SURPRISE, AZ — Northwest Surprise is growing faster than any other part of the city, and new residents are continuing to arrive as homebuilders roll out thousands of houses across the area.
For Liz Sovern and her husband, the move to Surprise marked a major life change.
The couple recently relocated from the Chicago area, choosing Arizona's West Valley over a longer commute elsewhere in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
“I moved out early for my job, and I realized the commute would be too far,” Sovern said. “So, last minute, we changed our plans and, surprise, we're in Surprise.”
Sovern said incentives offered by builders helped make the decision easier.
“They have a buy-down option where they make payments less the first couple of years, making it very affordable,” she said. “They helped with the closing costs.”
Real estate professionals say incentives like mortgage-rate buydowns and closing-cost assistance are helping attract buyers to the area.
“It’s so great,” said REALTOR® Jaci Alvarez Carrillo of The Home Shops. “We have a ton of young buyers that are coming out and buying in these new-build communities because basically they are giving away money like crazy.”
Carrillo said activity has been especially strong in northwest Surprise, where developers continue to expand into formerly undeveloped land.
According to Carrillo, approximately 34,000 homes are planned for the area over time.
“Just in the northwest Surprise community, there are 11 communities under construction and 19 that are planned to be under construction,” she said.
The surge in development comes as Surprise gains national attention as a destination for new residents.
A recent MovingPlace midyear report, which analyzed more than 5 million moves during the first half of 2026, found that Surprise's 85387 ZIP code had the highest moves-per-capita rate in Arizona.
The report reflects what many residents can already see on the ground: new rooftops, construction crews and expanding neighborhoods across the city's northwest edge.
Not everyone views the growth positively.
Longtime resident Kelly Walentiny said the pace of development has dramatically changed the area over the past decade.
“They just came in and just turned it into a city when we didn’t want it to be part of the city,” Walentiny said. “That wasn’t what we moved out here for.”
Walentiny said increasing traffic has become one of the biggest frustrations.
What she described as a five- to 10-minute drive to Bell Road and Grand Avenue years ago can now take significantly longer as more residents move into the area.
City officials say the expansion is being fueled by available land and development rights that were approved years ago but are only now being built out.
“I think it’s a combination of availability of land and past entitlements that have not been acted on yet,” said Trever Fleetham, Surprise's assistant community development director.
Despite concerns about traffic and growth, many newcomers see northwest Surprise as an attractive option because of its relative affordability compared with other major metropolitan areas.
“The property taxes are shockingly lower here,” Sovern said.
As builders continue adding homes and infrastructure throughout the area, northwest Surprise remains one of the fastest-growing residential corridors in the West Valley.
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