Paradise Valley or Scottsdale? (Phoenix, Tempe: real estate, gated, budget)

[q503]

I'm looking to re-locate to the PHX metro area and these are the two town I'm looking at. For those who have lived in Arizona for a while, which would you recommend? I'm looking for a single family house in the $650-$700k range.

I know there's a ton of threads on this, but how is the weather year around? I know it's hot, I can tolerate low-humidity heat so the 100+ temps are no problem for myself.

[hts]

If you haven't visited, you may be quite shocked at what 700k gets you in either PV or Scottsdale (unless you're looking for a 1BR condo). Our price range was $1m back in 2004 and we focused our two house-hunting trips on Scottsdale and were quite disappointed. After looking all over N. Scottsdale (Greyhawk, MMR, Desert Ridge by Toll was just starting, etc.), we ended up going quite a bit north of the Valley and settled in a very family friendly community.

Of course with the recent market conditions, perhaps you can find a decent house in a decent neighborhood in PV/Scottsdale now for that price range, but then again it may be 3000 sq feet of something built in the 1970's.

Any reason (work location?) why you're set on PV/Scotts?

[silverbear]

Your price range is probably realistic in some of the more moderately priced portions of Scottsdale, but you can't buy a closet for less than a million in Paradise Valley -- assuming you mean the actual Town of Paradise Valley. If, however, you mean the swatch of northeast Phoenix sometimes informally known as Paradise Valley (e.g. Paradise Valley Mall), then it might be feasible. The area you are describing is several hundred square miles in size, so you may want to narrow down based on your location and the amenities you wish to be near.

[q503]

Thanks for the quick replies. My budget is actually very flexible. Just the feel of the towns is what I really loved when I was out there last summer. Paradise Valley in particular is spectacular. Nothing is set in stone as of yet, I also like Fountain Hills. Is there real estate site that mainly focuses on these areas?

[Mnslickinaz]

I use Trulia - Real Estate, Homes For Sale, Sold Properties, Real Estate Maps just type in the area -- with or without the specifics.

[SpeedyAZ]

I'm looking to re-locate to the PHX metro area and these are the two town I'm looking at. For those who have lived in Arizona for a while, which would you recommend? I'm looking for a single family house in the $650-$700k range.

You'll be able to find a house (albeit nothing large) in Scottsdale for around $700K but you'll need at least $1+ million for anything in Paradise Valley and around $2+ million if you want some at least fairly large.

The weather year round is pretty good. Basically July, August, and September are the extremely hot months in which we all stay inside the majority of the day. October is pretty decent. November-May are ideal. June is when is starts warming up again.

[Captain Bill]

If you can stand hot weather you will love it here. Someone said that we have three heat seasons: Cool, perfect, and really hot. The cool and the perfect last about 8 months, and that makes it easy to tolerate the really hot.

Here's a site that gives you the average temperatures of every month.
Phoenix Average Monthly Temperatures

Paradise Valley only has a few homes in the 700k range. None in the 600k.

Below are some mls numbers of a random selection of homes on the mls in Paradise Valley, Scottsdale and Fountain Hills.

You can go to any web site that allows a search of the properties and input the mls numbers below to see those homes. It will give you an idea of what is available in that price range.

My personal choice if I were to choose would be Paradise Valley but you have to go over 1mil to get a good home there.

Between Fountain Hills and Scottsdale I would choose Scottsdale simply because of the prestige name, and it's closer in than Fountain Hills.

Fountain Hills is a great area, and you can get a really nice home in the 600k range.

So on one of those sites such as Realtor.com or Trulia, find the MLS Number Search and plug in the numbers below to check them out.

Paradise Valley 700k range 2884053 2938744 2815561

Scottsdale 700k range 2830510 2898548 2894179Fountain Hills 700k range 2940589 2823380 2872228

Fountain Hills 600k range 2924186 2915218 2931615

(The bold font above does not have any meaning. I can't get them to normal font for some reason.)

[sablebaby]

PV is spectacular and is my #1 choice if I had a couple of million to spend. You do need around $2mil to get a nice home there. The one I had picked out sold for $4.4mil. You can find a very nice home, although smaller and on the edge of PV for $1mil, but most for that price will be older and not updated. My grandfather lives in the heart of PV in a 1960 built home, remodeled a bunch of years ago, but nothing too fancy and it's worth around $1.3mil (2200sf). He says it's a tear down though. The lot is worth more than the house.

You can find a nice home in Scottsdale for your budget.

[vegaspilgrim]

What about Carefree? That would be my choice if I had a million bucks!

[joninaz]

Originally Posted by q503

I'm looking to re-locate to the PHX metro area and these are the two town I'm looking at. For those who have lived in Arizona for a while, which would you recommend? I'm looking for a single family house in the $650-$700k range.

I know there's a ton of threads on this, but how is the weather year around? I know it's hot, I can tolerate low-humidity heat so the 100+ temps are no problem for myself.

It would help if you expounded on what you are looking for in both a house and your lifestyle. Do you want a big house, big yard or less outside maintenance? Desert setting, green grass? Something entertaining - pool, outdoor living, etc? Is gated cookie-cutter o.k. or do you want a more independent area? All can be found... it simply depends on your preferences.

Lifestyle-wise, do you want to be near to the widest amount of amenities or out on the fringes, far as you can get from crowds? Near shops and restaurants or is it ok to be a bit far?