Subdivisions in North Scottsdale to Live? (Phoenix, Paradise Valley: hoa, gated, budget)

[amwal]

Hi!
My husband & children (3 small kids) may be moving to the area in the next 6 months. Our number one choice is to live in Paradise Valley. Given the cost of living there, we are also considering North Scottsdale.

I would appreciate any opinions on where the good neighborhoods are in North Scottsdale. My most important qualification would be an excelling school/district (elementary). My family lives in North Scottsdale & loves it, but of course, they don't have kids, so can't help with quality of life for families in that area.

I am just trying to get a handle on where we should be looking for homes before we get a realtor involved, etc. McCormick Ranch? Greyhawk?

Any help or suggestions is welcome & thank you.

[Steve-o]

Depending on how much you can spend, check out Saguaro Highlands, its a great, gated community with homes running from 700K to 1+ million. Cant help with the elementary schools though, but my family did send their kids to Horizon High School.

[SpeedyAZ]

Here's a list of "excelling" schools in the Phoenix area.

Best Schools in Phoenix - Find a Good School in Maricopa County

ANY school district in North Scottsdale or Paradise Valley is very good and for the price to live there, they better be. Not sure what your budget is but with 3 kids, I'd expect that you'd want a fairly large home (2800+ SF??) and in Paradise Valley especially, it's going to cost you well over a million dollars to get anything at least reasonably large. In North Scottsdale, you'll expect to pay around $700K to a little over $1 million for a 3000 sq ft home depending on location (ala Golf Course view, Water view, etc).

I live in Grayhawk in N. Scottsdale and love it! Grayhawk is a beautiful, golf course community with a wide variety of housing styles and prices (as little as $400K to around $3 million). It's also a very family-friendly community with parks, community clubhouse and pool, and other amenities catered to families. If you love golf, Grayhawk has two famous courses- Talon and Rapture- which even challenge the experienced golfer.

There are many great communities in N. Scottsdale in which to raise kids, you really can't go wrong.

[hts]

My favorite family-oriented N. Scottsdale neighborhood (we have 2 small boys, now 6 & 7) is DC Ranch. We had a lot deposit down but ultimately backed out and chose a community elsewhere that we felt was even more family-friendly. We also felt (just a little bit) that there was a bit of California-snobbishness to DCR. Again, it may have been our own feelings of inadequacy, but when you're spending $1.1-$1.2m or so on a home (this was back in 2004), you want to be fairly confident of your decision.

No offense, but we prefer DCR over Greyhawk for a number of reasons, including the beautifully-themed commercial area, the country club, and the relative lack of above-ground power lines running through the middle of the community.

[gigi927]

Pinnacle Peak Elementary is one of the higher rated elementaries in north Scottsdale (at least it was 2 years ago when I lived in the area). May want to do a search around it.

[AZBroker]

Scottsdale is generally excellent from Camelback/Scottsdale Roads north in terms of unique neighborhoods, excellent public and private schools and amenities. I happen to live in N.E. Phoenix that has a Scottsdale postal address, just west of the Kierland area which is very happening! There are generally less HOA restrictions in my area if that is an issue.. Though you would never know because people here really care about their curb appeal and take care of their properties and yards nicely.
Hope this helps!

-Jason

[dgs92]

My children attend Grayhawk Elementary. I can assure you it is one of the best elementary schools in AZ. Pinnacle Elem. is also an excellant school. I love living in Grayhawk. People are a little more 'real', lots of stay-at-home Moms, and lots of parental involvement at the school. It's a very family oriented community. Some neighborhoods within Grayhawk have more kids than others, generally the ones surrounding the school. As long as I live in AZ, I will never move from Grayhawk. I've lived here 5 1/2 years and have had such fun and have made life-long friends.