Can't decide on a community Estrella Mountain, Verrado, or Marley park (Surprise: established neighborhood, school)

[mikeboxerca]

Visiting Arizona in April to look at the communities of Verrado, Estrella Mountain, marley park, and Litchfield Park (wigwam) these communites are sorta kinda close to my sister comapny in Tolleson. Feel free to give me the pros and cons of each community.

[Ritchie_az]

Estrella is "resort living" in the foothills of the Sierra Estrella's. Lots of community activities, clubs and events. You've got the lakes, parks, hiking/biking trails, "star tower", residents' club (fitness facility, seasonal pool, etc) and yacht club (small boats). Two golf courses (the one in the community and one right outside the community in the regional park) and the Estrella Mountain Regional Park round things out. Nearby are Reds and Indians spring-training and NASCAR. It's in the city of Goodyear.
Verrado is "resort living", too, with some of it in the foothills of the White Tank Mountains. There are also community activities, clubs and events. Verrado is more "lush" and might remind you more of Redlands, Ca or a place like that. It is a "New Urbanism" community New Urbanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It has many, many parks, a residents' club, community pool, golf course, etc. It has a small (and cool) "downtown" area. It's in the city of Buckeye.
Marley Park is Verrado's little sister. It was the same developer and many of the same builders. It has a similar concept as Verrado, but scaled back considerably. Not far are the Rangers and Royals spring-training.
Litchfield Park (inside the wall) is an older, well-established neighborhood. I was actually married at the lake there. It's "heyday" was a couple decades ago, but that does not mean it is not nice, because it is. There's the golf course and the resort. And it's fairly "lush".

Of the four, my personal favorite is Estrella, followed closely by Verrado. You can't go wrong with either. Really, you can't go wrong with any of the four choices. Surprise (Marley Park) will be a bit of a drive to Tolleson (but certainly doable).

Of the towns (Goodyear, Buckeye, Surprise and Litchfield Park), I'd rank them best-to-worst in this order: Surprise, Goodyear, Litchfield Park and Buckeye. None of them are "bad", though.

[Ponderosa]

It's a piece of cake getting from Estrella to Tolleson. You can take back streets - near zero traffic, nice rural drive near the mountains, river and past minifarms.

[momtogrif]

I like Estrella best of all the neighborhoods you listed: it has the most amenities, great tucked away location, and has a lot to offer. Verrado is nice, too, but I think Estrella is more established. The only drawback to Estrella is that it takes 10 minutes minimum to get to the I-10 especially since they put in new lights on the Estrella Parkway, etc. And, I agree with Ritchie: the older section of Litchfield Park around the Wigwam is beautiful and there's lot of great restaurants in Litchfield Park. Check out Dino's Greek and Italian at Indian School and Wigwam Blvd! The best Greek food and gyros!

[Ritchie_az]

Originally Posted by momtogrif

I like Estrella best of all the neighborhoods you listed: it has the most amenities, great tucked away location, and has a lot to offer. Verrado is nice, too, but I think Estrella is more established. The only drawback to Estrella is that it takes 10 minutes minimum to get to the I-10 especially since they put in new lights on the Estrella Parkway, etc. And, I agree with Ritchie: the older section of Litchfield Park around the Wigwam is beautiful and there's lot of great restaurants in Litchfield Park. Check out Dino's Greek and Italian at Indian School and Wigwam Blvd! The best Greek food and gyros!

Yes, very good food, indeed.