Best places to raise a family? Phoenix area (Mesa, Chandler: insurance, low crime)

[thedfly]

Have you checked out Anthem? VERY family-friendly. Great parks! Affordable housing.
The commute can be terrible on I-17 though.

[Great Joy]

There are many places around Phoenix that are good to raise a family. We live in northern Peoria and love it. We've become friends with one family that moved from Vegas, and they said it's much better here.

[sweettearose]

Phoenix is like most large cities in that it's not a great place to raise a family IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT! Those who are in a position to be able to send their children to good schools and live in nice areas love Phoenix. If your combined income is less than 100K, I think there are many better cities to raise a family. I think cities like Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, San Antonio, Austin, Kansas City, Charlotte, Nashville, Portland are some cities have great surrounding suburbs that have great schools and affordable housing. Perhaps, you can throw Chicago into that mix as well. If you really want to be able to get the best out of Phoenix relatively speaking, I think your combined household income should exceed 100K and reallistically be around 150K + because homes are really expensive now and the cost of living increases each year.

I think this rule applies to the west coast in general. Seattle, LA and San Diego are the same way. If you don't earn enough money, they are really horrible places to raise a family. San Francisco/Bay area is pretty nice overall and their schools are excellent but the cost of living is so high there and for many people the cost of living just makes it an unreasonable option. The caveat of course is that if you can afford it, they are great places to raise a family

[hts]

Parenting magazine ranked Anthem as one of the best places to raise a family:

Anthem, Arizona - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[fdxboy]

HUH?!?!? $100K combined household income is MORE than sufficient to raise a family in AZ. Homes are dropping in value by the hour here in Arizona. Besides..the property taxes here are virtually non-existant. Let me take your Chicago example....property taxes are almost 3x what they are here and housing costs more. So I would not say that is a very affordable place. Let's face facts...schools in the valley are not very good. Sure you can point out and exception here or there...but for the most part we are near the bottom for test scores and money spent per pupil. You can thank ESL for that!

Originally Posted by sweettearose

Phoenix is like most large cities in that it's not a great place to raise a family IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT! Those who are in a position to be able to send their children to good schools and live in nice areas love Phoenix. If your combined income is less than 100K, I think there are many better cities to raise a family. I think cities like Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, San Antonio, Austin, Kansas City, Charlotte, Nashville, Portland are some cities have great surrounding suburbs that have great schools and affordable housing. Perhaps, you can throw Chicago into that mix as well. If you really want to be able to get the best out of Phoenix relatively speaking, I think your combined household income should exceed 100K and reallistically be around 150K + because homes are really expensive now and the cost of living increases each year.

I think this rule applies to the west coast in general. Seattle, LA and San Diego are the same way. If you don't earn enough money, they are really horrible places to raise a family. San Francisco/Bay area is pretty nice overall and their schools are excellent but the cost of living is so high there and for many people the cost of living just makes it an unreasonable option. The caveat of course is that if you can afford it, they are great places to raise a family

[azwoodworking]

Hi. We used to live in Henderson and LOVE it here. Surprise is a great place to raise a family. Just make sure you are in a good school. There are hit and miss schools there.

[JoePAz]

Originally Posted by thedfly

Have you checked out Anthem? VERY family-friendly. Great parks! Affordable housing.
The commute can be terrible on I-17 though.

I live and anthem and love the community. I think it pretty nice for a family with young kids.

The commute can be tough, but it depends on where you plan to work and when you will get there. I leave my house at 5:45 am and the I-17 is 70+ mph all the way to loop 101. If you can adjust your work times is not bad at all.

[kreynolds]

just wondering what are the good schools in surprise?

Originally Posted by azwoodworking

Hi. We used to live in Henderson and LOVE it here. Surprise is a great place to raise a family. Just make sure you are in a good school. There are hit and miss schools there.

[cabolissa]

I'm also looking for a family-friendly community, newer homes around $200K. We're considering Phoenix and Austin suburbs. We're leaving Orange County, CA cuz all we can afford here is a 2 bdrm condo, and that cost us $350K for under 1000 sq ft! Ridiculous!
What does everyone think about Madison Park at Verrado?
Verrado - Arizona new community - 26 miles west of Phoenix at the base of the beautiful White Tank Mountains- March 2 pictures from southwest photos on webshots
The new homes are selling from $165-200K now and I'd have to drive to Phoenix for work as a Paralegal.
Location Map

[Finger Laker]

Verrado is very nice and a lovely community - although it's in Buckeye technically they tend to disassociate themselves - for example the schools aren't in the Buckeye district

It is a little further out though and the drive to downtown can be a little congested - I live in Goodyear and Verrado is even out past where I live