Looking to move from SoCal to Phoenix area please HELP (Mesa: landscaping, work)

[pickleroo]

I am looking to move a large family from Southern Cali. to the Phoenix area in the next year or so and I wanted anyone to give me info. on good suburbs, schools, kid friendly activities, and especially High Schools. We will have 2 kids in High School by then, 1 in Jr. High, 2 in Elem., a toddler and a new baby. Swim team is a big deal to my 9 yr old girl and any JROTC programs for my 16 yr old son. We want a nice neighborhood and good schools. Those are the top two priorities for us. My husband works out to sea so work is not an issue. Just need to get to the airport quite a bit. Any good or not so good info. would be greatly appreicated. THANKS!!

[Desmond]

I too am looking to move to the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Gilbert, AZ area and I am from a suburb in Philadelphia, PA. I have lived here all my life and really want to phase winter out. I am also looking for the same things you are with the emphasis on elementary schools. Looking to move in 2 years. Any info. anyone can provide would be geat! Thanks!

[MotleyCrew]

I will give you our take on the area we chose and the why of it. We also had a 16 year old son and wanted a good high school so that narrowed our search to the west side. I am sure there are some very good schools on the east as well, but we also wanted to be outside of Phoenix downtown. We looked at Estrella Mt. Ranch and loved the development but at the time the school was not performing quite as high as the Peoria school dist. Things change, so you might want to check the stats on line. We moved to a development called Vistancia and it is located in N. Peoria. We have made the number one community in Arizona now for the second year. There are many different builders here with all different styles of architecture, so no "sea of red roofs" here. We have lit, paved walking trails through the development and lots of natural landscaping to walk through. The club house is wonderful and we have 3 swimming pools and a gym to enjoy. The develoment also just finished another golf course (private) above us with million dollar homes being built. Across the street is an age required community with a great restauant and golf course that we can use.
I just saw that Trend Town Homes lowered their prices, the smallest starting at $179,000. They are on the Vistancia site as well. The homes here start in the mid to high $200K's. There are still some awesome resales right now. I have a great realtor if you private email me. We also have a brand new Safeway that is being built right now at our entrance, so we can walk to the store. Big shopping centers are just about finished down on Happy Valley Rd and lake Pleasant that has a Home Depot, Super Target, Kohls and Bed Bath and Beyond, plus many more shops and restaurants. This is only 4 miles from us. Please check out www.vistancia.com and come up and visit. We are also from California.
You would be further from the airport than Gillbert and Scottsdale. We do have pilots living here that don't seem to mind.

[cyclonebooby]

i myself came from santabarbara wish i hadnt,came with positive outlook on future now only thing positive in future will be to move from here.we've had a driveby shooting first year,burgleries,peeping toms,and the list goes on......its 10 years too long now and will be gone before the heat returns

[aj661]

Originally Posted by Jill Warner

I will give you our take on the area we chose and the why of it. We also had a 16 year old son and wanted a good high school so that narrowed our search to the west side. I am sure there are some very good schools on the east as well, but we also wanted to be outside of Phoenix downtown.

There are some very good high schools on the east side. Gilbert schools are highly rated. My kids went to Skyline HS in Mesa which has JROTC. Mountain View has one of the best Academic Decathlon teams in the state. I don't know how Mesa Public schools rank in general, but my kids both almost aced the AIMS tests and it wasn't because I helped them with their homework. BTW, We can make the airport from the AJ/Mesa border in just under 30 minutes.

Originally Posted by cyclonebooby

i myself came from santabarbara wish i hadnt,came with positive outlook on future now only thing positive in future will be to move from here.we've had a driveby shooting first year,burgleries,peeping toms,and the list goes on......its 10 years too long now and will be gone before the heat returns

What area do you live in? Are you saying you've been a victim of all these crimes or that they've occurred while you lived here? There are a few bad areas in the Phoenix metro area, but compared to parts of SoCal, the Phoenix 'burbs look like Mayberry.

[Boatdrinks]

Check greatschools.net for school ratings. Check them again next year too, or whenever you're moving, b/c things may change.

Gilbert is a great place to raise a family. It's in the east valley. Seville Golf and Country Club community is gorgeous. The club has a gym with child care and 3 pools - one Olympic size where the swim team practices (Seville has a swim team, which would be very convenient for you guys) and they have a great young kids' zero depth pool with geysers and waterfalls and also a big water slide. Seville has it's own Elementrary School in the community and Basha High School is very close and gets rave reviews from parents.

Power Ranch is a great family friendly community in Gilbert too. They don't have a country club and the pool isn't nearly as big as Seville's but it's very nice. There are a ton of kids there. They also have their own elemenary school there - Power Ranch Elem, and it's quite close to the 202.

Estrella Mtn Ranch in the west valley is gorgeous too. Very family friendly. The only problem is that it's pretty far away from the highway and shopping. But they're building a new mall nearby which will be gorgeous when it's finished around 2010.

There really are a huge number of options for you, depending on how much you can spend. However, since your move may be a year or so from now, I'd recommend checking greatschools.net as you get closer to your move date so you'll have a better idea of how the schools are doing, then go from there.