Finding Phoenix Neighborhoods: What's the difference between Gilbert, AZ and Chandler, AZ?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

What's the difference between Gilbert, AZ and Chandler, AZ?

This question is very common for people thinking of moving to the Phoenix-area, or even just from the West Side to the East Side. When people research good schools (which are VERY important for resale value and investment regardless of your child status), three areas generally come up. The Scottsdale/Paradise Valley area, which is generally too expensive for most families, and then the city of Chandler and city of Gilbert.

Chandler and Gilbert are right next to each other and so it stands to question, "What's the difference?"

I put that question to a few of my mommy friends to check their perception of the cities. Heather Vanacour, owner of Stroller Strides and mother of one, said "The feel of Gilbert, even in city management, seems to be more family oriented."

I would agree with her. City of Gilbert knows that it's bread and butter is the amount of families in a shopping bags nd their attraction to Gilbert. There was even a new outdoor mall built just recently, with a huge focus on families. There are multiple play areas and the sidewalks were designed so multiple strollers could walk side by side. Developers cited the desire to cater to Gilbert families.

Another example of that is in city planning. In Gilbert, developers are required to build in play structures within the communities per number of homes. That allieves the city of developing a ton of city parks. Chandler has some really incredible city parks, huge structures that all feel new and seem to go on forever. However in Gilbert, pretty much every child can walk to a park from his/her home. While it might not be amazing, it's accessible.

Cherryl, mom of 5, said "I honestly can't think of anything except that Chandler seems to have more businesses and Gilbert use to seem to have much more residential, but i guess that has been slowly changing as well." Cheryl is spot on with her assessment. Chandler has been able to attract huge, high-tech companies such as Intel, Micro-Age, and Amkor. While those some of the employees with families do live in Chandler, there's also a huge amount of the single professional there as well. You are hard-pressed to find many singles in Gilbert.

golf talk In the same vein, Chandler has a huge amount of golf courses per population. In Arizona, anytime you have lots of golf courses, you're also going to find lots of retirees. Which is great, I'm just pointing out the differences in population between Gilbert and Chandler.

Debi, mother of 2 and former teacher said, "I grew up in Chandler but now, as you know, live in Gilbert. Honestly I don't see a real big difference between the two. I think both have good and bad areas, both have a great school district, and both have really good shopping and entertainment. The only thing I can think of is that I think Gilbert pays higher taxes."

I agree with her, although I can't find anything to support that perception. I think Gilbert does pay higher property taxes. However Chandler's land will be built out by 2010, already you can see the consequence of that in higher price tags for homes. With the amount of farm land Gilbert still has to develop, Gilbert homes have a long time of being slightly more affordable than Chandler.

From a real estate standpoint, I can only see one primary difference. Chandler is older than Gilbert, only slightly but still it's there. So, the not so nice areas of Chandler are a little more widespread and they have more older homes to weed through than Gilbert.

I tried to find crime stats on the two areas. From the Chandler Police Department page, you find this map with crime pic the info that there were 156,563 calls for service in 2006. On the City of Gilbert page you can find this map with total service calls being 57,577. That's a big difference. But as you can see, none of these local moms had the perception that one city was safer than another.

After reading this, you might feel I'm being biased towards Gilbert and maybe I am, since it's where I live and raise my family. But I can think of some wonderful neighborhoods in Chandler such as Pinelake Estates, and Old Stone Ranch. Stand-out neighborhoods in Gilbert include Jake's Ranch, Agritopia, and Country Lane.

Everytime I write an ending paragraph to this article, it sounds like I'm trying to bash one or the other. So I'll just say this, you need to visit both areas. Look around and get a feel for the differences. Your instinct will tell you where the right place is for your family.

Labels: AZ neighborhoods, chandler real estate, gilbert real estate

Elena Thurston, Family Realtor @ 9:39 AM
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