Moving to Phoenix-Where Are the Good Neighborhoods?

Hi - My sister lives in Chandler, AZ and it is a very family oriented town, there are beautiful parks (3) in her neighborhood alone. My 5 yr old loves when we visit her. I do not know how far the Biltmore Park Mall is from Chandler - but beware traffic in AZ is horrendous!!!

I don't know if you are renting or buying - but my sister would love to rent her house out (she's single & would love to live in Scottsdale). It's a beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bath split floor plan w/HUGE new kitchen, pool, etc.
If you're interested email me @ ____@____.com

I'm another fan of Ahwatukee. I've lived here for the past 12 years. Ahwatukee has a great small town feel. There are plenty of parks, hiking and shopping. The Kyrene school district is one of the best in Arizona.

Gilbert is wonderful...tons of parks, splash pads, great recreation dept through the city for classes for the kids, tons of shopping, etc. It was the fastest developing city in the nation like a year ago, but not sure if it still is. We love it. However, if he's working in the Biltmore area, its going to be about a 35 min commute...on a good day.

Hello!
I would have your Real Estate agent help you with recommendations, if you have one. If not, my guess would be that one would help you even if you do not want to buy straight away, but plan on it in a few months. I have a recommendation if you need one - she has helped us with two purchases and was really great with us.
Other than that, how much commute are you willing to do? The Biltmore aera is close, but high-end, so is a lot of Scottsdale and the Central Ave corridor. There are really nice cities to the west, like Glendale, Peoria, Goodyear, Surprise. Tempe is cool, but landlocked, however also close to ASU. However, with all of these towns, you are looking at least at 30-45 min commute, longer in rush hour.
We live in Glendale and love it, but we are also in a decent area. There are neighborhoods all over the place that are not so great, just like Ella posted below. If you cannot get advice, I would try to rent first and get a feel for the area before buying.

Best of luck with everything!
D.

I too recommend Gilbert. I worked at the PD there for almost 5 yrs and I gotta tell you it is a much safer area than Phx. Granted Phx has some nice area's but they are usually interspersed between bad neighborhoods. Not to mention the drop houses, drive by's, and other general big city crime. Think I'm being over dramatic? I'm not.

Gilbert city was listed as the 26th safest city in the nation.. that's right NATION. (ok, so I am a tad biased) :) I do miss it though. There are TONS of parks, outdoor places for the kiddos, restaurants, shopping etc. I would look for a place near the freeway to help with the commute if he is concerned about that.

Bottom line: you will feel safe walking up and down the streets with your kiddos in tow to go to the park, etc. I would not feel that way in most phx neighborhoods. (the really safe area's in phx are super expensive)

Anyway, you will love it. Good luck!

p.s. if you do go to Gilbert check out the San Tan Mall. Huge play area for the kids with a splash pad. We spent many days hanging out there.

I visited AZ last year. I have a friend who lives in Tucson. My only suggestion is make sure you get a home that has a garage big enough to park your cars in. It is so very HOT there. It is also very dry. chap stick was my best friend. I put a lot of lotion on my hands and feet all day long. It is also very dry. for mamapedia your location is currently FL. This question ussually goes to moms who are in your area. I would encourage you to change your location in your mamapedia info, and then ask this question again. Then you will get responses from people who live in the Phoenix area. Good Luck and enjoy the move. It is a beautiful state.

My husband works across the street from the Biltmore Mall, and we live in Gilbert. We LOVE it here and have lived here since we moved here from California 10 years ago to start a family. (We now have 2 kids and a puppy.) The commute isn't too bad for my husband, since he gets to use the carpool lane with our Honda Civic Hybrid with special plates. Let me know if you need a referral for a realtor. Ours is THE BEST EVER. Good luck with your move!

I moved to Phoenix 5years ago and I live in ahwatukee. It is a great place to live. Close drive to airport, safe, good schools (kyrene school district), great docs and dentists, good shopping close by, easy to get to anywhere in the valley, nice homes. Downside is lot sizes tend to be smaller in the newer homes than other areas. It is about a 25 min drive to biltmore area. If u look up the area I live in club west which I love. It is very clean, quiet, and safe. I live near chandler blvd and 17th ave and I can just basically walk across the street and hike in south mountain. Goregeous views. Good luck feel free to email me we questions

We love awatukee as well. It is the city of phoenix, so you can be a part of the largest parks and rec org in AZ (pools/classes/parks/rec activities) but it's out of Phoenix 'proper'. You are borderline on S Tempe and Chandler, so you have malls and chain restaurants there, but fabulous mom and pop eateries that Phoenix is known for in Awatukee as well as great schools. It is similar to living in scottsdale, but not as large, not as expensive and a great small town feel. If you lived in S Gilbert or farther east, you would be adding 20 minutes to your husbands commute time. You need to look at the map to see what I mean. Good luck!

We love the NW area - the Arrowhead neighborhood of Glendale and northern Peoria. We've moved a lot around the country and my system is to always start looking in the areas where the PF Chang restaurants are located. They always seem to build those in the nicest neighborhoods!

We live near the Biltmore Fashion Park. Missouri and 20th Street. Tons of cute homes from 1,500 SF and up. I would look on 24th Street and Montebello and all around that area. Beautiful homes and parks and you are Central to everything!!!

