We were shopping close in to downtown this Spring.

Most of the posts in this thread are fearmongery. Drive down there and see how you feel.

The southwest corner of this map would probably not be my first place to live in that area. If that is the price range you're looking at, Check out the Grand neighborhood in the "Triangle" (The north one, not the south one) and Roosevelt. It gets pretty pricey in FQ Story (and anywhere just north of the 10).

Also worth looking at are Garfield and Eastlake Park neighborhoods, which look worse on paper than they actually are.

The Grant Park and Central Park neighborhoods actually aren't that bad either, really. You can get a lot of $/sqft if you live in nuestro barrio, but the airplanes will drive you mad, and the blight (empty gravel lots everywhere) is ... disconcerting.

Take a drive down there and check it out.

You probably will want to keep it north of Buckeye overall, away from the state hospital to the East if you can, and as far north as you can in the West. Near the statehouse and in that Southwest corner (armpit of the 17) are the places I would be least likely to live downtownish.

The schools aren't great anywhere down there.

Have you considered looking a little further north. Central Phoenix through midtown and even into uptown have a lot of pretty nice properties overall, with a number of great "value" neighborhoods. The amenities are just as good (or better) clear up to Camelback — or maybe even Bethany Home — and Downtown is just a light rail ride and short walk/uber home.

Ultimately, we didn't move downtown. For the same $/sq. ft. in midtown we are walking distance to basically any amenity you can think of, and a short train ride to any we aren't.