section 8/apartments in Surprise (Peoria, El Mirage: low income, real estate market, apartment complexes)

[rlk1973]

My family will be moving from Illinois to AZ in the near future. We have visited Surprise and are pretty sure that is where we will live. We visited last October and loved it. However, I have gotten a little nervous lately after reading about Section 8 housing/apartments in the area. From experience in our home town the more of those the higher the crime. Does Surprise have a high number of these??

[Burning Madolf]

Originally Posted by rlk1973

My family will be moving from Illinois to AZ in the near future. We have visited Surprise and are pretty sure that is where we will live. We visited last October and loved it. However, I have gotten a little nervous lately after reading about Section 8 housing/apartments in the area. From experience in our home town the more of those the higher the crime. Does Surprise have a high number of these??

Where did you read about section 8s in the area

[rlk1973]

One of the forums...not sure which one. It said something along the lines of people moving North into section 8 housing in Surprise. I also read a post about someone "warning" people about the HUD housing (?) and having 20 people living in a house selling drugs. At the end of the post the person said "don't say you weren't warned" about Surprise. I have heard so many good things about Surprise and probably shouldn't let a few comments bother me but we have young children and don't want to make a mistake when we choose a town to move to.

[Burning Madolf]

Originally Posted by rlk1973

One of the forums...not sure which one. It said something along the lines of people moving North into section 8 housing in Surprise. I also read a post about someone "warning" people about the HUD housing (?) and having 20 people living in a house selling drugs. At the end of the post the person said "don't say you weren't warned" about Surprise. I have heard so many good things about Surprise and probably shouldn't let a few comments bother me but we have young children and don't want to make a mistake when we choose a town to move to.

Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about houses, especially in the newer developments. Sure there are probably some crappy neighbors in some areas but I've noticed an overall improvement in my three neighborhoods that seems to correlate to the improved real estate market and more owner occupancy.

I can't really comment on apartments other than to say my neighbor is a maintenance manager at a complex in Surprise and he has some funny/disgusting/trashy stories.

[rlk1973]

Thanks for your reply. I really didn't even see many apartments when we were there but thought I would ask. The neighborhoods looked really nice so it caught me a little off guard when I read those posts.

[rlk1973]

I found one of the posts I was talking about. It's in the Surprise AZ forum.

[BIG CATS]

Surprise has some "meh" areas, with what can only assume includes Section 8 housing. Just keep your distance if you dont want to be in that area and all should be AOK.

[elcajones]

I was under the impression based on some time here and there all over the metro area that Surprise is the higher end suburb in the north west. I'd imagine most of the section 8 housing up there would be El Mirage, old and new areas and old Peoria.

[stevek64]

I just did a quick search and there are websites that will show you section 8 housing that's available in cities. Here's a few in Surprise:

Section 8 housing and apartments for rent in Surprise Maricopa, Arizona

Shows where they are located on a map. This site currently show only 2 houses and apartment complexes in Surprise. You can see the map where they are located. I can tell you those 2 houses are in decent areas for sure.

Perhaps there are other sites that show all section 8 housing in a city. My guess is such housing/apartment rentals are quite spread out in quite a few cities these days.

My understanding is that the purpose of section 8 housing is to move low income people into better/more expensive neighborhoods via "vouchers"(ie tax payer money) who can't afford to live in such areas on their own so section 8 housing often is found in decent areas, not poor areas. And remember....in any place these days you want to rent, I'm guessing you will have quite a few people in apartment complexes mixed in getting welfare/gov support of some kind for their housing, food, etc. in pretty much any city these days so I don't think you can escape what you're trying to escape......people getting section 8, welfare, whatever all the words/acronyms they use these days.....it's all the same thing in the end in my book.

[Dracarys]

I live in Surprise. If I were you, I'd be more concerned with the school district and where it's headed if they don't get more money/pass overrides and bonds soon. Transportation has been cut for almost every school in the district.