New to Phoenix? Your Essential Guide to Top Neighborhoods, City Life and Transit Options

Hi everyone! My name is Andrew, and I’m your local ApartmentHomeLiving.com guide for the greater Phoenix area. Today, I want to take you on an insider’s tour of the area. If you’ve just moved here or are planning a move, I’ll show you the essentials to help you to a more comfortable and enjoyable transition.

Current Pricing for Apartments for Rent in Phoenix

Current Pricing for Homes for Rent in Phoenix

Phoenix Neighborhoods

Phoenix is a sprawling, western metro. Made up of a number of connected cities, the metro area includes Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Chandler, Gilbert, Peoria, Surprise, and Glendale. Each of these cities includes a number of distinct neighborhoods, creating vast options for where anyone might like to live.

It’s too much to cover everything here, so I’ll focus on a handful of distinctive neighborhoods across the metro.

Let’s start with Encanto Village. It’s just north of downtown Phoenix, and it’s one of the best places for young professionals who want to actively participate in the hustle and bustle of the city. Some use the phrase “mid-density” to describe it, and that fits. Encanto is not quite as packed as the downtown skyrises, but it’s still one of the busiest neighborhoods in the region.

This is the place to be if you like art and city life. The Art Walk runs through Encanto and can take you to the Heard Museum, Phoenix Arts Museum, Phoenix Theater, Central Library, and Cancer Survivors Park.

Arcadia moves you farther away from downtown, sitting on the west side of Scottsdale. Here you’ll find a mix of historic charm and modern additions. Most notable are probably the citrus groves, allowing you to experience a lot of green in the middle of the desert.

Most housing in Arcadia plays to mid-century ranch styles, and the area keeps a laid-back feel. Being on the edge of Scottsdale, you have access to much of the best food, drink, and shopping in the valley.

Roosevelt Row provides an almost opposite experience. Here is where you can get into the most active nightlife in Phoenix. Known as the walkable arts district, this neighborhood sits on the north edge of Downtown, just across I10 from Encanto.

Roosevelt Row is where you’ll find the First Fridays Art Walk — one of the cooler experiences in downtown Phoenix. This is also the place to be for festivals, events, and all of the “big city stuff” you might want to enjoy in Phoenix. It’s also the most densely populated neighborhood I’ll be discussing today.

At the southern edge of Phoenix proper, you’ll find Ahwatukee Foothills. As the name suggests, this neighborhood sits right in the foothills of the South Mountain Park. Here, life is all about leisure. Multiple golf courses are all right there, plus you have access to trails for hiking, biking, and horseback riding. You can also find some of the best views in Phoenix here.

The last neighborhood on the list is North Scottsdale. Scottsdale, as a city, is the ritzier part of the metro, and North Scottsdale embodies that. The neighborhood is on the edge of the McDowell Mountain Regional Park, just south of Pinnacle Peak.

Here’s a little story for you. My sisters lived in Phoenix long before I moved there. The first time I visited, they took me to north Scottsdale and Pinnacle Peak. It was a great experience, and it remains one of my fondest memories of the city. It might even be part of the reason I ended up here.

North Scottsdale is great for anyone who wants to make some good memories. It’s an easy-living vibe, and everything in the area is quality. Yes, prices are above average, but food is great, drinks are amazing, shopping is top-notch, and even though you’re still very much in the metro, it feels much less crowded than other neighborhoods. It’s one of the best places to take advantage of the city without feeling like you’re in the heart of the crowd.

More About Phoenix: From the Beginning

From the outside looking in, Phoenix is one of the stranger major cities in the U.S. It’s a giant metro with a massive farming community in pretty much the hottest, driest part of the country. It seems wild, but a little history repaints the whole area in a way that makes sense.

The city itself was founded in 1867. Miners followed the Salt River to find where it converges with the Gila River. That confluence point is where Phoenix sprang into being.

The city actually gets its name because the founders re-dug ancient irrigation canals that they found around the rivers. They figured the new town was rising from the ashes of an older civilization.

Once the railroads arrive in the 1880s, Phoenix saw consistent growth — spurred even further once Arizona received statehood in 1912. Phoenix was made the capital of the new state, and it saw further investment and growth from there.

