Tell me about Phoenix area- west valley

Another out-of-stater looking to move down to AZ. It's beautiful where I am now, but I'm tired of the 7-8 month rainy winters here in wet side of WA. I've been enjoying visiting your HTF. I've read about the ammo tax- I have a little stash of some Russian ammo for that purpose.

May be looking at a job there- Sun City West, or Goodyear areas. What are those areas like? Where would be good places to live not too far away? What's the elevation like- I think a little higher up is a plus.

How would west side compare to Chandler?

My buddy lives in Chandler and has been struck by 3 elderly motorists while walking in a cross walk. YMMV

Elevation figure around 1200 Ft above sea level.
Im in Glendale so Somewhat west side. I have family on the east side and like it over here where i am.

Started working in the Goodyear area about a month ago. Could just be the part I'm in, but I'm not caring for it. There are plenty of bad areas all over the Metro

Are you an old Jew snowbird from New York? If no, Sun City isn't for you.

West Valley = dump

East Valley = awesome

This.

I think that you should visit the different towns to see if they meet your personal preferences. Of course you're going to hear people on here brag how their town is better and everyone else lives in the dump. I live in the West Valley because I'm stationed at the Air Force base. Keep that in mind. We fly jet fighters at Luke AFB and have a whole bunch of them. If the noise bothers you, then Goodyear may not be your best option. For me...it's the sound of freedom.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_8_13/475150_phoenix__AZ_.html
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_8_13/475411_Sun_City.html
I live in surprise been here tenyears. Love it.
I would recommend staying for an xtended period during the summer. Its kind of reversed. We tend to stay inside during the summer like you guys do in the winter. Yeah its shorter but sometimes its just balls hot. When you walk outside at 2 am and its pitch black but still over 100 degrees it takes some getting used to.

I've been there for short visits in the summer. I grew up in Houston and Dallas, so have some experience with heat/humidity, but I admit, not 105 degrees for three months straight. "But, it's a dry heat." There were some summers in TX when there were prolonged heatwaves, though.

I have had the impression that Sun City West is a large retirement community. I'm not quite there in my lifespan- I'm planning to keep working for at least another 10 years, but figured I might live somewhere nearby.

I had older relatives who lived in Scottsdale, what's now probably mid- Scottsdale- a few blocks N of Shea Rd., and few blocks E. of Pima, and used to visit them. They have passed on, though. I love that area, and to the north, up in Carefree. I just hear that Scottsdale has become very expensive.

Thanks for the input so far. Please keep it coming. ETA: Thanks for the links to the other threads. I hadn't seen those.

Housing prices in Scottsdale have come down a lot, you can get short sales and bank owned homes for next to nothing. I know you said west side, but take a serious look at Tempe, Gilbert and Chandler.

Thanks. I'm also looking at Chandler, and may look into Scottsdale again.

North Phoenix is very nice as well.

Seriously?

east valley for the win chandler is arfcom land. There are tons of us here. west valley is.........way the fuck over there>

Tiger...hey I'm from the west side...I live in surprise which is real close to sun city....Out here on the west side its a little more open and not as hustle and bustle as the east side.... Different strokes for different folks sir... both have there pluses but the east side sucks balls.... :) I enjoy not having crappy traffic and you will too if your looking for a job out here on the west side. Just depends the what you enjoy doing. If you like to party hit the bars and what not... east side has more to do(west does have west gate)...west side has the white tanks and some decent hunting area and good riding area.... not sure about what the east side has...

And the cool arfcomers live on the west side...reservist, me and many more...just saying...

I thought reservist was over in east valley?

34 yrs in Az, all on the west side. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Lived in both east valley (Mesa, Tempe, and Chandler), as well as west valley (Avondale, Glendale, and Surprise). I work as an LEO and I work valley wide. The following are my observations based on crime trends, school districts, shopping, freeway layouts, quality of city governments, etc.

My vote is east valley for the most part. Here's why. The east valley cities are much better regarding the makeup of their neighborhoods, in my opinion. In the west valley it's much like Phoenix, in that you may be in a good neighborhood, but a bad one is only one or two miles off. That means you might be in an upper middle class nighborhood, but rest assured, you will be seeing trashy people when shopping, eating out, etc.

