article on Maricopa's quality of life. (Phoenix, Tucson: for sale, mortgage, motel)

[Vinny536]

I figured this would be good here for future searchers.

here is the link to the article with a copy and paste below.

News Article Details

Seven years ago, while working in Sun Lakes, Marshall Stone saw a billboard advertising Rancho El Dorado homes for sale 15 minutes away. When Stone read the sign, he immediately thought it was a typographical error because he didn’t think anything existed in the direction of Maricopa.

Over the next few months, he continued to see the sign unchanged. Then one day, he decided to make the drive and see what was in Rancho El Dorado.

“I was expecting to see trailers, but when I saw the beautiful front entrance to Rancho El Dorado, I was sold and purchased one of the first homes in the development,” he said.
Once he bought the home, much of the appeal of Maricopa for Stone was it being a small town away from the daily grind of the city, offering a lower cost of living. However, as time went by, the property taxes climbed and utility costs soared.
Is Maricopa still the value it was five, 10 years ago? Stone thinks so. But to truly understand where Maricopa is today, it’s important take a drive outside the city limits. Here’s a look at how Maricopa compares to six other Valley cities: Avondale, Chandler, Gilbert, Goodyear, Mesa and Phoenix.
Utilities

While Motel 6 will leave a light on for you, the same may not be recommended in Maricopa. Maricopa has the highest water and electricity rates of the six Valley cities compared.

“It is costing more (utility wise) to live in a much more efficient home in Maricopa than it did in Chandler,” Stone said.

Maricopans receive their power from Electrical District No. 3. On average, residents pay $2,208 annually, or $184 per month. Compare this to customers of Arizona Public Service who see an average annual bill of $1,704 or $142 per month and Salt River Project customers, who spend $1,464 a year or $122 per month.

Why the difference? In part, the higher electricity rates are a result of ED-3 not producing its own power. Unfortunately, Maricopa’s power company negotiated a contract to purchase power from APS when prices were high. However, Bill Stacy, ED-3’s general manager, has been negotiating a lower price with APS in recent months, and went so far as to promise no rate increases in 2010.

“I can only think of two negatives concerning Maricopa: the utilities and the cow smell,” said Ray Hagley, who recently moved to Maricopa from Idaho. “The electric company is working on solving its problem, and there could be a reduction in rates in the future; that’s good news,” Hagley said. “But the water company seems to be only interested in how many dollars it can put in its pocket.”

The water company Hagley refers to is Global Water Resources. Currently, Global Water’s average monthly bill for sewer and water service is roughly $76.

Global Water, already 68 percent higher than the other cities, is currently pleading its case in front of the Arizona Corporation Commission to increase its fees in Maricopa to roughly $130 a month.

“I understand water and electric prices being higher to a degree, but the rates Global is seeking are ridiculous,” Stone said.





Home prices

Once Dan Knickerbocker and his wife decided to move to the Phoenix metropolitan area from Pennsylvania nearly a month ago, the young couple gave a call to a realtor friend in Chandler.

“I was in Tucson at the time doing some work, and the realtor told me if I didn’t mind a little bit more of a commute I could get a much larger house for the money in Maricopa,” Knickerbocker said.

So after wrapping up his work in Tucson, Knickerbocker headed to Maricopa to do a little investigating. When he finally arrived, he was pleased with what he found and eventually purchased a 2,600-square-foot home in the Homestead neighborhood. These days, Knickerbocker travels all over the country for his job, which allows him to compare many communities.

“The size of house we could buy for the money made it a no brainer to move to Maricopa,” he said. “We looked at lots of places — Buckeye, Queen Creek, Surprise, even the Sun Cities communities. For the value, Maricopa stood out above all the rest,” Hagley said.
Local Prudential Realtor John Kamouzis agrees, describing home prices in Maricopa as among the most affordable in the state.

While the prices in Maricopa are affordable, Kamouzis said most homes in Maricopa are selling for a minimum of $5,000 to $10,000 above the list price. “It is starting to get crazy again, with people having to put multiple bids in to find a home,” he said.

