[bilede]

There are lots of nice places around the phoenix area with an acre or so but there is no city these days that will let you do whatever you want as far as building "outbuildings". I have built in phoenix, glendale, scottsdale, tempe (where I live now), and even chino valley outside of prescott and they all have a ton of red tape to get around now. I couldn't get a detached garage approved in tempe and finally had to attach it with a carport to the house for them to let me build what I wanted and even then I had to go to the city council for approval and it took 10 months, for a simple garage that is nuts.. For a place like you describe it comes down to finding it available and in your price range. as bruce said, west valley is cheaper if you want to stay close in to the city otherwise Tonopah to the west, maricopa to the south, apache junction/florence to the east, new river area to the north are still reasonable for land big enough to have a nice detached garage.

Good luck!