Mesquite

Relaxed and peaceful, Mesquite, in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria, is a getaway-from-it-all sort of place with beautiful homes and bountiful living. “It has higher-end, semi-custom homes built to individual owners’ preferences,” says Deborah Grey, a Realtor with Realty One Group, who sells homes here and elsewhere throughout the communities surrounding Phoenix. “The people are very friendly and it has many families.” It also has quite a bit of distance to central Phoenix, making travel times to the central metro taxing. If you’re not a fan of spending time on the road, you might find other, more centrally located areas more suitable. “It's quite a drive, the stadium and the airport too. It would be 45 minutes to anything in a quick manner with no traffic,” Grey says.

Mesquite homes are a celebration of southwestern living, street after street of Santa Barbaras, Santa Fes, Tuscan style homes and some Territorial designs facing out onto arid vistas. “There are mountain views, and the streets are wide, and all the homes are well-maintained,” Grey says. “They reflect the pride of homeownership. The homes are not spaced so close together that you can’t see where the lot lines start and end.” The median price for a single-family home in Mesquite is around $650,000, with the average listing price closer to $700,000 and often selling for more. “Generally, we’re looking at mid-$800,000s for a four-bedroom home, up to 2,700 square feet depending on the upgrades,” Grey says. The actual range of prices is broad, however, stretching from as low as about $250,000 to nearly $2 million.

Deer Valley Unified District, which Niche rates A, serves Mesquite. Students attend Copper Creek Elementary, Hillcrest Middle School and Mountain Ridge High School, each rated A. Niche ranks Mountain Ridge 38 of 182 best high schools for STEM across the state and 56 of 383 best college prep public high schools in Arizona.

Mesquite’s parks are as impressive as its schools. 85-acre Paloma Community Park is the big attention grabber here. A relatively new park that opened in late 2020, it features a lighted ballfield complex, plus lighted multi-purpose fields. It has pickleball and basketball courts, fishing and a seasonal splash pad area. And with the Peoria Regional Preserve as the park’s backyard, you have a broad hiking experience there and waiting.

In fact, hiking is a big opportunity out here and one of the unique characteristics Mesquite offers, with its vast expanses, open areas and multiple preserves. This is also the home of the Peoria West Wing Mountain Preserve, and the East Wing Mountain Trails are just to the northeast, making this area a hiking lover’s dream. Golf is part of the culture around here too. Trilogy Golf Club is just next door in nearby Vistancia. Overall, outdoor activities are woven into the fabric of everyday life here. “Lake Pleasant is a big draw. You can rent boats; you can take your own boat. There are restaurants on the lake,” Grey says.

For shopping of all varieties, head south to Lake Pleasant Crossing Shopping Center to find a bunch of your essential retail stores like Home Depot, Kohl’s, Office Max and even a PetSmart for your puppy. Groceries are bunched together there too, with Fry’s Marketplace and Sprouts Farmers Market within shouting distance of one another. Getting where you need to go is best with a car around here, although public transportation is available with buses at your disposal. An interstate, a couple of state highways and a U.S. highway all within minutes of each other means you’ll have easy access to roads. And you’ll need it because every place else is about 45 minutes away. Which some might consider a drawback, but not so much if you enjoy cozying up to a podcast and a relaxing ride.

Written By

Jonathan Clarke

Photography Contributed By

John Williams

Video By

Dan Mack