[Fitz]

Being from the Midwest, growing up in Indianapolis, School in Milwaaakee and Chicago and Holland Mich, Phoenix is a whole new piece of southwest pie. In the Midwest you have big open yards with no fences where neighbors share their back yards which was green rich grass. Hardly any fences to speak of.

In phoenix you may know your neighbors (barely). That is why most residences have large walls around their homes. On top of that you have fences around all the pools for kid reasons. No grass to speak of here because people like to wash off the rock surrounding their houses. Water is important out here because in the summer months it gets so hot your lips swell up during the day and at night they explode. Cloudy cool days are wishful thinking here from June - Oct 1. Give me the cloudy days sometimes over the hot 111 days here.

As far as areas to live: Best sq ft for the money is West right now. Booming! Far North (look up around New River) as they are building outer belt way in future years around the valley. Sports are downtown or west in Glendale. Far northeast is expensive but nice. Southside is like most towns but still some nice areas. Phoenix is booming. Every neighborhood has homes from 100,000 to 1 Million and these can be 5 blocks apart like my neighborhood. Drive bys occur in all neighborhoods. Some just have better cars then others.

Welcome