Are you sick of being a city slicker?
Do you long for life in suburban Arizona? Where you can drive your overly-large vehicle to the store for groceries, and schlep the kids around to practices and appointments without worrying about a parking space?
We do too.
Public transportation is…icky at times. When you have to call an Uber to get to urgent care on a Friday night, that gets old after a while.
So, the question is, if you wanted to move out to the suburbs of Phoenix, where would you go? And how would you decide on the ranking factors to help you pick which Arizona suburb was best?
No worries. We got it all figured out here.
These are the 10 best suburbs in the Grand Canyon State:
- Paradise Valley (Photos)
- Oro Valley (Photos)
- Sahuarita (Photos)
- Fountain Hills (Photos)
- Litchfield Park (Photos)
- Queen Creek (Photos)
- Marana (Photos)
- Surprise (Photos)
- Goodyear (Photos)
- Peoria (Photos)
Paradise Valley is the place to be when it comes to being a soccer mom in suburban Arizona.
So if you’re thinking of packing up your mini van and making a move to a quiet place to live in Arizona, we’ve got you covered.
Keep on reading for a detailed methodology. Or, check out the best places to live in Arizona and the best places to raise a family in Arizona.
How do you determine which suburb is the best in Arizona anyways?
To give you the best suburbs in Arizona, we have to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city, and make some assumptions about what’s a “best city” and what isn’t.
So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.
How we crunched the suburb numbers for the Grand Canyon State
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of Arizona, we looked at every town between 5,000 and 200,000 residents, and within 30 miles of a city that’s over 200,000 people (In other words, suburbs).
We paid particular attention to:
- Median Home Values
- Median Income
- Population Density (Higher is Better)
- Unemployment Rates
- Commute Time
- Education Levels
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Poverty Rates
We ranked each suburb in Arizona across a number of criteria from one to 22, with one being the best.
We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the town posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Suburb To Live In Arizona”.
The result is some of the safest, quiet, and awesome places to live in Arizona
Read on to see why Paradise Valley is the ‘burb with the most, while South Tucson is probably not the best place to live in Arizona.
1. Paradise Valley
Population: 13,833
Median Income: $173,487
Median Home Price: $1,332,600
Paradise Valley is located 7 miles east of Phoenix.
2. Oro Valley
Population: 42,379
Median Income: $75,966
Median Home Price: $281,700
Oro Valley is located 19 miles north of Tucson.
3. Sahuarita
Population: 27,780
Median Income: $69,333
Median Home Price: $178,000
Sahuarita is located 16 miles south of Tucson.
4. Fountain Hills
Population: 23,863
Median Income: $75,297
Median Home Price: $361,000
Fountain Hills is located 8 miles east of Scottsdale.
5. Litchfield Park
Population: 5,449
Median Income: $79,821
Median Home Price: $279,100
Litchfield Park is located 9 miles west of Glendale.
6. Queen Creek
Population: 30,849
Median Income: $90,687
Median Home Price: $282,600
Queen Creek is located 7 miles east of Gilbert.
7. Marana
Population: 40,221
Median Income: $76,484
Median Home Price: $220,200
Marana is located 26 miles north of Tucson.
8. Surprise
Population: 127,492
Median Income: $61,035
Median Home Price: $197,600
Surprise is located 17 miles west of Glendale.
9. Goodyear
Population: 72,629
Median Income: $74,417
Median Home Price: $235,200
Goodyear is located 21 miles south of Glendale.
10. Peoria
Population: 158,677
Median Income: $66,163
Median Home Price: $208,200
Peoria is located 18 miles north of Glendale.
There You Have It – The Best Suburbs In Arizona
Here’s a look at the worst suburbs in Arizona according to the data:
- South Tucson
- Coolidge
- Guadalupe
For more Arizona reading, check out:
Detailed List Of The Best Suburbs In Arizona
City | Rank |
---|---|
Paradise Valley | 1 |
Oro Valley | 2 |
Sahuarita | 3 |
Fountain Hills | 4 |
Litchfield Park | 5 |
Queen Creek | 6 |
Marana | 7 |
Surprise | 8 |
Goodyear | 9 |
Peoria | 10 |
Maricopa | 11 |
Tempe | 12 |
Cave Creek | 13 |
Florence | 14 |
Avondale | 15 |
El Mirage | 16 |
Apache Junction | 17 |
Casa Grande | 18 |
Tolleson | 19 |
Guadalupe | 20 |
Coolidge | 21 |
South Tucson | 22 |