Best place to live in AZ?

J&JSuiter070205

In your opinion, what city(s) is the best place to live in Arizona?  We may relocate from the MIdwest to AZ. Things that are important to us are:

1. safe, 2. good schools, 3. cost of living

Thanks!

irlndsumer

This is going to vary, as the girls here live all over the valley.  There's a lot of great areas in Phoenix, but you should definately figure out where your jobs are before completely settling on an area.  The commute can be up to 1 1/2 hours if your one one side of the city and work on the other.

That being said, we love the East Valley.  We live in Chandler, but would also consider Gilbert, Tempe (most southern part) and Ahwatukee.  All 3 fit your criteria you mentioned.

cnj050607

We moved here from New England and we are in the West Valley up in Surprise. I love it here. The schools are great, COL is pretty cheap and there is not a lot of crime or anything here. Like irlndsummer said, you sort of need to plan where you live on how far of a commute you will have. My husband works in downtown and it is about a 45 minute commute for him!

b15chik

Yay Iowa! Where are you at??

Like everyone else said, it really depends. Phoenix metro area is HUGE

HawaiiLover

I second what pp said.  Definitely try to see where you will be working.  Phoenix is massive!!  You don't want to spend hours a day communting.  We are in North Phoenix and love it.  We are on the border of Scottsdale so things can be a little pricier.  But good schools and very low crime.  And we are close to everything we would need.  I would recommend doing some research and find out where your jobs might be.  My hubby got a job in North Phoenix after we bought our house so it worked out but all the real jobs for me are central and south Phoenix (paychecks aren't worth the commute for me) so I work part time and make peanuts.  Check out the job site Jobing.com.   Really helpful   Good luck!!!!