commute questions/opinions for SE valley and central Phx (Phoenix: real estate, neighborhood)

[sugarlips]

I'll try to be concise...

The job is in casa grande. We don't want to live in casa grande or maricopa. We are thinking of south chandler, or gilbert. (although the cental corridor is where we would really want to live).

We have two school-aged children. We don't want to be in mediocre schools...looking for a greatschools.com schools rating of atleast a 9 and elementary schools getting excelling marks from the state.

Ideally, we want to keep the commute under 1 hour each way. It would seem that the commute would be going against traffic and wouldn't be that bad if we stayed in the south chandler area but what about gilbert?


Also considering QC but only within the Jack Barnes Elementary or Frances-Brandon Pickett Elementary boundaries (i.e. not QC elementary or JO Combs or Florence schools). See http://www.qcusd.org/map.htm (broken link). The areas are in yellow and green.

Last, what are your estimates on the commute from central corridor to casa grande? I know...bad...but just curious.

Thanks in advance for the help. I don't know this part of the valley at all. So I am grateful for your response.

[Nice Nice Baby!]

You can do both since your direction would be going against traffic. 30-45 minute commute from Chandler/Gilbert depending on where you locate. I don't know much about the schools in the central corridor, but I can tell you that some of the best schools in the state are found in Chandler and Gilbert. This really goes without argument because the schools publicly post their test scores for people like you to compare. Higher test scores are related to more stable real estate values.

[sugarlips]

I realize that the schools in central phx are not going to be that good. Even that madison district, which some say is good, isn't what we are used to for our kids. I would expect to go private or charter if we were to live in the central phx area. The problem is the waiting lists for these schools and what to you do in the meantime.

[jco]

I agree that some of the best schools are in Gilbert. The Madison school district in Phoenix is also highly ranked. The thing about Phoenix is that you may live in a very nice neighborhood, but a couple miles down the road is a not so hot neighborhood. Your kids will go to school with those kids. I wouldn't do the drive to Casa Grande from Phoenix. I'd do it from the areas you described in QC and Chandler/Gilbert. I'd agree that it would probably be under 45 minutes from there. From Phoenix... ugh. Don't even want to think about it.

[sugarlips]

We will look into south Chandler, Gilbert and possibly parts of Queen Creek. It's good to know that it can be done in under an hour. Even though it's a long drive, atleast it won't be sitting in traffic.

Thanks!

[sheena]

For a Gilbert commute you have the new 202 and you should be able to do in about 35-40 depending on where in Gilbert you choose.