The best places to live in Phoenix
Choosing where to live in Phoenix comes down to how far you are willing to drive. New arrivals come from other parts of the US as often as from abroad, and the first job is the same for everyone: finding a home where you and your family will be happy.
Phoenix is the centre of the Valley of the Sun, a low-rise sprawl of more than 20 cities and towns between Buckeye in the west and Apache Junction in the east. Most people drive, and they do it on the loop freeways (101, 202, and 303) and on I-10 and I-17. Valley Metro runs two light rail lines along a narrow central spine through Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa, and that is about it for rail. The address you choose is the commute you get.
To help newcomers, we’ve drawn up a list of some of the most popular areas and suburbs in Phoenix:
City living in Phoenix
City living in Phoenix suits anyone who would rather not spend an hour a day on a freeway. Public transport is thin once you leave the central corridor, so a downtown address is the surest route to a short commute. Valley Metro added a second rail line in 2025, and the A and B lines both stop at the Downtown Hub between Central and First avenues. Rents are higher in the centre, but the trade-off is that concerts, ball games, museums, and late-night food are all a few blocks away.
Tempe is the other pocket where you can live without a car. It is 10 miles (16km) east on the same rail line, and Arizona State University’s main campus, the bars on Mill Avenue, the offices around Tempe Town Lake, and a streetcar line keep it busy all year.
Downtown Phoenix
Downtown Phoenix is filled with mixed-use towers, and the ground floors belong to restaurants, bars, shops, and the odd grocery shop. Arizona State University’s downtown campus, the law school, the convention centre, and the Diamondbacks’ ballpark are all within a few blocks, and the Suns play a short walk away.
Suburban residents will burn the better part of an hour getting to any of this. Downtown is the one corner of the metro where you can realistically walk or take the light rail to work, a gallery, a game, or dinner.
Roosevelt Row
Roosevelt Row, or RoRo to locals, is the arts district on the northern edge of the downtown core, and it links the centre to the residential streets around it. There are murals on most of the walls, and thousands of people still turn out for the First Friday art walk each month.
The old craftsman bungalows are still there, although there are now mid-rise apartment blocks scattered between them, and rents are higher than they were. Longtime residents will tell you the district has lost some of its scruff. The galleries have thinned out, and the bars and upmarket restaurants have moved in.
Family-friendly areas in Phoenix
Family-friendly areas in Phoenix come down to a trade between drive time and garden space. Plots are bigger in the suburbs, the houses are newer, garages come as standard, and your money can go further than it does near the centre. Several of these ‘suburbs’ are cities in their own right: Mesa is the third-largest city in Arizona, and Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, and Scottsdale each have their own police departments and school districts.
The bill comes due on the drive. The further out you go, the newer and cheaper the housing and the longer the run into the centre, and a second car stops being optional. Two of the best bets never leave the city limits.
Arcadia
Arcadia is the old citrus-grove neighbourhood between Phoenix and Scottsdale, and families will compete hard for this central address. It has ranch houses on big irrigated lots, trees that are mature enough to cast real shade, and trailheads to Camelback Mountain at the end of the road. Prices are well above the city average.
Children here go to Scottsdale Unified schools, and Phoenix Country Day School has been the private option since the 1960s. Sky Harbor is just 15 minutes away, which counts for a lot if you’re a regular flier.
Ahwatukee Foothills
South Mountain Park cuts Ahwatukee Foothills off from the rest of Phoenix, but a lot of residents count that as the main attraction. Locals call it ‘The Tuke’, and it feels like a small town that happens to be inside the city limits.
The Kyrene and Tempe Union schools are among the best rated in the state, and there are trailheads into South Mountain Park at the ends of the residential streets. Commuters here work in the Chandler tech corridor, at Sky Harbor, or in Tempe, all of which are a short drive away. The catch is the mountain: a run to Scottsdale or the West Valley will take a while, even with the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway on the doorstep.
Gilbert
Gilbert is a family-friendly suburb about 25 miles (40km) southeast of Downtown Phoenix, which is a 30- to 40-minute drive outside rush hour. It is still officially a town, although more than a quarter of a million people live there. Families choose Gilbert for its large homes, neighbourhood parks, low crime rate, and, above all, its public schools, which rank among the best in Arizona.
Cyclists love it here. Gilbert is a designated Bicycle-Friendly Community, and you can ride roughly 60 miles (97km) of multi-use paths between the parks, the canals, the schools, and the town centre. That centre is the Heritage District, an old farm town main street that has turned into the East Valley’s best known restaurant strip, so a night out need not mean a drive into Phoenix.
Surprise
Surprise is a 45-minute drive northwest of Downtown Phoenix, roughly 25 miles (40km) out, and that distance is the price of the space. Young families buy here because the homes cost less than in the East Valley, the crime rate is one of the lowest in Arizona, and nearly all the amenities are new. The public schools include charter and magnet options.
Surprise is one of the fastest-growing cities in Arizona, and there’s been continuous development of subdivisions, retail parks, schools, and the Surprise City Center into the surrounding desert. The Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals hold spring training at Surprise Stadium every February and March, which brings a month of crowds to the north of the city.
Education and Schools in Phoenix
Upmarket areas in Phoenix
The upmarket areas in Phoenix are, strictly speaking, outside it. Paradise Valley and Scottsdale are separate municipalities on the eastern edge of the city, and both have worked hard to stay that way.
Paradise Valley
Paradise Valley is the Beverly Hills of the Southwest, and it is not a Phoenix suburb in the ordinary sense. It is a separate town. Residents incorporated it in 1961 to stop Phoenix and Scottsdale from annexing the land, and the zoning has hardly moved since. Homes are on plots of an acre or more, and no apartments or condominiums are permitted anywhere inside the town limits. Renting here is close to impossible.
Nor is there much commerce. Resorts, country clubs, schools, and religious institutions need to hold special use permits, although the restaurants and the shopping at Scottsdale Fashion Square are a short drive away over the border. Families pay for the address, the acre of privacy, the views of Camelback and Mummy mountains, and the Scottsdale Unified schools, which are among the strongest in the state.
Scottsdale
Scottsdale is a city in its own right, and a substantial one. Old Town is its walkable heart. In it, Fashion Square is the largest shopping mall in Arizona, and the surrounding streets are full of galleries, coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. Young professionals take the luxury apartments at the Scottsdale Waterfront and, in exchange, put up with the thumping Entertainment District, which is zoned mixed-use and therefore falls outside the city’s residential noise rules.
North Scottsdale is quieter and tends to have older residents. The boutiques, wine bars, golf clubs, and spas up here are pricier, and it has the McDowell Sonoran Preserve on its doorstep: 30,000 acres (12,000ha) of Sonoran Desert, more than 200 miles (320km) of trails, free to enter and open sunrise to sunset. Employers cluster around the Scottsdale Airpark, one of the largest employment centres in the state, so plenty of residents here never commute into Phoenix at all.