Safe place to Live in Arizona

[Kimballette]

Originally Posted by Contrygal

I have read that MESA, TEMPE, GILBERT AND MARYVALE are the places to stay away from and that Surpirse is Retirement area...please any suggestion would be helpful

Welcome to City-Data! I'm not sure what you've read that led you to think Mesa, Tempe, or Gilbert are areas to avoid. Mesa is HUGE, and there are older, shabby areas, but it also has luxurious areas like Las Sendas. Gilbert has been recently rated one of the safest cities in the United States, and is very family-oriented. Tempe is home to Arizona State University and offers many wonderful amenities. Surprise is definitely not a retirement area. Perhaps you're thinking of Sun City? That's a 55-plus community. Maryvale does have the highest violent and property crime rates in the city of Phoenix, according to Phoenix PD stats.

If you're looking for rural property within the Phoenix metro area, there are areas scattered throughout the valley on the east as well as west side. Perhaps if you clarified your concerns a bit, we could offer more specific advice.

[KandM0820]

My fiance got a job in Tempe and we are looking at a house on North Sunnyvale in Mesa. Thoughts? We do not need good schools or anything like that, we would rather have a private neighborhood with little noise. What's the drive like from Mesa to Tempe? We've also considered Gilbert and Chandler so if there are better parts of those cities please advise!

[observer53]

Well, fiirst I have to ask why you aren't looking in Tempe. Any part of Gilbert is fine, you would want to stay to the west to shorten your commute; the older area of Chandler near its downtown is a little sketchy, but as you go west more toward Tempe, that's fine too. The homes for sale I see on Sunnyvale are around Brown Rd, Sunnyvale is east of Higley Rd. I don't know that area well, but the address doesn't set off any red flags. Commute wise, you'd likely be on surface streets mostly, and it depends on exactly where in Tempe you are talking about. Commute in morning traffic (as you'd be competing with lots of other westbound in the AM and eastbound in the PM), could be longer than the distance would suggest.

[Howard Roark]

The last time I saw on google the U.S. safest communities, Gilbert was the safest of all in Arizona, yet in the top 20 to top 30 on the list. New York state and New Jersey amazingly have very safe areas in the rural parts - because it's too cold for criminals! If you love winter sports (cross country skiing, snow mobiling, and so forth, you would do well to live in rural New York and New Jersey, like northwest, sussex county...

[Gilmour25]

Dont know if anyone is still looking at this being that it is over 6 months old.. Also, I did not see Ahwatukee listed in there anywhere. Although its not considered a "city" people in AZ still know of it. Very well.

I think that Awatukee is the best place to live in AZ. Peroid. It has the best school district in the state (Kyrene) and there are a ton of things to do just in Ahwatukee. To add on to that it is central to almost everything and nothing in the vally is over about 20-30min.. This is just my 2 cense. I have lived in phx, gilbert, queen creek, chandler and now Ahwatukee..

I would say second would be Gilbert..

[observer53]

Originally Posted by Gilmour25

Dont know if anyone is still looking at this being that it is over 6 months old.. Also, I did not see Ahwatukee listed in there anywhere. Although its not considered a "city" people in AZ still know of it. Very well.

I think that Awatukee is the best place to live in AZ. Peroid. It has the best school district in the state (Kyrene) and there are a ton of things to do just in Ahwatukee. To add on to that it is central to almost everything and nothing in the vally is over about 20-30min.. This is just my 2 cense. I have lived in phx, gilbert, queen creek, chandler and now Ahwatukee..

I would say second would be Gilbert..

Ahwatukee is not the only place feeding Kyrene School District, which also includes about half of Tempe and part of Chandler. As far as "central to everything" and "nothing in the Valley is over about 20-30 minutes" we'll have to disagree. Yes, if you just look at points on a map, it's pretty central, but it isn't called the world's largest cul-de-sac for nothing, given that I-10 is the only way out. In any kind of traffic, and in some cases without much traffic, there are plenty of things in the Valley that are more than 20-30 minutes from there. It's a nice place to live, for sure, but don't oversell it.