Apartment Rents

[sarahw97]

I did a quick map search on Zillow for rentals near old town scottsdale - I looked at the area roughly bordered by N Scottsdale Rd to 64th, between Thomas and Chaparral, as that's an area I know well and it has a lot going on for a younger person (walk/bike to nightlife etc). I've found Zillow is never really up to date for rentals, but it's a useful tool to get a feel for what's out there.
There are several pretty decent apartments under $700 - they're not luxury, but as a starting point, not bad. I saw one that was a good location on E 4th with 2br and community pool for $695, and another that was a great walkable location for $650 (looks like a guest house). You really just need to do some investigating when you come out, as the neighborhoods vary block to block.. you see a lot of "for Rent" signs just posted up outside, a lot of building are just small privately owned and they may not even advertise (craigslist perhaps). In very broad general terms it gets rougher closer to Thomas and nicer towards Camelback, but like I said you have to see for yourself because it varies block to block in a lot of these older more central areas.
* you might also check out Padmapper website, it pulls listings from craigslist and rent.com and other places, in a map interface.

[neoshaman]

Originally Posted by crystalys

The OP actually said the real estate person told them to be wary of places that are less than $600, not what specific areas to avoid. And I would agree that most apartments in that lesser range usually have undesirable attributes like run down, poor management, or a less desirable location.

See below.

Originally Posted by Moopsiepie

I was told to avoid Mesa, the west Valley, Gilbert and South Phoenix.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by neoshaman

See below.

You live in Pennsylvania, and you are telling the OP to avoid huge areas of metro Phoenix in looking for a place to rent? A lot is going to depend on where she ends up working, but there are good options in Mesa, Gilbert, and "the west Valley", which is way too large to lump together in an opinion about anything. I would opt out of south Phoenix, too, but I would not throw out the other three before I even start.

[SillyButtons]

I'd say $600 is about the lowest you'll be able to find in the decent/nice complexes close to anything or anywhere. If you don't mind living far out under $600 reasonable.

LIVE NEAR YOUR WORK is my 2 cents

[yukon]

Originally Posted by observer53

You live in Pennsylvania, and you are telling the OP to avoid huge areas of metro Phoenix in looking for a place to rent? A lot is going to depend on where she ends up working, but there are good options in Mesa, Gilbert, and "the west Valley", which is way too large to lump together in an opinion about anything. I would opt out of south Phoenix, too, but I would not throw out the other three before I even start.

I think he/she was referring to the post that said OP's realtor said to avoid under a certain price and not areas, which I contested as OP did actually say her realtor said to avoid under a certain price AND entire areas. This poster was just reiterating what I said, pointing out OP's original statement.

Eh, that was kinda circular. Sorry!

[neoshaman]

Thanks, yukon, that was my intent. Observer53, I was just trying to clarify what Moopsiepie was told by her realtor. Apparently, crystalys misread the OP's original post. I don't know nearly enough about the PHX metro area to make an suggestions or claims. Sorry to have stirred the pot in the wrong direction.