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Motleycrew and ArizonaAnnie, I agree; I definitely like the exterior architecture of the Rosewood homes too. I'd like them more if their floorplans were more of an open concept.
Hope you all have a great day too!
I know what you mean. I also looked at a very interesting plan in WA. once that was like a big square with a large courtyard and outside kitchen in the center. It was very well done. That particular floorplan wasn't really "open", but what I liked about it was that each area had it's own wing (so to speak), and the childrens/guests rooms were on the opposite "wing" from the master suite. I haven't found anything like that down here yet, but then again, I wouldn't want that much house anymore.
My family and I just moved here from Chicago area. We are used to congestion and big city life, but Phoenix is very different than Chicago. We are currently renting, but would like some suggestions for different areas as we are house hunting. Goodyear(Palm Valley), Gilbert, Chandler, Awhatukee, Laveen, North Phoenix. My husband works dowton near Washington and Central. He basically can arrive anytime before 9 am and leaves usually not until 5:30 or 6:00. Thanks
Consider that if you live in the west valley, your husband will have the sun in his eyes both in the morning driving to work, and again in the evening driving home from work. That can be brutal and very tiring.
We live in Val Vista Lakes, a community in Gilbert that was just named this years best neighborhood in the 12th annual Gilbert Community Excellence Awards. It has four lakes, a 6 million dollar clubhouse which is on the water, which you can see at Val Vista Lakes - Your Community. The area has something for everyone.
There are 24 sub-divisions in the community, with 7 gated communities. The home prices range from under 300,000 in some of the communities to over one million for water front properties. Last week I sold a home listed for $339,000 in a non gated community, and one on the water with a large lot which was listed at $1,325,000.
This community has all ages living here, and there are plenty of activities for all ages.
Since I live here, I'm biased. However, we did a lot of looking, including in North Scottsdale, until we discovered Val Vista Lakes. We wouldn't consider anywhere else.
Great Joy,
I wish I could have be there for the event this weekend. Thanks for informing me about events coming up in November....
Pinda,
It's getting close to your trip time. Yeah for you and your family! Or maybe you're already traveling in CA or AZ?
In addition to the public community-wide garage sale at individual homes in Vistancia Village on Sat, Nov 10 from 8am-12noon that I mentioned in an earlier post, I also just found out about this other Vistancia public event that was announced in the Peoria Today newspaper. Here's a link to the news article as well as a few quotes from it:Peoria: Blackstone offers head start on holiday ideas | holiday, blackstone, chef - Daily News-Sun (http://www.yourwestvalley.com:80/articles/holiday_1038___article.html/blackstone_chef.html - broken link)
"Holiday decorating ideas, mini clinics on holiday cooking and guest demonstrations by Beau MacMillan, executive chef of elements at Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain and “Iron Chef America” winner, are planned during Blackstone Holiday Inspirations weekend Nov. 10 and 11 at Blackstone at Vistancia.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day at the 590-acre community located west of Lake Pleasant Road and north of Happy Valley Parkway within the Vistancia master plan in north Peoria.
Clinics and demonstrations will take place in Blackstone’s eight luxury models by T.W. Lewis, Cachet Homes and Cachet Villas. In addition, visitors can tour Blackstone’s 30,000-square-foot Hacienda clubhouse at 11 a.m. and 1 and 3 p.m. both days."
Blackstone is Vistancia's private country club community, so it would be a good way to see this community section of the overall Vistancia development since this one is normally gated and closed to the public.
....We live in Val Vista Lakes, a community in Gilbert that was just named this years best neighborhood in the 12th annual Gilbert Community Excellence Awards. It has four lakes, a 6 million dollar clubhouse which is on the water, which you can see at Val Vista Lakes - Your Community. The area has something for everyone.
There are 24 sub-divisions in the community, with 7 gated communities. The home prices range from under 300,000 in some of the communities to over one million for water front properties. Last week I sold a home listed for $339,000 in a non gated community, and one on the water with a large lot which was listed at $1,325,000.
This community has all ages living here, and there are plenty of activities for all ages.
Since I live here, I'm biased. However, we did a lot of looking, including in North Scottsdale, until we discovered Val Vista Lakes. We wouldn't consider anywhere else.
