The trip was great! We drove around a lot with our realtor and on our own just to get a feel for the different options and for my husband to get his name out to the different school districts. That really gave us a good feel for the area and the different places to live and I think we are leaning heavily toward Surprise... Surprise!! lol, the jokes can be fun. My realtor informed us that prices are on the way down, so if you are looking to buy this summer, the houses will most likely go down about $10-15,000! The area is great and brand new and has less of the "hodge podge" mix of good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods that glendale can have. Anyways, Good luck!!!
North Glendale has no "bad neighborhoods". Check out the
police reports and you will see that the area around the school is pretty low in crime except for some theft (car theft is rampant in the Phoenix area, so bring your Club). As you go south, however, it gets worse and worse. Don't live in south or central Glendale.
Prices are high in the neighborhoods right next to the medical school--larger houses with Spanish roofs, 2-3 car garages, 2000+ square feet, probably nothing under $325K. It's probably not where most students can afford to live. However if you go south of Union Hills, between 51st and 59th Ave there are some less expensive neighborhoods that are pretty quiet and mellow. We bought a house last July on 56th Ave just south of Union Hills in the low 200s. It's about a block from the new Aquatic and Recreation Center, and a block further is the new Foothills branch library. It's a mile from campus down a side road (57th Ave) that has bike lanes. I can get to school in 7 minutes on my bike (5-6 minutes if I'm in a hurry). A mile south brings you to Bell Road which is a major shopping district with Walmart, Target, Arrowhead Mall, Costco, millions of restaurants and specialty stores. There are a few homes for sale around here but it's not the devastation you'll see in those new construction areas out west where the builders are practically giving houses away.
Unfortunately for us, someone else put an offer on our house literally the same day we did, so we had to raise our offer a little and we ended up paying just under its appraised value, not much of a bargain. But the monthly mortgage + tax + insurance comes to $1300; compare that to a 3 bedroom San Lagos apartment across from the school for about the same. In four years, if we sell this house for the same money we paid, we will have saved about $20K over living in an apartment. These economics may not apply if you are planning to share a place with a couple of friends and pay about $500/month. This is really more appropriate for a couple possibly with a child (or planning to have one w/in 4 years) who simply can't do the apartment sharing thing.
If you can get a down payment together, I would recommend buying because (1) it's a buyer's market, (2) you will eventually accrue some equity by the time you sell, and (3) as Midwestern expands with its new dental school, larger medical school class, and biomedical research facilities, more medical families will be moving to the area, hence demand for housing. Prices are falling in lots of places but not too much in north Glendale, maybe a little.
Check out ziprealty.com which has pretty good software. You can click on a map to see details about houses for free, including how much the house's price has been reduced, MLS #, comparable houses, etc. I spent many many hours on that website while pretending to work last spring
🙂
The typical alternative to buying is San Lagos and San Prado, which are right across from the school and are pretty nice. You can save some bucks by living a few miles away, preferably north or west. There are lots of apartment complexes. San Lagos is really nice; I was shown a model apartment and it felt like being in a luxury hotel. The pool facility is nice too. But keep in mind you'll be primarily using it as a place to sleep.
If you can get into on campus housing, that's probably the best and most economical alternative for those not buying. They pay some of your utilities like electricity and broadband and water, I believe, and of course you're a five minute walk to class. There's a couple of common areas where you can meet to study or party. It's got a college campus feel to it that you won't experience as much off campus. I heard they were planning to build more housing but in the meantime, with the larger entering class, it's only going to get harder. We applied for housing and actually got a 1 bedroom, but once we decided to buy, we gave it back. (note that the deposit is not refundable) I believe that upperclassmen have higher priority on housing, but keep in mind that people are leaving for rotations all the time so units do free up. I have heard that some of the units can be noisy, depending on what neighbors you have and how close you are to common areas. Once again, you'll be living in the library anyway.
This is just my own opinions and experience; others may have more information to add so do call the school, call San Lagos, and talk with realtors before making up your mind.
Best of luck to everyone and see you in the fall!
