North Scottsdale

Desert trailheads five minutes one way, a lifestyle-center shopping district ten minutes the other.

North Scottsdale runs from roughly the 101 freeway north to the edge of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, and it's built around that Preserve more than any single amenity. Golf-course master-planned communities, Grayhawk, Troon, DC Ranch, McDowell Mountain Ranch, Silverleaf, Windgate Ranch among them, ring the desert on nearly every side, and the day-to-day rhythm here is shaped by how close you are to a trailhead, a course, or Kierland Commons.

Getting In and Out

Scottsdale Airpark, a general-aviation field a few minutes south of most North Scottsdale communities, handles private and business aviation. Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) is the commercial airport, roughly 25, 35 minutes south depending on traffic and which part of North Scottsdale a home sits in.

Hiking & the McDowell Sonoran Preserve

The Preserve covers more than 30,500 acres and 230+ miles of multi-use trail, open sunrise to sunset, free of charge. North Scottsdale residents typically use one of five major trailheads: Lost Dog Wash (12601 N. 124th St.), Gateway, Granite Mountain, Tom's Thumb, and Brown's Ranch. Lost Dog Wash has restrooms, water, shelter, and ample parking, and connects to Sunrise Peak; Gateway offers shade ramadas, water fountains, interpretive signage, and horse-trailer parking. Which trailhead ends up being a five-minute versus twenty-minute drive is one of the more practical questions to ask before buying in a specific North Scottsdale community.

Golf

North Scottsdale is arguably the densest concentration of notable desert golf in Arizona. Grayhawk Golf Club alone carries two 36-hole championship courses, the Talon Course (David Graham/Gary Panks, 1994) and the Raptor Course (Tom Fazio, 1995, former PGA TOUR Frys.com Open host), and that's one community among many. Troon, Desert Mountain, and Silverleaf all carry their own championship-level courses, each with a different personality and membership structure.

Shopping: Kierland Commons & Scottsdale Quarter

Kierland Commons, which opened in 2000, was Arizona's first true open-air lifestyle center, a Main Street-style layout now home to 80+ retailers including Anthropologie, Athleta, Madewell, Vuori, ALO Yoga, and Chanel Fragrance & Beauty. Directly adjacent, Scottsdale Quarter adds an Apple Store, Design Within Reach, True Food Kitchen, Bice, and an iPic cinema. Combined, the two districts run 200+ stores and 40+ dining options within a short drive of most North Scottsdale communities.

Arts & Culture

Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West sits in Old Town's arts district, a 43,000-square-foot, LEED Gold-certified building that's been a Smithsonian Affiliate since it opened in January 2015. It's been named "Best Western Museum" in the nation by True West Magazine, with rotating exhibits of Western and Native American art alongside a permanent collection that includes Hopi pottery masterworks.

Schools

North Scottsdale is split across school district boundaries depending on the specific neighborhood, the Paradise Valley Unified School District serves a portion of North Scottsdale (Grayhawk Elementary, for instance, falls under PVUSD), while the Scottsdale Unified School District serves other North Scottsdale communities. Which district a specific address falls into is one of the first things worth confirming before writing an offer, since attendance boundaries don't follow community names cleanly.

What Most Buyers Don't Realize

The "North Scottsdale" label gets used loosely by out-of-area buyers as if it's one homogenous market. It isn't. A home five minutes from Kierland Commons and a home backing up to Brown's Ranch trailhead can be twenty minutes apart with completely different daily-use patterns, HOA structures, and price bands. We walk every North Scottsdale buyer through which of those sub-markets actually matches how they say they want to live, not just the price range they came in with.

FAQ: Living in North Scottsdale