Moving To AZ - PELASE HELP (Phoenix, Avondale: best city, houses, neighborhoods)

[confusedmomof4]

I wanted people's feedback on the Tolleson area?

I have heard it is good and I have heard it is bad, please help

[Finger Laker]

You've heard it's good?

I'm curious what the pro-tolleson chatter is .... seriously.

I'm really interested in how tolleson is selling itself as a good community, because I could very well be missing something.

IMO, it's an area that could be really promising - but just never seems to reach it, small community that is driven by warehouses and industrial plants (given their access to the freeway & rail lines), very small central area that has a heavy police presence (be careful driving van buren through tolleson - watch your speed) and I really don't see much their

Property values are depressed, but not really a relative bargain all told - school isn't thought highly of - residents seem to clash with their gov't fairly often and no real future plan that I can think of

[Jenn543]

What is your opinion on Avondale and Goodyear?

[Ponderosa]

It's not very good. They put in some nice retail and commercial by the freeway (Tolleson Crossroads or something like that), but overall it is a lower middle income area that sprang up in the boom, died in the bust and is going nowhere in the long haul but down. Tolleson has one little part called Cashion that is a vestige of housing discrimination in the Phoenix area and is very bad. Neighboring Avondale is better managed and, on the north side at least, reasonably good. Goodyear is the best city in the southwest valley in terms of income, schools, and future potential. Parts of Goodyear are very upscale and most of it is on par with the desirable areas in the Phoenix metro area. In would be hard to go wrong buying in any of the newer parts of Goodyear.

[Finger Laker]

Yeah - goodyear/LP are your best bet in that general area

From there it depends on what matters to you .... if you have kids and what to do the school game you can find parts of avondale that are aligned to the same exact schools as goodyear, are located right next to some nice goodyear neighborhoods, but are priced a smidge lower

I think avondale is trying to do some of the right things - they just have some tougher legacy hurdles to jump over .... there are definitely acceptable parts within the city though

[dentalbuzz]

Originally Posted by Finger Laker

Yeah - goodyear/LP are your best bet in that general area

From there it depends on what matters to you .... if you have kids and what to do the school game you can find parts of avondale that are aligned to the same exact schools as goodyear, are located right next to some nice goodyear neighborhoods, but are priced a smidge lower

I think avondale is trying to do some of the right things - they just have some tougher legacy hurdles to jump over .... there are definitely acceptable parts within the city though

What about Surprise? We are seriously considering moving down there. I'll be attending Midwestern and I have three kids, two are school age. I've heard good things about the area, and prices are cheaper than the neighboring cities.

[Finger Laker]

I like surprise - but there are definitely pros/cons

The biggest con is that it's a bit isolated - it's not easy to get in/out of at almost any time of the day/week .... rush hour will be worse - but if you are relying on bell rd then it's going to be really tough

Just under 3 weeks ago I wanted to avoid the 101 & I-10 due to some road work ..... on a random saturday afternoon it took about 45 minutes to get from arrowhead hospital to the bell road & 303 intersection (maybe 15 miles)

A few years back I tried to do something similar with worse results (a little extra distance going from greenway & I-17 and during rush hour)

Commute tolerances vary - but Midwestern is just past the hospital 59th ave vs 67th ave)

The schools aren't bad, there is a lot of area for parks, etc and a good amount of activities for kids ..... it's just on an island

Another thing to consider is the other end of "we" and where they'll need to travel (if at all) - also, if buying keep in mind that your future job may draw you even further into the metro

[goolsbyjazz]

My wife and I looked at houses in Tolleson during the economic boom and the houses were very nice, but the town itself is small and more industrial. You have to drive out to do anything. It's location is 10 or 15 minutes from the closest highway and during morning rush hour is a nightmare. We lived in Laveen, which is right next to Tolleson and it wasn't much better at the time. Good luck.