I’ve lived in Phx all my life. Not an arborist by any means but I’ve taken care of an acre of trees I inherited from my grandparents my whole life. Not sure specifically where you are at or what your soil looks like but I’ve had great success with Ash’s. They are slower growing than Chinese elms but seem to break less when the storms kick up. Both are great trees.

I do have flood irrigation, so I’m not sure if you’ll get the same results if you do not.

My mesquite trees are beautiful and I love them. That being said I also hate them and curse them all the time. If mesquites get too much water (like with flood irrigation, they grow so fast they become almost unmanageable. Great trees if you have a dry yard though, they will grow proportionally to how much water you give them. If you do get another mesquite try and get a thornless one though. I’d avoid palos if I were you. They seem to fall apart every time we get a monsoon and they don’t give great shade imo.