Top 5 Phoenix AZ Neighborhoods That Are Affordable AND Livable

If you are thinking of moving to the Phoenix area and you're trying to identify where the most affordable areas might be, not just talking cheap housing, I'm talking affordable areas with a quality of life. There's always that balance for you. The pros, the cons, what works best for you, and what are those cities that you should consider. I'm going to break down the top five most affordable cities and why coming at you right now, starting with number five, that's going to be Surprise, Arizona. Surprise kind of has two areas. It has the before the 303 and the after the 303. Here's how the cities are built. First come homes, then come freeways, and then come employment, and then come shopping, dining, and medical, et cetera. So we are in that second phase now in Surprise. They started building there, gosh, in the 60s and 70s, where we saw mostly retirement communities, as well as military families, because Luke Air Force Base is located in the south part of Surprise. So be aware of that. You are going to learn to love hearing that sound of freedom fly over your home, no matter where you live in Surprise, you're going to hear them. It's quite the opportunity when you get to point them in the sky to the little ones. Needless to say, the newer part of Surprise has really blossomed once the freeway 303 came in. And this is where the majority of the people are gravitating to. Now there's kind of two different sections in Surprise. If you ask me, there's going to be those super affordable, which is why Surprise is on the top five list. They're actually nationally one of the most affordable cities when you take in the income to the housing and the overall cost of living. But again, there's some luxury areas in Surprise. Here's the thing I would just forewarn you. If you go to the builders, first of all, don't ever go without your realtor, which hopefully will be us, but they will continue to tell you that Surprise is the new Scottsdale. And that is not the case at all. And I just want to make sure I set that expectation. Anyone that has considered golf course community and Scottsdale living, but it's too high of a price tag, we take them on over to Sterling Groves, which I will say is breathtaking. But from a golfer perspective, apparently it's not that over the top of a golf course. And the amenities outside of the community really don't support that luxury lifestyle. So kind of going back to where I was kind of saying right here, when you are picking new construction, definitely evaluate the builder and we will help you do that, but also the community itself and what it delivers because outside of those newer communities in Surprise, there is still a long wait for shopping, dining, et cetera. Now there is your basic essentials. You're going to have grocery stores. You're going to have Walgreens or CVS. Those are the biggest drug stores here. And you might have some Circle K's. We don't have 7-11's depending on where you're coming from. So we have some gas stations and things like that. However, if you want to go into like major, major shopping, you're going to be coming into town. It's not that bad. The traffic can be tough during different times of the year, not only the different times of the day. This particular part of the Greater Phoenix area, Surprise and its neighboring area right over here, during the winter is overly packed. You have traffic, you have long restaurant lines. There's so much going on though, because of the weather and spring training. So if you are prepared for that, the summertime, it's actually really quiet in the Northwest part of the town. From a school perspective, I have to tell you, the newer area, again, where the new construction is being built, the ratings of the schools are still moderate. There's a new school out there that has a 7 out of 10, but that's better than actually the older part of Surprise, which has lower ratings. So that's a positive thing. So as we continue to see more and more people moving here, more tax dollars, we're going to see a lot more city improvements. There is already established, like I said, shopping, dining, medical care. If you're buying in the newer areas though, you're looking at about a 15, 20 minute drive to get to these types of areas. So it's a little bit more remote. And like I said, my tip of the day for Surprise is make sure you love, love, love, love the community more than anything else. All right, coming in at number four is going to be Goodyear, Arizona. I just recently did a whole bunch of new videos on Goodyear. If you have not checked those out, you're just going to click here on this little QR code. It'll bring you to my website. I have a library of over 200 videos. It specifically covered Goodyear because it is amazing what they are doing to the city. In my opinion, Goodyear was at one time somewhat comparable to Surprise, although Goodyear has beautiful mountain views, whereas I mentioned Surprise does not. But Goodyear, everything that is now exploding there, that's what Surprise is waiting for. So if you don't want to wait for it, and this is a better proximity for work and your commute, you might want to consider Goodyear. Now here's some of the highlights. Number one, three times as many jobs within a 30 minute commute, city of Goodyear as opposed to Surprise. So now you can hear that, have something to compare. So the proximity to more opportunity is present in Goodyear. And that's why I said in the beginning that affordability has to do with the median income. So again, the people live in this area have a higher income medium. The job clusters in this area is going to be, number one is going to be healthcare. And number two is going to be government employees. Now, Amazon is a huge employer