With the light rail and the 202 loop.. yeah, it's going to be awesome in south mountain - I actually wish I lived within walking distance of Central now because of the light rail extension.

Right now the south mountain area has a few really good things about it: it's a very quick drive or bike ride to the heart of down town, outside of peak traffic Baseline and Southern are pretty efficient corridors to get to the rest of the world, and the canals & bike paths, plus the river multi use path are efficient ways to get around on bicycle in addition to surface streets.

The negatives of south mountain are that it's a bit of a drive to any freeway, traffic during the fall through spring (snowbirds, school, etc) starts getting a bit backed up along major roads, and there's very little happening culturally - like very few pubs or bars, almost no music venues, basically anything you want to do outside of fast food and necessities (department stores, Fry's groceries and medical) it's necessary to leave the neighborhood for it.

The 202 loop should alleviate some of that traffic, because people who want to get around South Mountain (the range/park, not the neighborhood) will have another option and people who want to get in and out of this neighborhood, Laveen etc will have another good option for heading East like Gilbert/Chandler/Tucson etc..

The light rail should have a major impact on those other problems because that will mean it's worthwhile for people to begin opening cultural draws South of the river, as the rail will bring more people from other places - and of course we'll have another way to get out to visit culture and entertainment outside of our neighborhood as well.

If I had investing money I'd be buying houses within a block or two of Central... and I'm certainly happy to have moved to South Mountain already because it's been a great place to live and seems to only be getting better as time goes on - can't put a price on that.