Neighborhood Grades In Phoenix AZ
Hi All,
I recently moved to Arizona and looking to househack in the Phoenix area. What are some neighborhood grades in the Phoenix area for buy and hold investments? Also, what would be the best way to learn more about the quality of the areas? Thank you!
It's more work than I'm willing to do to put grades on every area of the city, but if you have a place in mind, I'll give my 2 cents about it.
The best way to learn the quality of an area is drive through it in the daytime. Google street view is helpful, but can be out of date in some places by a year or two or more, but will give you a general sense of what an area looks like. Take note of the quality of the housing and overall cleanliness of the area. There are parts of the city where you'll see homeless people at bus stops and drive 3 minutes down the road and see homes worth well over $1 million.
Places that have an abundance of liquor stores, smoke shops, payday loans, laundromats, etc. are more than likely going to be your C/D neighborhoods. Trader Joes, Sprouts, Whole Foods tend to be in the better neighborhoods. This isn't some hard and fast rule that is applicable to every neighborhood. Just casual observation from my 18 years in the desert.
Suburbs such as Chandler, Gilbert, Surprise, Buckeye will have newer homes with fewer problems, but are further out from the center of the city. Tempe is nice since it houses a major university and there are no shortage of renters in the area. Housing stock is older though (mid-century). Scottsdale is high-end and you'll pay a premium for any property there. Good restaurants and nightlife and lots to do as well.
That's a rough synopsis of the city. I'm sure others can chime in and fill in the gaps. If you have any questions, feel free to holler.