here in Phoenix. And if you live anywhere on the West Valley, they're one of the top employers. Aside from that, though, we're talking Banner Healthcare, we're talking Dignity Health, we're talking Phoenix Children's Hospital. I could go on and on and on. So there's a lot of doctors, physicians, nurses that live in this part of town. And then we also have our large grocery chains, which are going to be Walmart and Fry's. If you didn't know, that's the biggest ones that we have here and employ quite a few. Again, what makes Goodyear ideal, not only is the proximity to the downtown, if you are looking for someone, in fact, pilots, a lot of pilots live in the Goodyear area because of the proximity to downtown Phoenix. Now, here's a little secret, guys. Goodyear already has Interstate 10, which is overwhelmingly busy. But the 303, as I mentioned, it changed surprise. It's also changing Goodyear. That 303 is starting to grow further south into closer proximity to Estrella Mount Ranch, which is really the big driver, what we've seen over in the Goodyear area. But as you'll see in those last videos that I just did, it's not the only amazing community. Here's the thing, as they continue to finish that 303, they will then be building another freeway called the State Route 30. I don't know if they're going to come up with another name at this point, but you can actually already see the dirt carved out for the freeway. So it will completely change, again, that when you're looking for the growth and the future of this area, Goodyear is going to explode faster than surprise. Also, one of the things I mentioned in my videos with Goodyear is about their new downtown, surprise is not even close to this, and the most amazing community center, the rec center that I've ever seen. If you live in Goodyear, there is a ton of return for your investment. You get a lot more than you do in surprise. So you're going to have a ton of parks, you're going to have outdoor hiking, freeway access, tons of medical care, jobs, restaurants, shopping, the whole downtown, and this recreation center is over the top. You're also on the west side of the valley, you have more of those spring training facilities. There is one also in Goodyear. So if that's one of the things that you want to live nearby, both of these cities will work for you. And the center of the entertainment world in the west valley is going to be an area called Westgate. By the way, it's right off the 101, and whether you live in surprise or Goodyear, it's about the same distance, but that's where you're going to find a whole lot of tourism during the wintertime. But even during the non-tourism, that is going to be kind of your destination for all the fun, exciting things to do, just to give you, again, that proximity. All right, coming in at number three, I'm going to bring you way over on the other side of the valley. And this is a city called, actually, it's a town called Santan Valley. Now, Santan Valley, once upon a time, was just a little rural, unincorporated town that has grown to over 100,000 people. And they just voted in that they are going to be incorporated. So with the median price or average price of a home over here at $410,000 and its proximity to the technology jobs in the southeast valley, it makes this part of the valley even more desirable. There also, I mentioned the freeways going into Goodyear. There's also some freeways that are going out here in the east valley. That is going to be an extension of State Route 24 that is currently now an expressway, and it will be extending a little bit further east. And then we will see the new freeway called the 505. When that 505 goes in, not only will we see appreciation and growth catapult to a whole new level over on this side of the valley, but we are also going to see massive employment. And if you look at some of the Pinal County general plan maps, you'll see where this is going to be growing over the next 10 to 20 years. So Santan Valley is out a little bit further as far as time-wise, as far as seeing it, but that's also why it's more affordable, lower price, then surprise, and Goodyear. Santan Valley, in my opinion, is kind of like a cute little cowboy town. If you're coming from a rural part of the country or that's what you're looking for versus city, this is an area that I would highly recommend. You see a lot of people wearing their country attire. There's horses and constant, you know, cow hides being sold on the side of the road, festival of trees and pumpkin patches, the farms out this way. It's just a more country way of life. And if you're into side-by-sides and that kind of a thing, you would absolutely love Santan Valley. So for its affordability and also long-term growth and if you're not looking for city-city, Santan Valley might be the place that you want to consider. All right, coming in at number two is Buckeye, Arizona. Now, before you go, yay, Verado is affordable, I'm gonna have to say stop. I need to kind of break Verado out for you guys. I'm gonna call it three different areas and Verado is definitely the highest demand area and it should be. It is honestly the most charming community that we have in the entire Greater Phoenix area. I don't care if you're talking about affordability, if you're talking retirement, if you're talking luxury, if you're talking condos, you really cannot beat Verado. But that is not the part of Buckeye that I am talking to or that ChadGBT is referring to as far as one of the most affordable areas. Sorry, there's two other areas. The first area I want to talk about is south of Interstate 10 which kind of taps into Verado. So if you live close enough to Interstate 10 where it's not that far, chances are you're going to be going into Verado and at least enjoying some of the restaurants and the