Located just 20 miles from Phoenix, Mesa is a vibrant city in Maricopa County, Arizona. Part of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Mesa borders Tempe on the west, Chandler, and Gilbert on the south, and Apache Junction on the east. Mesa is home to an incredible array of unique places, museums, and educational facilities. It is also home to the largest relief airport in the Phoenix area, the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.  

What is the community of Mesa like?  

Home to around 518,000 residents, Mesa is the largest suburban city by population in the United States, the third-largest city in Arizona after Phoenix and Tucson, and the 35th-largest city in the United States. Interestingly, despite being located in the blistering dry Sonoran Desert, the city of Mesa even has two rivers running through it.  
Mesa plays home to an extensive array of unique outdoor recreational opportunities, exciting parks, renowned museums, immersive art galleries, as well as numerous shops, restaurants, and bars. One of the major attractions in Mesa is its 210,000-square-foot Mesa Arts Center, which is the largest arts complex of its kind in Arizona and consists of four performance venues, including the 99-seat Farnsworth Studio Theater and the 1,600-seat Ikeda Theater; five art galleries comprising 5,500 square feet of exhibition space for the Mesa Contemporary Arts Center; and 14 performing and visual arts classroom studios. 
When you are in Mesa and want to imbibe stunning nature, head to the 3,648-acre Usery Mountain Regional Park, which offers camping locations, mountain biking and hiking trails, and breathtaking landscapes. The Park is a perfect getaway for families, offering 73 campsites including hookups, picnic tables, barbecue grills, and more. The Park also plays home to more than 29 miles of trails that can be used for hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking. 
In addition, Mesa is home to a thriving sports culture. The city’s residents and visitors love the exhilarating games at Hohokam Stadium, a baseball park capable of accommodating over 12,000 spectators at one time. You may also visit Sloan Park, which is home to the Chicago Cubs and several other Arizona teams and is one of the largest stadiums across the United States with a capacity of 15,000 people. 

What is Real Estate like in Mesa?     

Real estate in Mesa has shown an average growth of 4.06% per year since the year 2000. since 2000, the prices of homes in Mesa have appreciated by a strong 130.63%. National real estate firm, HomeSmart, categorizes Mesa’s housing market as ‘very competitive’. The sale prices of homes in Mesa have experienced strong growth of more than 21.6% over the last year.  
The median home price in Mesa is $350,000. Currently, there are 1491 active homes for sale in Mesa, and normally it takes just 36 days for a listed home to sell. The average cost to rent a house in Mesa is $1,609 per month. At present, there are 181,130 homes and apartments in the city, 60.6% of which are owned, and the remaining 39.4% are rented.      

How is the economic landscape of Mesa?     

Over the last year, Mesa’s job market has grown by 3.3%, while its unemployment rate stands at a decent 6.1%. Also, the city’s job market is expected to grow by a staggering 47.1% in the next ten years. Some of the largest employers in Mesa include Banner Health System, Mesa Public Schools, Boeing, and Walmart. 
On average, a Mesa resident earns around $24,400 per annum. The city’s median household income per resident is about $48,200. Most of the residents of Mesa work in construction, manufacturing, retail, finance, professional and technical services, and healthcare.    

How are the schools in Mesa?     

Mesa is covered by 5 school districts, with Mesa Unified District being the city’s major school district encompassing 89 schools and 64,161 enrolled students. Mesa also lies in proximity to many colleges including, among others, Mesa Community College, Chandler Community College, and Scottsdale Community College. 
When it comes to higher education, Mesa is home to the Polytechnic Campus of Arizona State University (ASU) and lies just 5.7 miles from ASU’s main campus in Tempe. Founded in 1885, ASU presently has nearly 90,000 undergraduate and 20,000 post-graduate students across its five campuses and four regional learning centers throughout Arizona. The university's faculty of more than 4,700 scholars has included 5 Nobel laureates, 6 Pulitzer Prize winners, 4 MacArthur Fellows, and 19 National Academy of Sciences members.       

Mesa in a nutshell        

To sum up, Mesa is a bustling city offering all the modern urban amenities including incredible schools, a vibrant downtown, exceptional parks and outdoor recreational opportunities, as well as a plethora of art galleries, museums, shops, and eateries. If you are thinking of moving to Arizona, Mesa would make an excellent place to raise your family amidst serene neighborhoods surrounded by megacities such as Phoenix.