Bill
Thanks for your link to view Val Vista Lakes. Thanks for helping us learn about your area. It looks like a beautiful master planned community! Since we're familiar with all of the master planned communities on the west side, it's nice to know about one of them on the east side too.
What are the other amazing master planned communities in the east valley?
Location: Sunny Phoenix Arizona...wishing for a beach.
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Originally Posted by Great Joy
Welcome to AZ!
I agree with Ponderosa that Estrella is beautiful. That was one of the master planned communities we looked at when we were house hunting, and we really liked it a lot.
I also think Arrowhead, Scottsdale, and Verrado are nice too. I don't know enough about Ahwatukee, Laveen, Beverly Park, or the specific McCormmick Ranch area of Scottsdale to comment about them.
About Avondale, Litchfield Park, and Palm Valley, I agree there are some nice and beautiful neighborhoods. However, be careful within some of those areas there are superfund sites where there was water contamination. Not all of the areas within Avondale, Litchfield Park, and Palm Valley are included in the superfund sites, but some areas are. We found that out when we were looking at homes there because it was disclosed on the homes' property reports.
Another place worth living in the valley is Vistancia. We love living here. We chose Peoria because of the schools, and we chose Vistancia because it's amazing mountains, miles of paved walk/bike paths, indoor gymnasium, water park with pools, slides, and dancing water fountain, clubhouse, tower, multiple parks, tennis courts, spa, and golf courses, location, and the retail center with restaurants, grocery store, pharmacy, etc. Additional retail and office complexes including a medical center as well as the expansion of the 303 highway are in the future plan for the east side of Vistancia too. We love Vistancia for all those reasons...and now also because of the community. We've made so many wonderful friends here. Everyone cares about one another in the community...so much so that we feel like we're "family". We're a mixture of AZ natives and transplants from around the US. We have friends here from AZ, CA, MI, IL, MS, CO, NV, PA, NY, UT, and FL. Several of our good friends here are from Chicago.
The residents here are very active in the Vistancia community events as well as the schools. We came from a school with lots of parent involvement, so it is great to see a lot of parent volunteers at Vistancia Elementary (K-8) too. Vistancia High School (9-12) is also planned to built here within the next few years. Even though last year was Vistancia Elementary's first year, they did a phenomenal job. A news article in The Peoria Republic reported: "The Peoria Unified School District came out on top of recent AIMS test results, with district passing averages surpassing state averages in every category. Some schools shined in various categories. At Vistancia Elementary, 99 percent of seventh-graders passed the writing test." We were very pleased with Vistancia Elementary last year and are happy so far this year too. The teachers and staff are great, and they have an excellent pre-school program also.
Be aware that some communities claim they are Master Planned Communities; however, they really aren't. Some only have "tot lots" and paths. Some don't have pools, tennis, etc as well as an organized community team that manages and plans resident activities and events. I've met people who live in some of those "other" communities, and they have told me they have a hard time getting to know the people in their neighborhoods. Vistancia residents are well connected because of the community team's newsletter, website, and activities. Due to the community-wide events, our circle of friends has grown fast. There are so many activities to choose from here in Vistancia. For kids, there is tee ball, dance, soccer, tennis, basketball, Kidz Art, family movie nights, parties, and trips to local special events like sport games and Halloween mazes. We even had an event called Winter Wonderland when snow was shipped in for the kids to sled down the hill. For adults, we have men's poker, women's bunko, mom's club, wino's club, walking club, adult basketball, karate, kickboxing, mat pilates, meditation group, mountain biking club, social volleyball, swimming, tennis, golf as well as other events occuring in the next few months such as a photography class, a charity walk, a Habitat for Humanity charity building event, and several festivals.
Have you visited Vistancia yet or have you seen it on the internet? When you see it in person, we know you'll be impressed. We were when we first saw it and still are. Even when our friends came to visit us after we moved, they said, "Wow...you are living in a resort!" It made us realize then that yes, it is like a resort...like being on vacation, except we live here. It has even won multiple awards including Best Master Planned Community of the Year (in all of the US) by the National Home Builders in 2005. Vistancia has many builders and plans to choose from with prices ranging from $169,000 to over $1 million.
