City: Phoenix, AZ

Category: Relocation

Telephone: (480) 488-3381

Description: Most Valley housing is relatively new. So are most neighborhoods. Those that people can pick out by name usually have some history to them. In Phoenix neighborhoods such as Encanto, Arcadia, Maryvale, Paradise Valley, and Sunnyslope are among the best known.To the rest of the Valley, a neighborhood usually means the name of a development. In Scottsdale master-planned communities like Scottsdale Ranch and Grayhawk prevail rather than traditional boroughs. With so many new developments popping up, any listing would quickly become a litany of names and features without any context. It’s much more useful to think of the Valley outside Phoenix in geographic terms. North and South Scottsdale are distinct from one another; so are North and South Tempe and East and West Mesa. The neighborhoods and developments within each geographic area are very similar.With very few exceptions, the great truth about development is the farther you get from the Valley’s core, the houses being built are bigger and the landscaping is more desert-like.The oldest Valley neighborhoods were built to help the residents forget they were in the desert. Greenery abounds thanks to lawn irrigation. In these neighborhoods lawns were often sunk an inch or two below the surrounding sidewalks and bounded by grass-covered mounds. The lawns are flooded at night so that they look a bit like rice paddies. They stay green.As time went on, the Valley became more water-conscious. The neighborhoods built in the 1950s through the 1970s saw a mixture of green lawns and desert landscaping, with grass lawns still tending to outnumber the desert landscapes. By and large, these neighborhoods are full of ranch-style houses built without basements on concrete pads. Because the elements (except for the sun) were relatively kind to autos, many homes built in that era featured carports rather than garages. Most of these homes were built in cozy proximity for young, blue-collar, and lower-middle-class families.The developments built in the past 15 to 20 years tend to have a more spacious feeling. Two-story houses have become more common. Garages are the norm. The developments themselves have sunken greenbelts for flood protection, which opens up the landscape of a neighborhood. The greenbelts become places to jog, walk the dog, or ride your bike. Many newer developments are built around artificial lakes or golf courses to add a touch of cool, green relief to the surroundings. On the higher end of the price scale, most communities are gated and have their own security.Homeowner associations have become more common, both in older neighborhoods and in new developments. In new developments especially, they act as a form of low-level government, enforcing various restrictions in the property deeds in an effort to keep property values up for all association members. Enforcement is usually through fines, after the homeowner has been given some warnings. The associations use their dues to keep up common areas, such as greenbelts and roadside landscaping. Restrictions can be as loose as making sure that all the houses are painted in a similar palette of colors or as tight as not allowing outdoor speakers in a patio area. Outdoor remodeling and building additions often have to be reviewed by the associations to ensure they comply with the deed restrictions. This review is in addition to any review procedure that a city might have.The associations evolved because of the vast differences in neighborhood upkeep, especially in Phoenix proper. You can drive down one half mile of a street in a development and find nothing but immaculately kept homes and landscapes, and then proceed the next half mile through blocks of badly kept rentals. The associations help keep this patchwork from developing any further.