Mesa, Arizona (July 21st, 2015)

We had coffee on the porch as usual, and then headed out to explore a little bit. Steve has a friend that bought a house in a new community in Florence, Arizona called Anthem at Merrill Ranch. And has spoken very highly of it, so off we went to see what all the ruckus was about. The town of Florence is about 45 miles southeast of Mesa, and is really out by itself. You drive through a lot of desert and then finally come upon this huge housing development in the middle of nowhere. We went to the clubhouse first to check it out, and it is beautiful! It has all of the amenities that any nice club house would have including an indoor lap pool and a very nice outdoor leisure pool a nice gym and rooms for all kinds of activities.

Next we went to find the model homes. There were a total of 8 model homes, four of more modest quality, and four of higher quality, ranging in size from about 1650 sf to about 2500 sf. All of the houses are ranch style houses, and all are very nice. We found a few that we really liked, but we just can't get over how far out this community is. It is about an hour plus to Sky Harbor International Airport, which isn't bad, but there is absolutely nothing between here and there.

Right outside the community there is a Safeway store, McDonalds, Chinese Restaurant, Italian Restaurant, Hair Salon and Bank, so as long as you are the kind of person that enjoys your community with just what is available right around you, this would be the perfect community for you. Although the club house has a lot to offer, Steve and I feel like we would get bored in this type of community fairly quickly. We need to be able to venture out to more restaurants, stores and activities.

We love the Phoenix area, but what we feel it is lacking are new communities that offer lots of amenities. We love the newer houses because of the high ceilings and open floor plans. A house doesn't have to be very big to be comfortable if it is the right layout. And if the community has enough included, it can keep you busy for a long time. Anthem at Merrill Ranch is this type of community, but it is so far out from town that it looses the appeal of living in the Phoenix suburbs for us.

All in all, it was a fun day exploring another housing option in Phoenix.