stores. They just opened Verado Marketplace, there's a movie theater, there's Costco up this way, Target, there's Safeway as well as a bunch of other charming little taco shops and there's another little coffee shop and there's all kinds of events in Main Street. So even if you don't live there, you can take advantage of these public stores, restaurants, and some of the events and activities. You just won't be able to engage in some of their club events or swimming pool and things like that. Now you still can attend their school. There is a charter school that is right at the freeway of or the entrance, exit, whatever you want to call it, Verado at Interstate 10. Now because you are so far west out here, if we look at the commute shed, this is part of the reason why Buckeye is so affordable with the exception of Verado is because most of the employment is quite some drive. So you're going to want to make sure that you have a reliable vehicle and take into consideration the wear and tear on your vehicle that includes extra windshields, just saying. Also I think from a beautification perspective, Buckeye really doesn't have anything in this area that I'm talking about that's really beautiful. Now we have sold some horse properties and larger types of properties, not the National Builders, that honestly I love. So if that's kind of the farming, country, horse, kind of ranch style homes, there's a lot of that in South Buckeye as well, but that's typically again not what they're talking about when they're talking about affordable housing. What we're talking about is mostly master, not master plan communities either. We're talking about plan communities, which just means it's a National Builder, the curb and gutter, and maybe there's a couple little parks, but there's not a lot of other amenities in these communities that help keep these homes at a much more affordable price. Now one of the things to take into consideration, although the housing is less expensive out this way, property taxes are higher because the city of Buckeye has kind of done, I don't know why they do it, the entire city of Buckeye has an extra layer on their property taxes. It's called the CFD, Community Facilities District. Now when you're living in a place like Verado and you have this elevated lifestyle just by living in this community, it makes like, you're okay, I'll pay a little bit more on my property taxes, but when you're living in an area that you're like, what am I paying for? I don't know where it started, but basically what it comes down to is if a builder wants to build a housing community, they go to the city and the city says, if you want us to let you build it here, you're going to be putting in the streets, the curb, the gutter, the streetlights, parks, things like that. Well the builder, in order to keep the housing prices lower, what they do is instead of putting it in the price of the home, they put it in bonds and then those bonds are attached to the property taxes. So they're deferring the cost and it's just kind of masqueraded in property taxes. So some of these lower price point homes aren't necessarily, they're still less expensive because the price of the home is lower, but know that there's some hidden costs. So that's why we want to have a one-on-conversation with you one-on-one. You're just going to have to give us a call, let's do a zoom meeting, let's talk about it if you're considering Buckeye. Most of the employment in Buckeye is going to be, like I said, over 45 minutes if not further away, over an hour getting to the airport. Even when I said the west part of the valley uses kind of Westgate as it's kind of like a heartbeat, like where all the entertainment is, it's quite quite a drive from this area. So that's something to take into consideration. And the schools here are not so good. There is the one panther or whatever pioneer panther charter school that is decent. The other public schools have a very low rating. Now if we go to the third part of Buckeye, this is an area that I just don't understand. And this is where there's water issues. And so it's something to take into consideration. Cartosa is a community that was built. You take interstate 10, and I'm not kidding you, it's like another 12 miles west towards California. Let me tell you, 12 miles on an interstate with nothing but, I hate to say it, but ugly desert, is it seems like you're driving forever. And here's the thing, guys, there's no gas station along the way. If you run out of gas, you are in trouble. So you take this one road, and let me tell you, when the people bought in this community, it's a very nice community when it was being built, they were told that there was going to be shopping right on the other side of Sunland Gin Road. And you know what? There's still the Collier's commercial sign saying that land is for sale for 15 years. This is not the first time I've seen this happen. Builders, although there's a plan for the land or zoned a certain way, unless there's a builder that's already gone through all the permitting and they start a construction, don't believe a word they say. There's another master plan community located on the East Valley. This will just give you a great example. And because the next community I want to tell you about this is super important. Eastmark over in Mesa, when the builders were selling 20 years ago, they were talking about all the shopping and the high end luxury, and it's going to be like this amazing area, which it is. But many of the acres that they promised high end shopping eventually actually sold to a couple of different people in that 20 years. It was turned into data centers. So although they are finally getting their first sprouts 20 years later, Tortosa has seen zero. And if you drive even further, another 20 miles, I