My husband and I are looking into relocating to the Phoeniz, AZ area. ADVICE please?

We are young with no children and are looking for an area close to easily commute into Phoenix as I'll be attending school there. We enjoy dining out, meeting people etc but don't mind having a short drive to get to these places. We are looking for a safe, affordable area to rent in that is outside of the city but is still convenient. We are from the east coast and really are not familiar at all with AZ. ANY advice, tips, etc would be awesome! Places to life, prices for things, fun places to go etc etc etc.





Thanks!My husband and I are looking into relocating to the Phoeniz, AZ area. ADVICE please?
Hmmm.. I'd say since you're young w/ no kids to find a place centrally located to the lightrail - how nice that would be to not use my own gas to commute!!! As parents we live in the suburbs of Scottsdale %26amp; it takes about 20 min to get most anywhere w/ freeways, etc.





A lot of condos are going up in shopping areas such as Kierland Commons(Scottsdale), City North (North Phx)) Lofts are going in in Tempe, even brownstones. A lot of urban living is now being embraced, instead of the automatic suburb. Phoenix has come a long way (as has surrounding cities) w/ it's culture %26amp; availibility.





Prices in AZ can be higher, but you can always rent until you find a place that feels like home. Bc of the economy however, it is a buyers market.





If I were a young couple w/o kids (no backyard necessary!) I'd live in a downtown area. Downtown (called Old Town) Scottsdale, Downtown Phoenix or Downtown Tempe. It's easier to get around as everything is close by (entertainment/shopping/dining/museums) %26amp; if it's not summer, totally conducive to bike riding! In the suburbs...not so much - it would be a long ride. Scottsdale gets a bad rap for being snobby %26amp; posh ( i live here %26amp; LOVE what it has to offer!)....Phoenix is still pretty new only bc of the renovations...Tempe is all college kids (ASU).





In fact, being from the East where everything is ';close'; a downtown atmosphere might be more to your liking until you get the lay of the land.My husband and I are looking into relocating to the Phoeniz, AZ area. ADVICE please?
do you and your husbands have jobs lines up? i would suggest living close to your work. you dont want a terribly long commute. i live in north central phx and my area is safe. do you plan on renting or buying? if you plan on renting, go to an apartment finder. it sound outdated but they have all the scoop on the various apt complexes. just tell em what you want and they will find it for you.
Our high crime rates, bad super bad economy are making desperate people even more desperate these days.


Lovely yes, cheaper than alot of cities yes. Our elc bill for 2 bdrm apt was avg 85 summers up to 180.00.


Choose your city well and the direction of your place. Dont rent a house, home owners who own rentals, are foreclosing, they rent it out take huge deposits and give you a few desperate weeks to move out and dont have the money to return your deposits. Rentals, are best.


South North or eastern exposures *to the living room, are best, as the late afternoon is the one that gets the house hot. Make sure there are trees blocking at least some of the windows too.


Most apts have NO garages, so be prepared, they have covered parking.


When I moved here, I flew out a few months before, and looked at the areas, and rented, then moved out here. Work is hard to come by, Phoenix is technology based, all major employers layed off. The last job fair had only 200 jobs and 10,000 showed up.


Another has 25 jobs and 565 showed up that registered. Be leary of moving here at this time, get the cheapest place you can find to live in at first, take a month to month, see how you like where you are, and resign a longer lease at a lesser price if you like it, that or move on to where you found you like.


Its too hard to say move here or there, we are a high crime state.


The kidnappings, are more of the illegals, and crimals wronging other criminals, than kidnappings off the street of just average citizens.