This next phase of bidding wars has led Kamouzis to believe that prices in Maricopa will continue to steadily climb upward the next several years, eventually settling at an appropriate level.

“When we had the housing boom, prices in Maricopa became equal to that of Valley cities; then when the bubble burst they fell dramatically,” he said. “The truth is, homes in Maricopa should typically be 20 percent less than those in the Valley.”


Commute

People approach Stone on a daily basis questioning how he is able to make the long trek to work through the Gila River Indian Community.

“A lot of people I talk to about Maricopa are critical of the drive across the reservation, but it beats driving down Valley roads, having to beat drivers off of you right and left,” Stone said. “I work in central Phoenix, and I love the drive.”

Stone sees the drive as an opportunity to shake off a rough day in the city, leaving behind the day’s stress. He’s not alone. With a lack of jobs in the community, commuting is a daily reality for many Maricopa residents.

To compare, the distance from that city to a downtown Phoenix was used to determine an estimated cost of commuting. (See chart below.) But while the cost is higher, many Maricopa residents write off the expense as a quality of life issue. “The commute doesn’t bug me,” Knickerbocker said. “There is not a lot of congestion like in the city.”
Property tax

When Maricopa and the rest of Pinal County boomed in the past decade, it marked a transition from a county and town that were historically rural to a more urbanized reality.

Unlike other cities in Maricopa County, which had all the infrastructure in place and were receiving millions of tax dollars from established businesses, cities in Pinal County, Maricopa included, had to place much of the financial burden of development on residents through property taxes.

There are two types of property taxes: secondary and primary. Primary property taxes are typically composed of rates from the city, school district and county. The money generated from these taxes are used to cover basic general budget expenses.
The secondary property tax includes those approved by voter initiatives, such as school construction bonds and recreation bonds. In Maricopa the primary property tax is currently 12.5 percent. However, due to state laws, residents are only required to pay 10 percent, still more than twice of the other cities. (See chart below.)

Roger Kolman, Maricopa’s assistant city manager, said as Maricopa continues to add businesses, development, and, in general, increase the size of the tax base, these rates will fall. “In theory, the economic turnaround should bring business to Maricopa and help to lower the rate,” he said.
“Sure the infrastructure has not been completed, but it’s all on the drawing board,” Hagley said. “The movie theaters, bowling alleys and the malls…they will all come in time and in a not too distant future. As an almostretiree, I can tell the younger generation I have seen these times before, and we will emerge better and stronger than ever. Knowing that, we decided to invest in Maricopa.”

While the primary rate may be falling in the future, the secondary rate of 2.7 percent is ready for growth. In November 2008, Maricopa residents voted for two bond initiatives: $65 million for recreational facilities for Maricopa and $99 million for the expansion of Central Arizona College.

While the exact numbers on how these bonds affect residents’ pocketbooks will not be available until the interest rate the buyers receive is determined, it was estimated that the packages combined will cost the average homeowner about $50 per year.

With these two packages hitting the tax roles in the coming years, a $58 million bond passed by voters in 2006 for Maricopa Unified School District will slowly melt off the books over the next 20 years.







(City chart total does not include the average monthly mortgage payment for each city. See mortgage box above for payment numbers.)
Small-town feel

While size and home price were important factors, Knickerbocker said it was the friendliness of people in the community that ultimately helped him decide to move to Maricopa. Knickerbocker and his wife were looking at two similar homes in different developments — one in The Lakes and another in Homestead — when some neighbors helped make the choice easy.

“We really liked both homes, but when we were looking at the Homestead home, the neighbors came out and greeted us. They just seemed like nice people, so we decided to moved here,” he said.

Since moving in, the couple has enjoyed many dinners and gatherings with the neighbors. Knickerbocker is not alone in his assessment of the friendliness that is Maricopa.

Stone said the nicest thing about the community is when you meet people on the street, they say hi. “It’s not like that in the Valley,” he said. “I love Maricopa, and I don’t plan on moving.