It's much more useful to think of the Valley outside of Phoenix in geographic terms. North and South Scottsdale are distinct from one another, so are North and South Tempe and East and West Mesa. The neighborhoods and developments within each geographic area are very similar. With very few exceptions, the great truth about Valley development is that the farther you get from the Valley's core, the houses being built are bigger and the landscaping is more desert-like. The oldest Valley neighborhoods were built to help the residents forget they were in the desert.
Greenery abounds thanks to lawn irrigation.
In these neighborhoods, lawns were often sunk an inch or two below the surrounding sidewalks and bounded by grass-covered mounds. The lawns are flooded at night so that they look a bit like rice paddies. They stay green. As time went on, the Valley became more water-conscious. The neighborhoods built in the 1950s through the 1970s saw a mixture of green lawns and desert landscaping, with grass lawns still tending to outnumber the desert landscapes.