Two cities alike in dignity
in the Northwest Valley where we lay our scene
Surprise and El Mirage together
with little difference in between
I'm not sure I nailed the iambic pentameter, but that's not really the point of this exercise. No, tonight I'm writing a brief history lesson which has become forgotten in the recent housing boom.
Go back to 1994, before developers (most notably Del Webb) had turned their attention to Surprise. Aside from a pair of rather small retirement communities, Sun Village and Happy Trails, and one newish subdivision, Kingswood Parke, Surprise really had not expanded beyond the "original square mile" bordered roughly by Bell and Greenway, Dysart and El Mirage, with Grand Avenue running down the middle. Even something as basic as a city sewer system was a new concept for the city.
El Mirage, similarly, had not grown beyond it's original borders and farmland dominated once you drove west of El Mirage Road and south of Thunderbird.
Then Del Webb came to Surprise with the plans for Sun City Grand, the company's third major retirement subdivision in the Phoenix area and its first in twenty years. And other developers quickly followed, laying plans for grand subdivisions with space set aside for schools, churches, greenbelts and commercial development.
In a blink (give or take a couple of years), Surprise was off and running. Commercial developments appeared all along Grand Avenue, with multiple big-box stores and numerous restaurant chains all opening their doors.
El Mirage, meanwhile, remained focused on its original residents and worked to improve the city's core. Development beyond that was a secondary concern. And so Surprise developed quickly and El Mirage, once its virtual sister city, became a forgotten cousin.
Even now, you will find buyers who will purchase a home in Surprise and not El Mirage when in some cases the cities are divided only by six lanes of asphalt. Case in point: Roseview and Rancho El Mirage both are south of Greenway along Dysart Road. Roseview is on the west in Surprise, Rancho El Mirage on the east in El Mirage. Yet many buyers I've encountered won't cross to the east despite one glaring fact:
With last year's market increases, the better buys often are found in El Mirage. Same money, more house and often no discernable difference in location aside from the postal address and zip code.
So what's the morale of this story? Sometimes, logic ought to override an emotional reaction, especially when you're considering what for most people is the largest investment of their life. If there's a better deal to be found 100 feet to the east, is it really worth missing that opportunity for a postal address?
For more information about the Phoenix Arizona Real Estate market, visit me at www.DaltonsAzHomes.com! | 