I envy you because now is a great time to buy! Best wishes to you in your search!
What is the commute like these days from Vistancia to N Scottsdale? Do you kknow?
What is the commute like these days from Vistancia to N Scottsdale? Do you kknow?
I don't know commute times from us here in Vistancia to N Scottsdale; however, there are Vistancia residents that make that commute every day. The next time I see any of them, I'll ask and let you know. I did a googlemap search though, and here are the miles from Vistancia to these NE valley destinations:
Desert Ridge - 22 miles
Mayo Clinic Hospital - 24 miles
Kierland Area - 28 miles
Location: Sunny Phoenix Arizona...wishing for a beach.
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Originally Posted by Great Joy
I don't know commute times from us here in Vistancia to N Scottsdale; however, there are Vistancia residents that make that commute every day. The next time I see any of them, I'll ask and let you know. I did a googlemap search though, and here are the miles from Vistancia to these NE valley destinations:
Desert Ridge - 22 miles
Mayo Clinic Hospital - 24 miles
Kierland Area - 28 miles
Miles are decent but I wonder what's traffic like, that could be ugly.
Miles are decent but I wonder what's traffic like, that could be ugly.
I agree; traffic can be ugly. I can tell you what I experience between Vistancia and the intersection at 101 and the 17. Due to our experiences driving in cities with much worse traffic, I think that particular commute is a breeze and only takes 25-30 minutes, driving by yourself and no HOV lane. Even during the worst rush hour moment I've had, the max is 35 minutes. The only area of that commute route that gets somewhat slow traffic during the height of the rush hour is the 101---mornings heading east it gets a little slow approaching the 17 interchange and evenings heading west it sometimes gets a little slow in the right lane as people are trying to get off at the exits.
Since you've lived in Phoenix before, I think you probably remember that one of the good things about the 101 is that it has a westbound one-way "frontage road" and an eastbound one-way "frontage road" to give people an additional route option to help them more easily get to their destinations. Or to help you know in case you didn't live on the north end of Phoenix, both the westbound and eastbound frontage roads are named "W Beardsley Road". These one-way frontage roads follow along both sides of the 101 from 75th Ave (NW valley) past the 17 to Cave Creek Road (NE valley).
Maybe others here can help us know what the traffic is like from the 101/17 intersection to N Scottsdale?
Maybe others here can help us know what the traffic is like from the 101/17 intersection to N Scottsdale?
Its not that bad at all, Scottsdale Rd moves along pretty good in those areas. There are alot of stoplights, thats about it, but Ive never been hooked in a jam there. They did have the road down to one lane just north of the 101 and it slowed things down a bit, but by no means was it bad.
Location: Sunny Phoenix Arizona...wishing for a beach.
4,300 posts, read 14,958,068 times
Reputation: 813
Quote:
Originally Posted by Great Joy
I agree; traffic can be ugly. I can tell you what I experience between Vistancia and the intersection at 101 and the 17. Due to our experiences driving in cities with much worse traffic, I think that particular commute is a breeze and only takes 25-30 minutes, driving by yourself and no HOV lane. Even during the worst rush hour moment I've had, the max is 35 minutes. The only area of that commute route that gets somewhat slow traffic during the height of the rush hour is the 101---mornings heading east it gets a little slow approaching the 17 interchange and evenings heading west it sometimes gets a little slow in the right lane as people are trying to get off at the exits.
Since you've lived in Phoenix before, I think you probably remember that one of the good things about the 101 is that it has a westbound one-way "frontage road" and an eastbound one-way "frontage road" to give people an additional route option to help them more easily get to their destinations. Or to help you know in case you didn't live on the north end of Phoenix, both the westbound and eastbound frontage roads are named "W Beardsley Road". These one-way frontage roads follow along both sides of the 101 from 75th Ave (NW valley) past the 17 to Cave Creek Road (NE valley).
Maybe others here can help us know what the traffic is like from the 101/17 intersection to N Scottsdale?
I lived up in N Glendale back in the 90's. I have friends up there and have been in and around since then. 35 minutes is nothing. I traveled 35 from Gilbert to Ahwatukee early morning and on the way home 45 minutes +.
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