We will be relocating to the Phoenix area in the next couple of months.

Currently we live in a rural area which it looks like we can't replicate there.

Areas we are looking at are Maricopa, Queen Creek , San Tan Valley and we see a lot of places in Gilbert that look nice but the crime stats look on the high side.

Looking to stay around 500k. Any comments on these areas or others we might consider?

Are you working or retired? Some of those area's can have a long commute if working.

Gilbert is good to go. I lived there years ago when my kids were young, its still one of the better places to live in the Phx metro area.

My wife is being transfered there by her company. She only has to go to the office a couple days a week (Scottsdale).

We both work from home now but when we had to go in we had around a 45 minute drive. She is good with an hour or a bit over when we move. For me I don't care because I am being forced to retire because of the move ??.

You'll get a little more for your money in Queen Creek or San Tan than Gilbert.

Maricopa is further away by Ak-Chin.  If you want to live next to a casino!  And, oddly, Maricopa is in Pinal County... you'd have a much better Sheriff there if you care about that!

I live in Chandler, right next to Gilbert.  I'm pretty sure most of the crime is in the older, downtowny areas with signs in Spanish.  Around here, it seems to be vehicle theft and petty property crimes.  The rez is just a couple of miles to the south.

Make sure your vehicle(s) can fit in the garage.  Leaving trucks or SUVs out heightens your chances of them being stolen, or any car being broken into.

I know my truck will have to sit out. Unless the garage doors are higher there than in Ohio. We have 3 vehicles so that compounds the issue.

Based on my research we really would rather be in Pinal county.

Then Johnson Ranch/San Tan area would be better.

Gilbert is all relatively new, with well over half the homes built in the past 15 years.  The garage doors are larger and the bays deeper than in most places.  I park an 8 passenger SUV outside all the time, and I have never had an issue.  The paint on this auto is oxidizing prematurely.

The Southeast Valley is Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek, and the south branch of Mesa.  It is a newly built, well off area.  The household wealth and annual income of the residents are only beaten by data for Paradise Valley.  Anything I describe below will mostly apply to any of these cities.

Gilbert has commercial zones and industry, yet the crime statistics should point to the issues which describe a bedroom community.  Crime is focused on: recreational drugs, property damage, and petty theft.  Our biggest concern is drivers who are deliberately distracted while motoring.  My kids don't ride up and down main roads like I did when I was there age.

The stated budget will afford a 2400 square foot house in a relatively new community.  A three car garage might be realistic, and an RV gate might allow you to park the truck away from the street when you travel.  Monthly expenses for utilities and services are generally lower here than in other parts of the country.  Prices are relatively high at this time, with Phoenix metro making the news for housing costs and record monthly rents.

I will post more observations depending on the direction this thread goes.

Welcome to AZ

Folks often post questions about Shooting in AZ on forums, I often reply, I finally saved my replies so I won't have to retype everything each time. This probably gives more info than you asked for but its easy to copy/paste. latest update in Aug 2021.

Websites:
http://www.arizonashooting.org/ web group
http://www.azshootingzone.com/forums/ web group
https://arizonagunowners.com/ web group
https://www.ar15.com/forums/hometown/Arizona/13/ another web group
http://www.phoenixrodandgun.org/ A club with a range in south phoenix
http://www.rsscaz.com/ A club with a range in east Mesa
https://www.azgfd.com/shooting/basf/ A range with clubs in north phoenix.
all 3 have public ranges and competition ranges and active competition groups
http://arizona-rifleshooting.com/ my website about competition

3 ranges in the Tucson area:
http://www.tucsonrifleclub.org/
https://pimapistolclub.com/
https://tucsontrapandskeet.com/

orgs:
http://www.asrpa.com/ our state association they do: competition, training, education, run a range west of phoenx and civil rights advocacy.
http://www.azcdl.org/ is 100% civil rights

NRA/CMP/PRS style competition groups:
https://phoenixrodandgun.org/    (prgc)
https://www.rsscaz.com/     (rio)
http://www.desertsharpshooters.com/    (avery)
https://www.facebook.com/AZLRPRS     (cowtown)
https://www.roadrunnerrifleclub.com/     (avery or rio)
http://arizona-rifleshooting.com/

AZ has open carry and constitutional carry. Take the AZ CCW class anyway, its useful info and the permit is your proof of background check so you don't have to go thru NICS when you buy.


There are 4 or 5 nice outdoor shooting ranges in the Phoenix area. See below. (As well as several indoor ranges I don't know much about.)

I've been a member of both PRGC & RSSC for over 20 years, (and have been a volunteer, match director, coach or club officer in those years).

