The 10 Best Glendale, AZ Suburbs To Live In For 2026

The 10 Best Glendale Suburbs To Live For 2026

Paradise Valley is always mentioned as one of the best suburbs in the Glendale area. We’ll tell you the good about “Awesome Paradise Valley.”

Everyone here is rich; families average $247,159 a year, which is the highest in the Glendale region. And only 2.13% are out of work. Homes average more than $3,474,596 each.

Litchfield Park is the second best ‘burb we looked at near Glendale for 2026.

It ranks 3rd for incomes in the area and only 5.45% of residents lack insurance, good for 6th best.

Here in Gilbert, it’s really safe, and residents are just about as rich as you’ll see in the Glendale metro area.

The bad side? Schools are more crowded, and the cost of living puts a large part of the city out of reach for most families.

But price is based on demand and a lot of people want to live in Gilbert.

Review Of Gilbert by HomeSnacks User

Gilbert, Arizona is a fast growing community in the east valley of phoenix. The schools are absolutely amazing especially Gilbert Public Schools. There is very little crime and a ton of out door splash pads and parks.

The number of restaurants grows buy the month! Down town Gilbert has such a fun family friendly vibe with a farmers market every week. Gilbert is appealing to young families because of the safe neighborhoods and the great schools.

Scottsdale ranks as the 4th best suburb of Glendale for 2026.

You won’t find many better places to raise your kids in the region than in Scottsdale and the schools are some of the best around.

Coming in as the fifth best is Carefree.

Carefree gets kudos for having the 3rd most expensive homes in the Glendale area, where houses sell for an average of $1,292,631. However, the cost of living here is among the highest in the area.

Santa Cruz is proud of its 6th place finish on this list. And here’s why.

Most residents have great jobs and the unemployment rate sits at 7.24%.

According to online reports, Santa Cruz is quickly becoming one of the more affluent suburbs in the Glendale area, meaning you need to get in soon.

Review Of Santa Cruz by HomeSnacks User

Santa Cruz is one of my favorite places on the planet. It has a laid-back, surfer, hippie feel to it. While I would recommend holding on to one’s purse in the downtown area, the overall feel of Santa Cruz is one of chic cafes, interesting shops, artsy souvenirs, street musicians, bookstores, etc.

One of my favorite places includes Miramar’s on the wharf. I love the restaurant’s glass wall that allows me to watch surfers, sea lions and sailboats while I indulge in clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.

I especially love being in Santa Cruz for the Woodies on the Wharf parade. The classic cars are a beautiful sight against the sun, the sand and the surf.

The 7th best suburb on our list goes to Chandler.

Chandler schools are some of the best in the region, and crime is really low. The cost of living makes it a lot more desirable for many families, especially first-time home buyers.

And, it’s only 25.9 miles to downtown, which is a good thing.

Fountain Hills is growing quickly, and for a good reason. Crime is far below average, and most residents are gainfully employed. Even the cost of living is reasonable.

A solid 4.53% of people lack insurance, good for 4th in the area.

Is ‘Everything Better In Cave Creek?’

Almost.

It placed 9th on our list thanks to the fact that it’s really expensive to live here, but the schools are great, so you get what you pay for in that regard.

And rounding out the top ten for 2026 is Goodyear.

This city is far above average in every category, and the best part? It’s far more affordable than the other cities listed above. So, you get a big bang for your buck here.

Methodology: How We Determined The Best Suburbs Around Glendale for 2026

Figuring out the best suburbs around Glendale was simple. We used Saturday Night Science to find things people like about living in the suburbs and then locate the suburbs with those things.

We analyzed the newest American Community Survey data for 2020-2024 to research each suburb. We decided upon the following criteria:

• Low unemployment rate
• High median household incomes
• Population density (lots of things to do)
• High home values
• A lot of college-educated people
• Low poverty
• High rate of insured families

We defined a suburb as being within 30 miles of Glendale.

Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 3,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 22 suburbs to evaluate around Glendale.

We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 22 in each category, where 1 was the “best.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality-of-life index.

Finally, we crowned the city with the best quality of life index, the “Best Suburb near Glendale.” We’re lookin’ at you, Paradise Valley.

This result may differ from our state-wide data as we did not include commute times and crime for this analysis to allow for a more extensive selection of suburbs.

We updated the data for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the best Glendale suburbs. Skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from best to worst.