For much of its history, Buckeye has been a bit outside the urban core of Metro Phoenix, more a farming community on the road to L.A. with a funky downtown that looked like west Texas. It now is geographically the second-largest city in Arizona and has been the fastest growing city in the nation.

That’s both because Buckeye is on the growth path in the popular Phoenix area but also because Buckeye leaders saw the real estate explosion coming and prepared.

So, Buckeye now has a wide selection of master-planned communities. They range from the moderately priced series of developments along the Hassayampa river plain in west Buckeye to the charming small-town-feel and awarding winning community of Verrado to one of Del Webb’s enormously social Sun Cities to the north.