Ironically, I just looked all over the valley for a new home and settled in far northwest Surprise. I love it up here, but I'm a little isolated. My first pick was for Gilbert, Chandler, or Queen Creek. I love the far southeast valley. From the standpoint of less crime, more polite people, nicer drivers, apparently less illegals, etc., it's just nicer down there.

If you have the coin though, north Scottsdale or far northeast Phoenix is nice.

+1

GeneSW and I are also stationed on Luke. Lived on the west side for 7 years. It's really grown a lot since I first got here. I love where I live because I don't hear any of those noisy ass jets. There's crappy areas no matter where you live at. In the west side, we have several nice and a couple of crappy areas. Anything east of the 101, from Glendale ave on down is pretty crappy. The rest is pretty nice. Lots of bars here if you're into that kind of thing. Several nice gun stores, one with an indoor range just off the 101. All the sports, except ASU realted, is played on the west side. My only complaint about west vs east is there are more concerts in central and eat Phoenix then west.

this, NW Phoenix resident for the last 21 years. stay out of anything south of Glendale ave on the west side and you're GTG

Avondale is pretty nice. I live 2 miles west of the 101 off of Thomas.

This, but just 14 years.

I drive 15min to shooting or great 4x4ing.
You can spend 15min trying to drive 2 blocks in Chandler during rush hour.

I live down South near Casa Grande but if I where to move up North to the Metro area I think I would consider the East Valley. Either Chandler or Gilbert.

That said, however, I do think Goodyear is a great area as well. I have a niece and an ex sister-in-law living there and I hadn't been there for a very long time. When I moved to Arizona a couple of years ago and found Goodyear has been developed into a lot nicer area than it used to be.

Far west Buckeye. 5000 Sq ft home for $150,000. First sold 5 years ago for $350,000+. We like it here. I work in Buckeye but the wife works way out at 48 St. and Baseline, long drive for her. I hit I10 and then the 303 and I'm at Luke or Suncity in 25 or 35 min. 20 min. to my shooting spot! .

Why not go out west from Buckeye to shoot 1973rrc?

North Phoenix Represent!

Yeah, I'm in that crew.

I do shoot west of Buckeye. But when I meet up with friends from east of me we go up Miller or Watson. Most people don't like to drive too far out.
I think it's it exit 129 by the truck stop and head north if you want to go further west that's about 20 min from my house.

Me three. If i could go anywhere itd be carefree/cavecreek area. Beautiful area and still not to far from everything.

North Phoenix here too. Stay south of Peoria, west of 27th Ave and you're good to go. I just got an apartment on 51st and Beardsley and I like the area, plus its close to work.

West of 101 and North of Northern and you're good to go. Otherwise it's the barrio with pockets of OK neighborhoods.

I'm in North Phoenix as well, some of my favorite arfcommers live within minutes of me.

I'm within 15 minutes of the range I shoot matches at and another 5 minutes gets me to my spot in the desert that I shoot at.

I'm of the school of thought that I would rather live closer to work in a bad neighborhood then far from work in a good neighborhood. I'm not saying my neighborhood is bad but never understood the logic of having a nice house in a good neighborhood if you spend most of your time in your car driving to and from work.

If you like shooting sports there is a bunch of major clubs throughout Arizona that you can live next to.

I open carry a lot and no one seems to have any problem with it. I'm on spring break so I have open carried every day this week it's been great.

FYI to the op I haven't used any form of air conditioning in about 3 months now.

Last thing I'm not sure about your financial situation but if I had a shit ton of money I would probably build a house along the I-17 just north of Ben Avery somewhere. City wise that would be North Anthem or just north of Anthem proper. It would only be a 10 minute ride into town then and you would be away from shit heads for awhile until civilization catches up. At which point your property would be worth 700% of what you bought it for and you could just move north again and repeat.

Housing prices in Phoenix right now are un fucking believable. My monthly mortgage is cheaper than rent someone pays for a 2 bedroom apartment around here.

North Peoria. Grew up in Peoria. Can get to Avery in about 20 minutes, and the Yavapai county top secret shooting spot in about 40

Phoenix is a crazy checkerboard of good & bad neighborhoods.

Stay out of Maryvale and Sunnyslope.

<- central Phoenix, almost downtown.

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