Suprise is nice, Tempe is nice, Chandler can be nice, Gilbert, but all in all, the lower newer cities seem the best in my eyes, clean and new. Not near schools though and traffic is rough here too.
I would like to tell you there are lots of places in Phoenix, but I would be lying to you. I have lived in Arizona for about 27 years now, and the first 11 were in Phoenix. I had a very large 3100 sq.ft tri level home on 2-1/2 acres, barn , 6' cyclone gates, huge cinder block shop for 8 cars I built, thougt it was great. Wrong. I paid as much as 700.00 a month for elect. alone, as when you see the thermoter go over the 120 deg. mark, you start getting scared and damn hot. I had over 3,000.00 a month going out, so you end up working long long hours 7 days a week to make it. Cheap and Safe in Phoenix LOL LOL There is no such animal. Log into fox news 10 phoenix, az. and just read the crime reports. Phoenix is the number one city in the us for kidnapping, and average about 2-3 murders per day, I would guess about 2-3 rapes and / or assalts per day, and you cannot imagine how many burglries and armed robberies per day. I am not kidding, you need to know all of this before you even think about moving here. There is no safe place in Phoenix and to top it all off, it is one of the largest cities in the world area wise. It is not a city of skyscrappers, but rather a typical sw. city, that is spread out all over the map.





What I would do were I you is this. Get a new large map of Phoenix and surrounding areas. Put a couple of green push pins in the map where you will be going to school. Now, follow the crime reports from fox 10 and put a red push pin in every where there is a vilont crime. Put a yellow pin in where there is a burgulary. Use a blue pin for where a safe house is discovered. And then maybe a white pin for something else. Do you get the idea ? If you do this for about a month you will have more info then any person can profess to know on this or any other site, and it will be accurate to a pin point. Now you can figure out where you would like to live. I wish you all the best luck in the world %26gt; your going to need it. Rock
There are some beautiful areas outside of Phoenix to rent/buy. Our streets are so much easier than some from back East. My family is in Boston I know it is a mess to drive there, for me anyways because it's so easy out here! I will warn you though, it is more spaced out here. I told my cousin that I drive 20 miles one way to work and she just about had a coronary. For me though, it's nothing. I would check out sites like move.com or prsrentals.com. PRS is a pretty reputable rental company out here that my family does some work for. Some nice areas to look into are Gilbert, Ahwatukee, Queen Creek (we live here but depending on which area it can be a long drive from Phoenix) some parts of Tempe and Mesa. Gas is averaging about $1.85, you can get some great meals for decent prices, like Logan's Steakhouse has 2 meals for $13 during the week. You say you are into meeting people, Mill Ave would probably be great for you guys and it is right near ASU if that's where you will go to school. I hope some of this helps. Just beware, the summers are HOT out here and take some getting used to. Today we already reached 90 and it''s only getting warmer, so pack lots of sunscreen and always have some water with you. Good Luck!
Safe areas usually means more expensive, affordable means that you will probably need an alarm put on your car (we just NOW moved down from the top 10 worst places for getting your car stolen), nothing outside of the city is convenient if you're going to school. You should live right by the school. You'll get student discounts on rent at some complexes. Sounds like Peoria would be the right neighbourhood. We have a lot of really nice areas and the people here are generally very friendly.





HOWEVER:





Depending on where you're from and how much you can handle, Phoenix has some pretty dangerous areas. The Mexican drug wars have migrated here and we've seen an increase in the numbers of homicides, rapes, and kidnappings. As a matter of fact, our nickname is ';The Kidnapping Capitol of America';... The ONLY city in the entire WORLD with more kidnappings than Phoenix is Mexico City. And we're closing in fast.
I would suggest Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe or Scottsdale. Mesa is ok... there are pockets where it may get a little sketchy.


Anything past mesa would take you forever to commute.


I live on the east coast now - I miss a lot of the places out there. If your anything like east coast - check out AJ's Fine Foods for a little grocery shopping. - its like whole foods in a way. or Bloom supermarket.


I miss In and Out Burger, Fazolies, and Jack N A box of all places. - I really wish they had those on the east coast. - or more of them for that matter-


They still have the high end fashion that the east coast does - you can check out scottsdale fashion center or chandler fashion center. They also have Arizona Mills mall which has the outlet centers.


Good luck. AZ is a great place to live.