Family with young children moving to Phoenix area (best family comunities) opinions welcome (Mesa: homes, employment)

[padad1]

Hi Everyone-
My Wife and I as wel as our two sons (3 yrs and 3 months) are moving to AZ within the next year. I would truly love to get anyones opinion on some great family oriented communities. I value all opinions since I am only going to be able to visit the area once beforehand. I have researched verrado, buckeye, chandler, gilbert and estrella so far. I do like the mindset of the verrado community, however I heard the downturn of the economy hit the area hard. I am a golfer so we would need to be near courses. We don't need nightlife but we do need things to do with our sons. I will truly value any help or info anyone here can offer.
Thanks so much

[bocifus]

I think the coolest areas to live with a family would be East Phoenix, Scottsdale, or Tempe. Chandler or Gilbert would be my recommendation of the places you listed.

[AZJoeD]

There are many great family communties in Chandler, Glendale, Goodyear, Mesa, Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale Surprise and others. I think you need to know where you plan on working and where your friends, family, church, etc will be.

Verrado is a great community but it is very far west. I don't think you will enjoy a 40 mile commute to work. If you want to go to a ballgame or concert or even to the mall, you will be very unhappy.

Check out this link: Welcome to Phoenix

It is the Phoenix relocation. You can download a copy. It will provide you some good information about the communities in Phoenix.

[Lovin' Surprise]

Originally Posted by padad1

Hi Everyone-
My Wife and I as wel as our two sons (3 yrs and 3 months) are moving to AZ within the next year. I would truly love to get anyones opinion on some great family oriented communities. I value all opinions since I am only going to be able to visit the area once beforehand. I have researched verrado, buckeye, chandler, gilbert and estrella so far. I do like the mindset of the verrado community, however I heard the downturn of the economy hit the area hard. I am a golfer so we would need to be near courses. We don't need nightlife but we do need things to do with our sons. I will truly value any help or info anyone here can offer.
Thanks so much

there are alot of family communities around Phoenix.. I for one LOVE surprise. I currently live in buckeye and let me tell you it's in the boonies.. it seems to take forever to get anywhere and there is not much to do here for the young ones.. I have a 6 and a 10 year old.. We will be moving back to Surprise or surrounding area's by the end of this year.. there is alot more stuff to do in Surprise.. I have been to Goodyear and we like it there as well.. We lived in Surprise for a year and we fell in love with it.. it just depends on your family life... and what you want and don't want to do...

Good luck! i dont think this help'd but thats just my .02 cents

[Ritchie_az]

Estrella or Verrado would be my choices. You can't go wrong with either, but I like Estrella a bit more than Verrado. Also, Verrado is a New-Urbanism community, and whatever your feelings are on that may or may not make a difference.

New Urbanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Verrado - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Estrella, Arizona - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Estrella - Goodyear, Arizona

[ibarrio]

Gilbert and Surprise are your best choices for the safest/family oriented areas. There are many subdivisions in each city that range from high end homes with acre lots to new urbanism types of areas.

[Ritchie_az]

"Gilbert and Surprise are your best choices for the safest/family oriented areas. There are many subdivisions in each city that range from high end homes with acre lots to new urbanism types of areas."

Surprise and Gilbert are both nice, young towns. One thing I wanted to state, though, is that Verrado is the only new-urbanism community in Arizona. Most master-planned communities have some aspects of new-urbanism--a few have many aspects of new-urbanism--but Verrado stands alone as a true new-urbanism community in Arizona.
Like I said in my last post, that may or may not make a difference in one's decision, but at least that information is made available in case one has certain feelings or attitudes towards new-urbanism (whether good or bad).

[Finger Laker]

You can find good communities all over the place and you listed off quite a few good ones .... main thing is where you'll need to make your daily drive

You wouldn't want to work off the eastern portion of the 101 and drive in from verrado any more than you'd want to work on the western portion of the 101 and drive in from gilbert

[padad1]

awesome, thanks so much to everyone who chimed in so far, i kinda like the idea of the verrado community and all that it offers, we live in PA now like i stated and it takes about 30 minutes to get to most places aside from food store and basic neccessities
thanks again everyone

[asufan]

The best places from the list you gave (as far as good schools, employment and property values) are Chandler and Gilbert. There's golf courses in all areas, except I'm not sure about in the city of Surprise.