You’d be hard-pressed to find too many people who refer to the region around Phoenix Metro as the Valley of the Sun or the Salt River Valley. Instead, it’s simply known the Valley. To the east, you’ve got Apache Junction, Chandler, Gilbert, Guadalupe, Mesa, Tempe, and Queen Creek. Meanwhile, in the West, you’ll find Buckeye, El Mirage, Glendale, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Peoria, and Surprise.

For a number of years, the economic disparity between the Valley’s east and west sides were blatant. The east was considered affluent and the west struggled, thanks to a lack of mixed-use developments, stable job growth, and high paying jobs. According to AZ Central, the east saw the largest number of high median income concentrations while communities west of Interstate 10 saw the highest concentrations of households earning less than $25,000 annually. 

But why?

Aerial photo of Goodyear

Various theories looked at businesses avoiding the west in favor of areas where higher incomes meant more foot traffic. Other theories include lack of higher education opportunities in the west, leading to a poorly skilled workforce with lower incomes. Those wanting to commute to better areas of the Valley for employment faced the burden of additional costs that drove them deeper into financial hardship. 

Things have been changing recently on the west side, however, with areas like Goodyear, Tolleson, and Litchfield Park rising in popularity as their economic fortunes improve. Per Cronkite News Goodyear and Buckeye have become two of the fastest-growing West Valley cities. While Buckeye gained 12,000 residents over the last five years, Goodyear, meanwhile, outpaced every Arizona city besides Buckeye in terms of growth rate in 2016. 

Goodyear’s expansion has led to a cluster of new residential communities in the city. Terrata Homes recently opened their first community in Estrella, and Maracay Homes introduced the Cottages at Rio Paseo. And the development will continue thanks to Virtue Partners’ purchase of a 28-acre parcel of infill land for a community called Bennett Meadows. Per Biz Journals, Meritage Homes recently purchased 197 lots in Goodyear’s Palm Valley neighborhood for $7.3 million.

Aerial photo of Litchfield Park

Litchfield Park, meanwhile, has seen average incomes rise to $73,996 and was recently voted as the best place for jobs in Arizona by Zippia. With an eye on those stable incomes and growing housing demand, master-planned community Windrose will open several new neighborhoods from various builders here in the coming year. 

Meanwhile, Tolleson kept pace with its West Valley neighbors with a new addition to the master-planned community Sunset Farms from Heritage Farms. The new neighborhood will join 704 single-family residential homes that have already been built.