don't think it's that long, maybe 15 miles north, though, on this road, I'm telling you, there is nothing. It's not even beautiful desert. Gosh, I know I shouldn't say that, but it's not. And you get to the middle of this nowhere called Tar Tervalas. Now, Tervalas is being built by the same developer that built Summerlin in Las Vegas. So I'm confident to say that in 25 to 30 years, it will be beautiful. But if you don't plan on waiting that long, think twice about way, way, way out that way in Buckeye. But that's where it's really cheap. But it's not cheap enough, if you ask me. Coming in chat, GPT said number one, most affordable city for all of the things that are taken into place, quality of life, cost of housing, other costs that go involved in living in that area, property taxes, HOA, how far you have to drive for medical care, shopping. All of this has been taken into consideration when they've ranked these cities. The top city, my absolute favorite, is Maricopa in Pinal County. The reason Maricopa is at the top, literally, it's a city outside of a city. They don't have great schools, but they have good schools. In fact, none of the areas that I have mentioned today have school ratings 10 out of 10. There are some charter schools. If you didn't know Arizona is a school choice state, you can put your children in public school or a tuition-free charter school. And that kind of is also what's killing the private schools here. But there are a lot of school choices here. If you have the ability to drive your children to these other schools, Maricopa has it. And one of the things I love about Maricopa is its proximity to massive employment. It's not in Maricopa, but it's proximity to Silicon Desert, actually, in Chandler, Arizona. Literally a million jobs within a 30, 35-minute drive from the city of Maricopa. Now, depending on where you live within Maricopa, it might be a little bit longer. And I know one of the biggest bottlenecks is literally a bottleneck on 347. 347 is a two-way, each-way road that has two stoplights. And those two stoplights create traffic pack-up. And let me tell you, drivers get anxious and they start weaving in and out, and then you have car accidents. So it has been one of the deadliest roads in the state, I have to be honest with you. But after years and years of the city of Maricopa, Arizona Department of Transportation, Gila River Indian Reservation, and the two different counties, Pinal and Maricopa, all these entities had to come together and go, okay, we agree. They finally all agreed. And we're going to be seeing that widening and also overpasses to eliminate those traffic problems and ease up that traffic burden that we see during commute time. Let me tell you, if you can work non-traditional hours, the drive is super simple. And just take your time, by the way. Don't, let me tell you, road rage is a real thing in Arizona. I don't know where all these drivers, oh wait, yes, I do know where these drivers come from. It's amazing how many California license plates we have in Arizona. And that's not a stab at Californians because I myself am from Northern California. Maricopa is probably the most well-rounded area. So not only is it the most affordable, you can buy homes in the low 300s. I'm actually starting to see twos in front of some of these homes. So not only can you get a new home or a resale home, homes on a lake or a golf course, or I mean, there's so many options and choices here. It is a true city. There is a new hospital there called Exceptional, which I think is such a weird name for a hospital. The community center there is called Copper Sky. Copper Sky, in my opinion, is the second best recreation center that we have in all of the Valley. I mentioned earlier the Goodyear one, ridiculously over the top, but Copper Sky, before Goodyear opened, was my favorite. There's an indoor gym with a track, same thing as the other one. They also have a disc golf. They have an amazing pool. They have water slides. They have Olympic-sized pool. They have swim teams. They have basketball courts, pickleball courts, all the same kind of things. But I don't know, just Goodyear kind of wowed me a little bit more. But I love Copper Canyon. And they also have a casino out this way. They have festivals. They have events. They have several grocery stores, not just one. Like I said, Buckeye, this is crazy. I can't imagine living somewhere and have to drive 23 miles. You're literally going to put a five-gallon, you shouldn't keep gas in your garage, but I'm going to say you put a five-gallon gas can in your garage and you let all your neighbors know because you've got to come together. It's living in Alaska when there's a massive snowstorm. Everybody kind of comes together and helps each other out. I don't know. How do you live 23 miles from the nearest gas station, let alone if you run out of milk or an egg or something like that? But Maricopa has several grocery stores, several hardware stores, including Home Depot and Lowe's. There's golf courses. There's activities for the kids to do. Maricopa, by far, exponentially number one in my book. And apparently, it's a judge, GPT. Here's the thing, guys. You just got to give us a call. There is no other one-stop place. You can call and get all your questions answered for the entire Phoenix Valley in every price point and at every point in your life. If you're starting a family or you're just getting married or maybe you're buying a condo or you're retiring or moving up or you're moving down, we can take care of you everywhere at this particular relocation team. All right, guys. Can't wait to hear from you. Give us a call. Here's my phone number. Give us a call. Shoot us a text. Send us an email. Days, nights, or weekends. We got your back when moving to Phoenix, Arizona.