new restaurants are scheduled to be built over the next year or two, especially around the area where the new spring training stadium will open in 2009 on Estrella Parkway. If you go 1 to 4 exits down the I-10 (15-25 min drive), you'll find TONS of restaurants on Litchfield and Dysart Roads, and all along McDowell, including TGIF, Cracker Barrel, Mimi's Cafe, Macaroni Grill, On the Border, Chipotle, Denny's, IHOP, Black Angus, Claim Jumper, Island Burger, Paradise Cafe, Wildflower Bread Co, El Paso BBQ, Big Apple, Carrabba's, Ono, Starbuck's, Buffalo Wild Wings, In n Out, etc.
Thanks, that helps a lot. We are moving from the UK and because we will not know anyone, and have young children we would like to be in a community just like EMR. However as I'm not sure which hospital I will be working at just yet then I guess it will depend on that, although we are very used to long commutes as we live in a small town in Scotland at the moment. I have a 45 min drive to work and my husband is a regional manager for the whole of Scotland so some days his commute is 4 hours each way!!!!!!! I am the one who is moving us over with my job so we will choose somewhere convenient to where I am working and hopefully hubby will be able to find work not too far away. One question though, I am likely to be working nights, as most peopl will be coming into downtown in the am and out of it pm am I likely to find myself going in the opposite direction to everyone else (working hours 7pm-7am) or is the traffic backed up in all directions?
I've lived in EMR for 10 years. While it is nice don't let the 10-15 minutes to shopping mislead you. Plan on living in your car. It is 10-15 minutes to EVERYTHING. Need a nail? 15 minutes to the hardware store? Need a battery for your camera? 10-15 minutes. And the 10-15 minutes is 10 miles, so it is a a gallon or two of gas as well for 4-5 dollars added to every purchase/trip you make. Dentist, piano lessons, soccer practice, church (there is one non-denominational in EMR) - 10-20 miles away.
There is no pizza delivery, no Chinese food delivery and no fast food anywhere. There is a small convenience store in EMR but it has a very limited selection, prices that border on criminal, and is full of punks and loosers who live in a nearby trashy area called Rainbow Valley and pass through EMR on their way back home. There is a pizza joint that has takeout and lousy pizza, but decent subs. No delivery though. There are a couple of tiny "cafes" at the golf course and the resident's center that offer burgers. Other than that it's trip to town.
And that 10-15 minute trip, try 20-30 minutes in a few years when all those wonderful new strip malls go in along with the traffic lights every 1/4 mile. There are no less than several lights planned just getting out of EMR when a new development, King Ranch, goes in just north of us. I saw this all happen over in Ahwatukee and the same congested fate awaits the now "discovered" EMR and Goodyear.
With all that, though, it remains the best area in Goodyear (and maybe all of Phoenix) to live by a long stretch. It is certainly the most attractive, affordable development in the whole Phoenix metro area. It is clean and safe and a nice place to raise kids with super schools and parks, hiking, biking, etc. The glowing descriptions and the photos on the web site are actually pretty accurate. Just plan on paying for the enviable lifestyle with frustrating inconvenience.
By the way, there are two hospitals "nearby", both pretty new - West Valley and Banner Estrella
Last edited by Ponderosa; 03-08-2007 at 05:18 AM..
I've lived in EMR for 10 years. While it is nice don't let the 10-15 minutes to shopping mislead you. Plan on living in your car. It is 10-15 minutes to EVERYTHING. Need a nail? 15 minutes to the hardware store? Need a battery for your camera? 10-15 minutes. And the 10-15 minutes is 10 miles, so it is a a gallon or two of gas as well for 4-5 dollars added to every purchase/trip you make. Dentist, piano lessons, soccer practice, church (there is one non-denominational in EMR) - 10-20 miles away.
There is no pizza delivery, no Chinese food delivery and no fast food anywhere. There is a small convenience store in EMR but it has a very limited selection, prices that border on criminal, and is full of punks and loosers who live in a nearby trashy area called Rainbow Valley and pass through EMR on their way back home. There is a pizza joint that has takeout and lousy pizza, but decent subs. No delivery though. There are a couple of tiny "cafes" at the golf course and the resident's center that offer burgers. Other than that it's trip to town.
And that 10-15 minute trip, try 20-30 minutes in a few years when all those wonderful new strip malls go in along with the traffic lights every 1/4 mile. There are no less than several lights planned just getting out of EMR when a new development, King Ranch, goes in just north of us. I saw this all happen over in Ahwatukee and the same congested fate awaits the now "discovered" EMR and Goodyear.
With all that, though, it remains the best area in Goodyear (and maybe all of Phoenix) to live by a long stretch. It is certainly the most attractive, affordable development in the whole Phoenix metro area. It is clean and safe and a nice place to raise kids with super schools and parks, hiking, biking, etc. The glowing descriptions and the photos on the web site are actually pretty accurate. Just plan on paying for the enviable lifestyle with frustrating inconvenience.
By the way, there are two hospitals "nearby", both pretty new - West Valley and Banner Estrella
It's always the case huh! at the moment i live in a lovely small town with great schools etc, but to get to edinburgh or Glasgow where the decent shopping etc. is you are looking at over an hours drive, we can get a take out delivered though
I am with a nursing agency so it will ultimatly boil down to where they can place me, at the moment it is either maricopa medical centre, st lukes, or the hospitals in the scottsdale healthcare system. If I end up having a job in the latter, then we will need to think about somewhere over the east side, but as we are just starting the process of it all then things could change. The thing is i will be on a 12-18 month contract with whatever hospital I do start off working at and i would rather suffer some inconvenience of commuting for a short time and live where we want and get the kids settled, once my contract is up I could look for a job closer by. My husband is in retail management at the moment, in particular business development so i am sure there are opportunities for him all over the valley
I've lived in EMR for 10 years. There is a small convenience store in EMR but it has a very limited selection, prices that border on criminal, and is full of punks and loosers who live in a nearby trashy area called Rainbow Valley and pass through EMR on their way back home.
I have lived in EMR since 1999 and your generalization of Elliot Market is wholly inaccurate. The "punks and loosers" certainly do not constitute any greater percentage of customers than the Safeway down the road. Even stores in "Snotsdale" have their share of what you might term "punks and loosers".
The majority of daytime customers at the Market tend to be EMR residents on the way to work or construction workers on the way to or from work. After 5:00 p.m. the vast majority are EMR residents. How do I know this? I actually go in the place from time to time.
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We love Estrella Mountain Ranch!
We bought a resale home instead of a new-build (we like a house with the kinks worked out by the people who lived there before us!), and we couldn't be happier.
Love it!
