Phoenix Metro Luxury Market

Sandra Baldwin
Partner, Launch Real Estate

Our Valley of the Sun has a wide variety of homes and our luxury market has shown a pattern that repeats itself – at the same time producing circumstances within the economic growth, or lack thereof, in the overall national and even international markets.

What follows is a peek at 2016 and 2017 luxury home sales around the Valley with data and observations about the whys and wheres of luxury buyers and sellers – driven by a number of factors, but largely the flow of money into and out of the state and the nation.

First, there is the Town of Paradise Valley. Considering this is a small town (and one zip code), we are seeing numbers like we’ve never seen before, including the number of homes sold in 2008 that many thought might never be surpassed. There have been 137 closed with 10 pending ranging in price from $1.7M to $6.0M through mid-August 2017.

The Phoenix/Scottsdale Arcadia and the Biltmore areas have had great growth with 32 sales in 2016 at over $2.5M this year-to-date. Lot sizes range from 15,000 sq. ft. to over an acre and many of them are new construction. Arcadia is probably the most family friendly neighborhood in metropolitan Phoenix which is the main reason for families with children moving to the area. It is one where we see families riding bikes, strolling babies and playing games in the front yards. Furthermore, it is conveniently located to great schools, restaurants and shopping.

North Scottsdale is a much wider geographic area than Paradise Valley but sprinkled with great luxury subdivisions, golf course amenities with Silverleaf and Desert Mountain holding the majority of high end sales.  Desert Mountain has had a sale this year as high as $6.9M and Lost Canyon (not a golf course community) has a $6.5M sale this year.

East Scottsdale is another sprawling area from Scottsdale Road to the east to Fountain Hills. In 2016 and to date in 2017 there have been 45 sales in the luxury price range with 3 of them over $3M.

The far west and South Valley have not been left out of this explosion of high end sales. The area of high end sales is small, but it had one sale over $4M. Mesa has three over the $4M range. Times are changing, so watch those areas for future high end market growth.

Interestingly, all over the Valley there has been a huge surge of new construction with the style of contemporary leading the way. Straight forward, simple lines with open floor plans where kitchen, dining and living spaces all open to one another is showing that lifestyles have changed. Regardless of price, many are leaning toward less formal living – a good plan for our Arizona lifestyle.

The question is: how long will this boom last? I think we all know there will be other cycles to come as the national economy either expands or contracts, but it looks right now as if the current trend could continue for a long while. Personally, I never want to see another 1990s with interest rates at 19 percent or a repeat of 2009 where sales seemed to be one short sale after another – and good people were losing their hard-earned luxury homes across our great Valley.

So much of what has come about in the last year and a half can be contributed to our hard working professional real estate agents and builders recognizing what the public wants and needs. They are all to be commended for their knowledge and dedication to their chosen professions.

Let us all enjoy the good times we’re in while they last.

Sandra Baldwin, a native Arizonan, has been in real estate in Arizona since 1982.  Her long track record as a top agent in the Valley has been consistently outstanding. She has been in the Top 10 in the nation with the following national companies: Merrill Lynch Realty, Prudential Real Estate, and Coldwell Banker and is now a partner at Launch Real Estate. Sandra graduated from Arizona State University(ASU) and received her Masters degree in English at there as well. She taught at ASU for seven years before deciding to go into real estate. Born in Mesa, Arizona, Sandra has been a resident of Phoenix and Paradise Valley since 1986.

*The statistics in this article are from MLS data, complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed.