How is Marley Park these days? (Surprise: sales, renters, sex offenders)

[PHXSUNS]

I'm thinking about making the move to Surprise with Marley Park at the top of my list. I've read a post from several years back saying Marley Park wasn't as great as it was perceived to be. Just want some honest opinions here. Several questions as well...

1) How's the crime rate in the area? Do any of the long time residents here see any changes (good or bad) from the time back in the housing recession?
2) Is building picking back up?
3) With the completion of the 303, what is your opinion on the growth of Surprise?

Thanks in advance!

[LBTRS]

I think the forum member MN-Born-n-Raised has a place in Marley Park. Hopefully he can shed some light on the current situation.

We looked there when we bought our house in 2008 and while the area was nice it was just too far removed from the rest of the valley for us.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by PHXSUNS

I'm thinking about making the move to Surprise with Marley Park at the top of my list. I've read a post from several years back saying Marley Park wasn't as great as it was perceived to be. Just want some honest opinions here. Several questions as well...

1) How's the crime rate in the area? Do any of the long time residents here see any changes (good or bad) from the time back in the housing recession?
2) Is building picking back up?
3) With the completion of the 303, what is your opinion on the growth of Surprise?

Thanks in advance!

Crime in Marley Park is mostly petty. Like kids stealing bikes or someone turning off a neighbors power. But google a crime maps and there are several sites. I'd say Marley Park has slightly less crime than an average Surprise neighborhood. But remember, Surprise is the 2nd safest community in AZ. We have a couple of registered sex offenders in our hood. Lucky us....

The folks who came to Marley Park back in 2006 often talk about the neighbors were better before (more extroverts, more involved, etc). Renting peaked at 28%. I just looked last month and it is down to 15% and still falling. To me at least, that is a big positive. On average, renters don't take care of their places as well as owners.

There is a lot of building going on. But sales have slowed a little in the entire valley including Marley Park. I'd say housing prices on resales will drop $5-7 a square foot over the next 6 months. I don't see that happening right now on new construction. Plenty of upward pricing pressure. See Show Me the Data – Altos Research . This site is forward looking. Meaning, it shows asking prices. As you can see, confidence has dropped a little. But we are in the slower season too.

Re: growth. It's going to take years for major development because of the 303. As Ponderosa (another member) said, as you go father out, there is more area to fill in. So the 303 will be a time saver and that will cut down on peoples commute. That's going to help our values in the long run.

[PHXSUNS]

Thank you MN-Born-n-Raised. Your input is greatly appreciated!

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by PHXSUNS

Thank you MN-Born-n-Raised. Your input is greatly appreciated!

I'm glad I was able to help. Feel free to PM me if you had some additional questions. In short, I am delighted with the area, the people, the parks, the wide range of ages and how the day-to-day logistics are executed (HOA, communication, etc).

I was able to integrate quickly as we have several new good friends. We winter here for 6 months and are coming back in October. As a typical example, our son flew in and wanted to stay the night, I texted 5 neighbors that he was staying so they would not be alarmed. I got three other texts, a FB message, and two phone calls that a strange car was in our driveway. So people look out for one another. I think MP attracts quality people who want more of a community. That was what sold me.

That said, DMB is an incredible developer. As I have posted before, 2 of the three principals are wealthy. One is the sole inheritor of the Campbell soup fortune while another partner is in the Masterlock family. So they have deep pockets to do things right. For instance they spend close to a million dollars a year on Verrado and Marley Park to bring in bands, have events, hire two coordinators per location, etc. They realize that delighted neighbors talk. As an example, I can list off several sets of families where both the mom and dad as well as their kids families live in the same neighborhood (each with their own home). I mentioned the pedigree of the developers because they have the deep pockets to remain patient when times were extremely tough. Phase II will not be started until values climb and they are attracting semi-custom builders. So the neighborhood is going up hill. That is the developers approach. They know it's a 20 year game plan from start to finish. Most developers want to get in and out as fast as they can. They really do want to leave a legacy neighborhood. Putting it bluntly, they don't need the money (but have no interest in losing it either). I do believe the developer has a sincere interest in creating something special. That is there real motivation.

As I said, I could not be happier. It quickly felt like home.

[PhxBuckeye]

We are moving into Marley Park at the end of this this month. My wife wanted to move to Marley Park when we moved to the Surprise area several years ago but I told her with the market as crazy as it was at the time, and the fact that she was going back to school, I just didn't think it was the right time for us.

My wife never waivered on wanting to be there and when our eldest daughter started kindergarten, my wife took advantage of the open policies and sent her to Marley Park. Now she's in third grade and I think we've felt as much a part of the community as you can when living five miles away. Our daughter would always ask us to drop her off in a parking lot along Sweetwater so she could cross to school with the crosswalk ladies as she said it made her feel like she lived there. I'm very happy for my wife and our daughters, even though the younger one hasn't started school yet.

We're not the most gregarious people, but the community feel is definitely one of the things that attracted us to Marley Park. The green spaces, amenities and varying architecture are other features we love. The failure of the Dysart override was a setback, but I'm hopefully Marley Park Elementary will continue to be strong and improve. We were told if we weren't living in the neighborhood within the next two years, there likely wouldn't be space for our younger daughter to attend MPE. We already had to apply for our eldest to continue there. Now, it won't be an issue. Our eldest would have been crushed to have to leave Marley Park.

For me it will be a nice place to exercise and cruise my vintage bicycles.