Both RSSC & PRGC are true member-run clubs, both lease their dirt (RSSC from AZGFD, PRGC from PHX city park).

Ben Avery is a AZGFD owned and run facility, landless clubs reserve  the various ranges and run shoots there.

A smaller range, Joe Foss range in Buckeye, an hour west of Phoenix, is run by ASRPA.

All 3 larger ranges have a public range, the 2 clubs offer membership. All 3 have lots of competition style events. Every scheduled competition or practice style event at the 2 clubs and the clubs that use Avery are open to everyone, most by walk-on, some shoots take advanced entry reservations.

Both PRGC and RSSC cost about the same to join. Each has a main range and 6 or 8 specialty ranges. RSSC faces north, PRGC faces south (low winter sun is unpleasant to shoot in) PRGC High Power range is configured properly with 1 pits and 3 firing lines, Rio is backwards, 1 firing line and 2 pits.

RSSC tries to run itself like a business, all members have to leave when the last RO clocks out, even if there are still 3 hours of sunlight remaining. All the specialty ranges (except shotgun) require a lengthy approval process to gain access. On top of that, there is a tedious process to get the after-hours pass that allows weekday shooting till 9.  RSSC has the best sporting clays field in the state, perhaps all the states. But they don't allow carry.

PRGC is much more member-friendly. members can use most (but not all) ranges without a special qual process. PRGC is very friendly for members bringing guests and allows carry.

BASF has about 80 firing points on the public range and 15 or 20 trap/skeet/clays fields and a huge archery area. The facility also has about 15 other ranges reserved by clubs for shoots including 100 firing points to 1000yds on high power, 2 silhouette ranges and about a dozen practical bays.

PRS-style shooting is monthly at a private shooting site called "Cowtown" in the west part of the valley not far from Ben Avery. And a monthly shoot at RSSC.

BLM is opening some formal maintained shooting sites in the west valley desert.

There are some nice outdoor ranges in Tucson, also near Casa Grande, Flagstaff, Payson, Kingman, Yuma and other parts of the state.

As to shooting in the Desert, BLM and National forest permit shooting most of the year. State Trust Land permits hunting but NOT target shooting.  Indian reservations do not permit anything. Check the national forest websites, Tonto NF, the one closest to phoenix, has closed off shooting on hundreds of square miles nearest town due to dirt bike infestation and bans water jugs. Steel and paper are still OK, but plan on an hour drive to find a safe legal place. During hot weather fire seasons all the NFs ban shooting, camp fires and smoking.

Hunting is by drawing for tags to hunt anything larger than a quail or coyote. But lots of public land to hunt on.
https://www.azgfd.com/



Shopping in the Phoenix area:
BassPro in Mesa
Cabela's in northwest valley
2 or 3 Sportsman's Warehouse stores
lots of Local gun Shops.

Hope this helps, welcome to AZ, shoot good!

Poole
http://arizona-rifleshooting.com/


more:
The problem with "rural" in AZ is nearly all the land is BLM, national forest, state trust, indian rez. (except for rez, all are open to hunting with an AZ license, BLM and NF are open to target shooting, except for the crowded areas infested with dirtbikes and the entire state during fire season (every summer!), so "rural" is far away or expensive, often both. if not there may not be water. I'm speculating, but I bet there are probably few places in OH where a 50' or 100' well does not produce water, there are fewer places in AZ where a 100' well is deep enough or any well at all is even possible.

"Phoenix", the area, is the city of Phoenix and the 20 or so cities and areas that form its suburbs. Sometimes called the  "Valley of the Sun" (in summerr its more like the "Surface of the Sun" :) but we like it this way!

There are some rural-ish locations around Phoenix. South: Maricopa, Casa Grande. SE: Apache junction, Florence, NE: Cave Creek/Carefree. North: New River, SW: buckeye & beyond, and NW: beyond sun city out to Wickenburg. All of these put you about 1 to 2 hours from PHX airport.

OP,  wife in INS?
Wife and I are looking to make the move too. Her employer is in INS and just built a new facility there.
She can WFH, I'll  have to find a job.
Too young to retire. Looks like a will have to take a pay cut though, from jobs I've seen so far.
Hoping the housing prices ease a bit too. Really don't want to jump into a mortgage again.
We are looking at Apache Junction area.

Wife does work for a Insurance company, new building in north scottsdale

OP, check out New River too. It's rural and in the mountains just west of North Scottsdale. 20-30 minute drive without going through the city nightmare traffic.

Camp Verde might be closer to a job in Scottsdale than San Tan depending where it is in Scottsdale.  At least when traffic is taken into account.