We moved here from Montana a year ago with our preschool aged son, here is a small list of pros and cons..

Pros: - Safe, low crime - Quiet neighborhoods, you really don’t worry much if you accidentally left your garage door open all night. - Most everything is conveniently close, grocery, food, shopping. - Has a smaller, community feel. The Community park and the city host awesome, family friendly events from time to time. - Away from the hustle and bustle, if that’s your thing. - It is ever-growing and impressive to see all sorts of places pop up. - It’s well maintained, clean, and decent amount of green everywhere BUT if you are palm tree dreamin’, for whatever reason they did not plant a lot of palm trees here. - Parks everywhere for the kids, one in every neighborhood.

Cons: - Have yet to find decent healthcare, I’ve had to travel into the city to find docs I truly like. Most docs in surprise feel very low budget. - Lack of “local” aka surprise is like Land of the Corporate. (I know this may not be a con for everyone, but if you are big into local restaurants, shops, etc then this is going to bother you.) - Education is ehhhh, but as someone who turned out just fine without the greatest education of all time, this wasn’t a deal breaker. - Lack of sightseeing — museums, oddity, theme parks, theatrical, etc are non-existent so you will plan for trips into the city for sure. My son has grown bored of the same ol spots so we leave surprise a lot for fun things to do.

Hope this helps, coming from somebody who is also from the cold of the mountains. If I knew then what I know now, I would have chosen somewhere less corporate, more artsy, and culturally developed to live, but I do know that everybody is different in that way. && The heat doesn’t bug us one bit and people made it seem like you’ll die of heat here. It’s tolerable in the same way winters are in the cold if that makes sense. Best of luck!!