Any body here familiar with northern Arizona

Oops I meant northern Phoenix. I'm thinking about relocating to northern Phoenix. Whats lake pleasant like? Where is a good family place to live? How is Anthem and New River?

I have family that lives up in Anthem....eh not my favorite spot. It is nice and new but I work in Phoenix and tha commute everyday would suck. No idea about New River....Lake Pleasant I have not been to since I was little, but I don't remember it being bad or anything. I think it can get pretty busy. I live on the east side of the valley and go to the lakes out there or up to Roosevelt which is my favorite.

Lake Pleasant is larger than the lakes along the Salt River. It gets a lot of heavy use on weekends, but if you can find time early or late on weekdays it is great. If you end up further east than west in the north valley, Bartlet Lake is also an option. Face it, every lake is over used on the weekends. It becomes downright scary.

I live in anthem... its pretty boring but its a good place for family... traffic is not bad at all. the 17 just got finished and im never stuck in traffic on it, 101 is a diff story. your still a ways from the city, about 30 minutes doing the speed limit. Pleasant is a good lake if you go early you'll be fine it just gets stupid around 11-3, thats when all the bro's with more speakers on their towers than wakeboards head out, but they normally go straight to humbug cove with the rest of the bro's. best way to tackle AZ lakes is go early when the water is nice, anchor around lunch time for 2 hours (relax, eat, family time, swim to the shore and explore. etc.) then set off to finish ur sets off around 2 or 3 and go till its dark. ive only been to pleasant and bartlett and both are nice, but pleasant is much closer to the anthem area. hope that helped

Its a desert and hot

lived here for 26 years... I do too much driving to live that far north (personal opinion). I wouldnt mind Norterra, which is south of Anthem about 12 miles.
Carl is right... now that the I17 is "finished", the commute is not nearly as bad as it was before I guess. For me, Anthem is still too far even with the added freeway lanes.

Norterra has some very good shops and restaurants, and is less than 30minutes from Lake Pleasant.
Pleasant is nearly impossible to find decent water on the weekends, but weekdays and early mornings can be gold.