Sandra Scott, REALTOR of Choice! Payson, Pine & Strawberry, AZ

Homes for sale in East Verde Estates, Payson, Arizona are selling well.

Go North through Payson on Hwy. 87. Drive about 6 miles and look for the East Verde Estates directional sign on your right. Turn West and cross the bridge over the East Verde River. The community is about 1/10 mile further. Home prices range from the high $150,000 to $500,000.

This seemingly remote community of only a hundred or so homes is such a wonderful place to live full time, or purchase for a second home. East Verde Estates is a place where you can live & play, enjoying nature's bounty and the association of friends and neighbors.

East Verde Estates is nestled in the Tonto National Forest 5 miles north of Payson, Arizona. One reason people buy in East Verde is their love of animals and the forest. Living in East Verde, wildlife becomes a part of your life.

The experience can be very rewarding such as bird watching, observing raccoons, coyotes, javelina, deer, skunks and mountain lions. For $50 a year (HOA fee), you can attend many special events, utilize the clubhouse and browse in our own Library

Rim Country Literacy Annual Book Sale was held on Saturday, October 17, 2009. Piles of gently used books of every description and topic have been pouring into our local office for the past 12 months in anticipation of Saturday's event. The funds raised are used to further Rim Literacy's outreach to the citizens of Payson who would benefit from tapping into the great wealth of knowledge and experience our volunteers freely share.

Two of our current prograns include tutoring for GED and one-on-one help in learning English as a second language. We are currently helping students with Tonga, Russian, Italian, German, Korean, and Spanish. Quite a diverse collection of needs for a small town of only 15,000 fine, upstanding citizens. Literacy also has an outreach program in the local elementary schools for story telling. The youngsters have a lot of fun listening to our volunteers sharing stories of great adventure in the big, big world they don't yet know.

So if you have a few books to donate to a worthy cause, we'll have another one next year. Always held in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Hwy. 87 on a Saturday morning in the middle of October. Come and select as many books as you can carry away and simply make a donation of any amount. Read them and we'll take them back as a donation next year and recycle them back into our community

The oldest home in Payson, Arizona is sod and was built in 1882. It can be seen at 505A W Main St. And was built of mud to make sure it would not be burned down in an indian attack.

Payson, AZ, is located just 80 miles north of Scottsdale and is surrounded by 3.9 million acres of National Forest.

Payson was founded around 1870. and has an elevation of 5,000 ft.

A river runs through the National Forest on my way to one of my remote listings in Geronimo Estates. Lucky me gets to drive through the East Verde River as it runs South towards Phoenix every time I go out to check my flier box. Sometimes there are elk or deer drinking when I pass by. Today I could see fish jumping near the banks. Too peaceful...

Jake's Corner and Tonto Basin are a joy to visit.

Located 15 miles South of Payson, just 3 miles South from where Hwy 188 and Hwy 87 intersect is a tiny little bump in the road called Jake's Corner. If you saw Jake's Corner, The Movie you'll recognize the buildings and even some of the "regulars" who played themselves in the movie.

You'll miss Jake's Corner if you blink, so hold those eyes wide open and you'll see some interesting things. Jake's Corner appears to be a bar (Jake's Corner Bar, of course), a grocery store and a small RV Park. But it is much, much more.

During the settling of Arizona, it was one stop on the stage coach line from Phoenix to Flagstaff. I can just imagine the weary, dusty travelers who were ready for some dinner and maybe a glass of fresh buttermilk when that stagecoach pulled up to the Jake's Corner stop.

Old Fort Reno is just down the road and you can still see the rock wall the soldiers built for one of the dwellings.

Hwy 188 then meanders South through Punkin Center, Tonto Basin and past Roosevelt Lake on its way to Globe. If you'll look sharply after passing the lake and you'll see Indian ruins off to your right half hidden in the low hills. Quite a nice ride, especially on a Harley.

Be sure to stop along the way and enjoy the majestic cliffs that are a backdrop to Lake Roosevelt and wave back to the friendly folks that will be waving to you as they pass.