By 1920, the population was up to about 30,000, and growth picked up even more during WWII, as the city became a bit of a training ground and distribution hub for military supplies. The population broke 100,000 by 1950.

The real story starts here. In the 50s, air conditioning started to become accessible, and that was the key to a population explosion in Phoenix. As the population boomed, a lot of manufacturing followed, especially in the electronics industries. By 2020, the city had roughly 1.6 million residents, with almost 5 million total people living in the broader metro area.

Getting Around the Metro

Keeping in mind that Phoenix builds out a lot more than it builds up, this is definitely a car town. The entire city is built around a pretty consistent grid form, so it’s usually easy to find your way around.

When you’re driving, you need to know a couple of key highways.

First, I-10 runs all the way through the city. It enters Phoenix from the south, turns west through downtown, and exits on the west side of Chandler. If you need to get anywhere to or from downtown, you’ll probably be on I-10.

I-17 runs north and south, and it actually terminates in downtown Phoenix. Those two interstates help you cover a lot of ground in the city.

As you might expect of any large city, there is a loop highway. In this case, it’s the 101, and it can help you get to most of the places in between the interstates while saving a lot of time.

Finally, 60 runs from downtown to the northwest, exiting the area out of Sun City West. Those highways cover the vast majority of ground that you’ll need to get around the area.

If you’re not driving, you still have transportation options.

The Valley Metro rail mostly serves downtown, with a rail running north through most of Phoenix and another heading east, almost all the way to Tempe. The rail will not get you around the other cities in the metro. Valley Metro also runs the bus system, and while slower, it can get you much farther than the rail line.

Taxis and rideshare services provide easy transportation around the whole valley. When you’re specifically downtown, Waymo offers autonomous vehicle taxi services 24/7.

Essentials for New Phoenix Residents

If you’re looking to enjoy Phoenix to the fullest, realize that it’s something of a paradox. The summers are long and so hot that even nighttime activities are a sweat fest. Yet, it’s a town with a strong outdoor culture. Hiking, biking, horseback riding, and sports are popular in the area, and you have tons of opportunities.

The mountain parks are some of the biggest metro-area parks in the country. The rivers provide many opportunities to get wet and have fun. Lake Pleasant is a reasonable drive away, and pools and water parks abound. It won’t take long for you to get a feel for when you want to be outside and when it’s just plain too hot, but keep outdoor adventures in your outdoor pocket.

Phoenix is also lively. It’s a major metro and still growing fast, and it has a strong scene for food, drink, music, and more. You can find a concert or event every day of the year if you so desire. Check out the official event calendar to get started.

Phoenix has major sports, and they’re a great time. Diamondbacks games are surprisingly affordable compared to many other major league sports. If you want to get really rowdy, hit up ASU on a game day. It’s a good time whether the Sun Devils are having a good or bad year.

All of that said, the premier sports experience in Phoenix is spring training. Every spring, dozens of MLB teams play a ton of games to get ready for the coming pro season. These venues are smaller and more intimate than the regular league venues, and they create an incredibly fun atmosphere. You can enjoy hanging out with die-hard baseball fans from all over the country, or you can just enjoy a laid-back game with a good chance to meet some of the best baseball players in the world.

Let’s Talk About Food

If you’re going to live in Phoenix, you want to learn about the food. Phoenix doesn’t have an official cuisine that makes it world-famous. Instead, it’s a big enough city that you can find great examples of any type of food that you want.

Fancy Korean BBQ? Jin BBQ is my personal favorite, and you’ll find that whole neighborhood packed with authentic, delicious east-Asian delights.

In the mood for tacos? The supplies are endless, but my personal recommendation is CRUjiente Tacos. Pair delicious food with fantastic beer, and it’s a great meal.

Whatever you want, you can find it. Follow the online reviews, and you won’t go wrong.

In my personal opinion, Phoenix really shines with local breweries and distilleries. You can find good local wine too, but the Phoenix style is to serve experimental (and usually delicious) food at all of these places. Every day can be a culinary adventure, and that speaks to my inner foodie.

The bottom line is that Phoenix is one of the hottest cities in the country for a reason (pun intended). It’s an exciting place to live with something to satisfy everyone. You’ll have to fight traffic and deal with the scorching summers, but for everyone who calls it home, those quirks are well worth it.