Aviano and Fireside at Desert Ridge (Phoenix, Scottsdale: middle-class, rentals, homes)

[Spider93]

My family and I are considering a move from the DC area to Phoenix and have been most attracted to the Aviano and Fireside communities of Desert Ridge. Unfortunately, I've seen claims on some forums that people in the more affluent areas of Phoenix and Scottsdale can be materialistic, rude, and unfriendly.

I am wondering if anyone can tell me what it is like to live in the Aviano or Fireside. Are they wholesome places to raise children? Do kids bike around and play outside with other kids from the neighborhood? Do neighbors socialize with each other? How long is rush-hour commute to downtown Phoenix?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[AZJD]

Originally Posted by Spider93

My family and I are considering a move from the DC area to Phoenix and have been most attracted to the Aviano and Fireside communities of Desert Ridge. Unfortunately, I've seen claims on some forums that people in the more affluent areas of Phoenix and Scottsdale can be materialistic, rude, and unfriendly.

I am wondering if anyone can tell me what it is like to live in the Aviano or Fireside. Are they wholesome places to raise children? Do kids bike around and play outside with other kids from the neighborhood? Do neighbors socialize with each other? How long is rush-hour commute to downtown Phoenix?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Desert Ridge is a nice, newer middle class community with TONS of young families and good schools.

Maybe you're confusing with affluent communities like Desert Highlands, Desert Mountain...where residents all own 1+ million dollar homes. And not as many families there and certainly not a lot of younger families.

Commute to downtown Phx wouldn't be bad. Hop on the 51. 20-30 min depending on traffic?

[Mister-A]

We have no commentary on living there since we were just house-hunting, too, but we visited some of the communities, including Aviano. It's very middle-class, clean and reasonably scenic, and the mall really has everything for kids/teens. The Aviano community center was a great facility and there are trails at many of the developments. If we were raising kids, we'd put Desert Ridge high on our list. (Since we're not, it felt a little too suburban for our needs.)

Others have expertise on the commute, but I did the run to the mall from Biltmore/Camelback as an incidental outing from a conference. As stated above, it's an easy drive up SR 51 and probably 30 minutes.

One point is to do your due diligence about the different developers if you plan to do a new build. Recent years saw a disproportionate number of news stories and enraged threads about some of the language in Toll Brothers contracts.

[Minntoaz]

North Phoenix surprisingly is a whole different world from north Scottsdale. Yes I'd raise the kids I don't have yet in north Phoenix.

[Spider93]

Thanks so much for the replies!

[SharonG098]

Hi, I’m in the process of moving from the Upper West Side in Manhattan to Scottsdale. I would love to know if you ended up moving and what your experience has been so far.

[smoochaz]

Curious did you pick those communities because you have family/friends in that area? close to work? you like the schools? lifestyle? those reasons are really important for picking a location here because we have so many nice areas that your head will spin! Affluent neighborhoods in my experience the people are super nice, helpful, approachable - they keep to their own generally and no one will give you issue unless you disrupt the neighborhood with less than stellar behavior / being a bad neighbor eg, unkept lawn; loud dogs late at night; etc. You're coming at a crazy time with very little inventory even for rentals with ^seller^ market - it's 500/100 (or 5/1 buyers to each home). What I would suggest - and this worked for us personally - the homes with pools and in good condition will go crazy in bidding- look at homes also without pools and if you do want to build one - good size playpool with water feature for us cost us $27k and we financed that - suggestion only*- best of luck!!

[Sno0909]

Originally Posted by smoochaz

Curious did you pick those communities because you have family/friends in that area? close to work? you like the schools? lifestyle? those reasons are really important for picking a location here because we have so many nice areas that your head will spin! Affluent neighborhoods in my experience the people are super nice, helpful, approachable - they keep to their own generally and no one will give you issue unless you disrupt the neighborhood with less than stellar behavior / being a bad neighbor eg, unkept lawn; loud dogs late at night; etc. You're coming at a crazy time with very little inventory even for rentals with ^seller^ market - it's 500/100 (or 5/1 buyers to each home). What I would suggest - and this worked for us personally - the homes with pools and in good condition will go crazy in bidding- look at homes also without pools and if you do want to build one - good size playpool with water feature for us cost us $27k and we financed that - suggestion only*- best of luck!!

Four year old post, so I'm guessing they won't respond at this point.

[smoochaz]

Originally Posted by Sno0909

Four year old post, so I'm guessing they won't respond at this point.

Well Sharon from the West Side of Manhattan revived the post so it's relevant to her and anyone really who is moving here -