Moving to Buckeye Area (Phoenix, Goodyear: real estate, 2015, renters)

[triab3]

WE are looking at moving to Arizona and I have recently been offered a job in Buckeye. I know the traffic on I10 can be horrible so was looking to stay close. I there any particular area in buckeye I should avoid. I Live currently near cleveland ohio and will pretty much be coming down blind. We are looking to rent within the first year at least and are looking at houses, no apts. Any information and recommendations will be extremely helpful.

Adam

[Az_Mitch]

Adam,

I currently live in Buckeye. I actually grew up in Buckeye. I joined the military after high school, served for 24 years and recently moved back and I've been living here for 2 years now. I live in Verrado which is a master planned community just north of I-10 up against the White Tank mountains. The City of Buckeye has a crime stats page.

Crime Reports & Stats - Buckeye, AZ

You can get a pretty good idea of the areas to avoid from the page. There are quite a few areas to live and it just depends upon your budget and what type of home you want. Try comparing the crime stats page with any rental listings you may find and hopefully that will help. If you come up with any specific areas you have questions about just ask and I'll let you know my opinion.

[Ponderosa]

The good news is if you work in Buckeye you will have all kinds of home choices and NO TRAFFIC JAMS whatsoever. Take a look at the Sundance (looks nice but can be rough in some areas) and Verrado (all very nice) developments in Buckeye. Also consider Goodyear - just up the road a bit with more shopping and such but not much more in the way of a commute.

[wpsmovingwest]

We recently moved to Buckeye from the midwest also. We looked at Verrado and loved it. We also looked at Sundance and several others in that area and were not impressed with some of the quality of houses. We ended up buying in Blue Horizons, which is a new master-planned community, because of the location as well as the investment. We really love living here, and there is no crime. The new library is about 3 minutes from my house and we can get to shopping in about 5 minutes. I would caution against houses north of i10 at our exit (Jackrabbit) unless you can afford one of the giant ranches out there. Otherwise, there are some unsavory people who live in the older neighborhoods there because they aren't close to schools. Look at Verrado for sure, and Blue Horizons if there are any for rent. Sundance has some nice neighborhoods too. Buckeye is a pretty legit town, and you won't really have to deal with traffic. Good luck!

[triab3]

Thanks to all, just a quick question: when people say "shady" areas, what exactly would they be referring to. I talked to someone in HR and they said parts of Sundace can be shady... just looking for some clarification

thanks

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by triab3

Thanks to all, just a quick question: when people say "shady" areas, what exactly would they be referring to. I talked to someone in HR and they said parts of Sundace can be shady... just looking for some clarification

thanks

They mean lower income, crime,kids with attitudes on the streets - gang wannabies, burglaries, auto break ins, graffiti, loud music playing at noisy parties, underperforming schools. You get the picture. It's not a ghetto by any means in fact it is, from outward appearances, a nice newer area, just maybe a mildly "shady" area.

[Az_Mitch]

I would avoid the western section of Sundance. You can look at the crime report page and most of the crime is centered around Watson Rd. Watson Rd is mostly strip malls with your average stores and fast food restaurants. This area gets quite a bit of traffic from both locals and also I-10 travelers. Because of this there is more crime in the area. The western section of Sundance butts right up against this area. I would avoid this section.

A previous poster said to avoid this section of Jackrabbit north of I-10 and I don't necessarily agree. This section is full of older homes on lots zoned for animals. Some of the lots have more trash than others but honestly there is very little crime in this area. It's simply an area where people had their own homes built in the 70's/80's and live how they want. It was not built by a developer so it doesn't look like the newer communities.

It all depends on what you're looking for and what is important to you in an area.

[MonkeyMom2dd]

Looking at the overall picture of the greater Phoenix area including Buckeye, Buckeye tends to have a significantly higher crime rate. That is not to say that all of the areas are bad, but that you need to be very careful of where you do decide to live because of that. Verrado does tend to be very nice. I'm not familiar with Blue Horizons community.

What I have observed from living in this area for nearly 12 years now is that the areas where the home prices are very low when new homes are being built, typically under $250,000, tend to have more investors purchase those homes. Those investors then need to rent those homes. When they have difficulty renting their homes, they seek out government-subsized tenants. These tenants are typically individuals that are living below the poverty the line. As is common, with low-income housing crime tends to be much higher. My suggestion is to look to rent a home where most of the homes are lived in by the people that actually own them (owner occupied). Areas that have high numbers of renters tend to have more crime, commonly drugs, violent crime (especially domestic violence), and high levels of property theft.

I would suggest contacting a real estate professional to help you find a house in great neighborhood. There is nothing worse than getting stuck in a home in a long lease in an area you really hate. It might be worth paying a couple of hundred dollars to avoid living in the wrong neighborhood.

[Az_Mitch]

Where do you get that Buckeye has a higher crime rate? Do you have any stats for that? Generalities like that are wrong and misleading.

I just did a quick search and came up with the link below that states that Buckeye has a lower crime index than the Arizona average and about the national average.

Buckeye, AZ Crime and Crime Rate - USA.com™

Here is a more recent article that states Buckeye is the 3rd safest city (over 50,000 residents) in the state of Az.

http://www.valuepenguin.com/2015-safest-places-arizona


I have no idea where you live and what you've seen but your statements aren't accurate. I find it interesting you don't even state where you live to make these observations.

[sarahdsmom]

Don't forget to look in Goodyear! Just a hop, skip away from Buckeye.You don't even have to take the freeway to get to Buckeye, it's only about 15 minutes from my door in Goodyear to Verrado in Buckeye where my daughter attended school. I'm currently in Canyon Trails, some streets better than others, Oasis of Canyon Trails offers a community pool, Blue Horizons previously mentioned has homes from quality builders like Standard Pacific and Lennar. Stay away from Wildflower Ranch. I would personally not look at Sundance. I'm relocating to Verrado in July as it offers a better school district than the one we are currently in.