Raising Arizona
Scottsdale and Tucson lead the way for the state’s high-end resort developments.
Print
Email
Bookmark
ShareAugust 1, 2007
For anyone watching closely, Arizona’s enduring popularity among vacation home owners should come as no surprise. First there was the banner-waving that accompanied Phoenix’s ranking as the country’s sixth-largest city. Then there were two surreal years, starting in 2004, when real estate prices skyrocketed and sales closed before you could say "inspection." And finally, in 2006, Arizona’s growth rate of 3.6 percent spelled the end of Nevada’s 18-year reign as the fastest- growing state in the U.S."We used to lose people to Vegas because of the tax base," explains Sandra Wilken, designated broker and owner of Sandra Wilken Luxury Properties in Scottsdale. But the migratory shift, she contends, is a tribute to Arizona’s better quality of life—and high-end real estate is responding in kind.
Scottsdale
"When you talk to a person back East about Arizona, he
automatically thinks of Scottsdale," says Realtor Martha Briggs of Long Realty
Company. "The city has really carved out a brand." That brand, it seems, is an
evolving hybrid of city smarts and desert languor. Having prided itself on its
western culture for so long, Scottsdale is gradually trading in its Stetson for
sophistication. Downtown Scottsdale is routinely labeled "urban," thanks to its
luxury condos, shopping, restaurants and museums. Up north, sprawling high-end
developments offer spacious lots, city-light views and residential architecture
that runs the gamut from old world to contemporary. All this, of course, is
sprinkled with more than its fair share of golf courses and hemmed in by a
spectacular panorama of desert mountains.
A leveling off of real estate prices in Scottsdale
and Tucson has given buyers more options for ownership. Top: Tucson’s Campbell
Cliffs is listed at $22 million through Martha Briggs. Thomas Bliss/Long Realty Company. Bottom: Prices for homes
at Silverleaf, one of Scottsdale’s most successful communities, average $3
million. Salcito Custom
Home, Casa Girasol. Photography by Dino Tonn. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
And as sales have slowed in the past year, a surplus of
inventory has turned it into a buyer’s market. "As far as showing activity, I
think that there are a lot of people looking, but they are just not making any
commitments," observes associate broker Dawn Dickinson of Exclusive Properties
of Arizona. Perhaps that is because there is so much to choose from.
In Desert
Mountain, the 8,000-acre residential golf
community that Dickinson specializes in, there are currently about 200
properties on the market (not including pending sales). Since Desert Mountain
presides over Scottsdale’s luxury communities from its northern perch, and since
this Lyle Anderson development features an unheard-of 108 holes of Nicklaus
Signature golf, it has earned an elite status among Scottsdale developments.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Casa di Pietra in Scottsdale, which recently
sold through George
Filippi of Christie’s Great Estates affiliate Equitable, was
listed at
$7.79 million. Photograph by Chad Deslatte, Joe Cottita (Epic Media, Scottsdale, AZ).
(Click image to enlarge)
Currently, there are 283 luxury custom homes under construction
or in design review, and the community is still working hard to sell its
remaining 15 lots and 42 developer homes. Buyer incentives like a furniture
credit or a $15,000 club credit were being offered in conjunction with the
developer’s recently completed courtyard homes, the Haciendas at Desert
Mountain. "Pretty much every day there are price reductions in homes and lots,"
says Dickinson.
Silverleaf is located on the
fringe of DC Ranch, its sibling community (both were developed by DMB
Associates). Scottsdale’s golden child of luxury communities, Silverleaf
commands reverent incredulity from Realtors and developers alike for its broad
appeal and lucrative success. DMB communities in general pride themselves on
diverse lifestyles—everyone from young professionals to families to retirees
calls Silverleaf and DC Ranch home—as well as an unusually generous allotment of
open space within each neighborhood. However, while homes have stayed on the
market approximately 25 percent longer than they did a year ago, prices in
Silverleaf and DC Ranch, which average $3 million and $1.4 million respectively, have
not dropped.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Located in North Scottsdale, residences at the
private golf community of DC Ranch average $1.4 million. Photograph courtesy DMB Realty. (Click image to enlarge)
"DC Ranch as a total community actually had as much sold in
2006 as had been sold in 2005 from a dollar standpoint," explains Donald D.
Kent, president and COO of DMB Realty, the real estate arm of the DMB group. "It
dropped about 20 percent in total units, but its dollar point was higher. That
meant that the higher-end buyers were still buying at a favorable clip." It also
suggests homes in the luxury market will appreciate steadily, Graham predicts,
at a rate of some 10 to 12 percent this year.