I know nothing about AZ but Zillow.com is a great site for looking up real estate and GreatSchools.net is a great site to find a school. I have moved many many times and I suggest you rent first, especially in an area where you know no one. Good luck.

Around the Biltmore is a great area. There is a good park at Indian School and 56th St and another, smaller one at Campbell and 44th St. I don't know how old your kids are but Arcadia has a great Mom's Club too. (and if you are in a different area, they will all have some kind of Mom's Club).

We live in the East Valley specifically Chandler. Chandler so far is the only school district that I know of that you can send your kid to any school not just the home school closest to your neighborhood/zone. The East Valley is known as Silicon Desert (like Santa Clara, CA is Silicon Valley). There are also lots of parks, railroad parks, bounce house places, etc between Chandler and Gilbert. I have lived here twice once in 1999-2002 (previously b4 kids have lived in Scottsdale for a year). Shopping is nearby, great moms club in my area as well, and support system. If you are in the medical field/claims/call center type of industry, then the west valley is probably more for you.

The only thing about Chandler Schools is that there is an approximate 7 weeks of summer vacation, 2 weeks October fall break, 2 weeks December Winter Break and 2 weeks March spring break.

Also the City of Chandler has recreation center classes

Check out these websites:
www.azactivekids.com
http://ww2.chandler.k12.az.us/chandlerschools/site/defaul...
http://www.chandleraz.gov/default.aspx?pageid=279
www.momsclub.org

Hello there, I am a native to the valley. I am also in real estate. I grew up in the Central Phoenix area (I'd put the Biltmore in the "Central Phoenix" area.) I now live in the Southeast Valley, which is very family friendly, however most of my family still lives in the Central Phoenix and North Scottsdale areas. Not sure if you will be renting or buying, but I would be happy to help you find the right place. I can set up searches in the MLS (multiple listing system) for rental or for sale homes. I do not normally deal in rentals, but I have helped some friends and friends of friends find rental homes. I also have two rental properties myself, so I am familiar with the process. I prefer to focus on the buying and selling of residential real estate, but find the most personal satisfaction in the buying side of things (helping a person/family find a place to call home-sweet-home is awesome!) Please let me know if you would be interested in some help. Thank you for the possible opportunity! M. Bargeloh, Realtor with DPR Realty ###-###-####, ____@____.com

I am on another parenting site (have been going there since my oldest was a baby and she is almost 12 now) and I have 2 friends from that site who live in the area so I solicited there advice on your question - I am going to just copy and paste what they told me and hoefully it will help. If you want to contact me via email after you read their thoughts I can get you more info.

Here it is:
"the Biltmore area is really nice. Neighborhoods can get spotty around the area depending on which way you go, but generally closer to the mountain is always a good safe bet. I'd love to live in that area, which I believe is considered Paradise Valley. Expensive but really beautiful and safe. If he's going to work there, I'd say it's pretty central and he can live in many places with a decent commute. I'd consider living north of there as his commute will be reverse and traffic shouldn't be too much of an issue. If he goes south, to say chandler, tempe, mesa.... he's going to have a miserable commute. Scottsdale wouldn't be out of the question, actually. (I'm rather partial ;-))If they start looking around there, W., let me know specifics of where and I'll opine on his commute. Scottsdale is FULL of great parks, again if they wind up there and let me know where and I'll let you know about schools etc. North Scottsdale is better than South Scottsdale in terms of schools. Happy to help, bring on as many questions as needed, it's a big change!!!......"
AND
"The Biltmore area is nice, but it's nice for businesses, not living. Unless they can afford a $2 million house on the mountain, I would steer clear of that area all together. Everyone that works over there commutes from other places. So it pretty much depends on their price range and commute time that they're willing to do will help them find the best place. They need to avoid Phoenix all together.

I grew up on the "Westside", so I'm pretty particial to this side of town, Lisa (this is the first person who responded from my other site) doesn't venture past Central unless it's for sushi (inside joke on that one) . She needs to really decide how important the schools are because Phoenix and many of the surrounding areas have awful public education. Peoria is rated as one of the best school districts in the counrty and that about 45 minutes from the Biltmore. The entire Valley is broken up into two groups, "eastside" and "westside", it pretty much depends on which side she wants to go to. Both have beautiful master planned communities and good school districts, she just needs to decide what side because the Biltmore is literally in the middle. If she's looking on this side of town I have a WONDERFUL realtor that is a dream to work with and I can give you his number.

Just FYI, here are the best options for commuting from the Biltmore:

Westside: Glendale, Peoria, Anthem...The cities she needs to AVOID at all costs, Avondale, Laveen, El Mirage, Buckeye and Surprise.

Eastside: Fountain Hills, North Scottsdale, Gilbert....AVOID Maricopa, Chandler, Apache Junction, and South Scottsdale

I hope this helps and like I said, I have a great realtor who can help her out and he was born and raised here too

What company is he transferring to (and congrats that he has a job) So contact the Human Resource department and ask for assistance. You must have a local broker showing you housing....he/she will know the market and schools, parks, etc. Good luck in your research.