Desert Highlands

Yes, and it works differently than almost anywhere else in North Scottsdale. Golf club membership is tied to the property itself, not applied for separately, so it transfers automatically at closing along with the home. That also means there's no waitlist, unlike clubs where membership is optional. The tradeoff is a mandatory membership fee due at closing, on top of the purchase price, so we build it into the offer from the start.

It's a six figure fee due at closing, plus monthly dues that also cover the HOA, and the exact number has moved with recent increases. Public reporting on the current fee ranges widely and doesn't always separate the base fee from add-ons like capital dues or an irrigation assessment. Rather than repeat a number that may already be out of date, we pull the club's current fee schedule before you write an offer.

Different communities entirely, despite the similar names. Desert Highlands is the smaller of the two, 850 acres and one Jack Nicklaus course at the base of Pinnacle Peak, built in the early 1980s among the first communities in the area built around a golf course. Desert Mountain is about eight thousand acres further north toward Carefree, with six golf courses and multiple villages of its own. People occasionally search one name looking for the other.

Wide, because homes here are custom and vary more in vintage and condition than in a builder community. Recent listings have run from smaller, older homes in the low seven figures to large custom estates at the top of the market, with most activity in the low to mid seven figures. Given how few homes trade here in a given month, we'd rather walk you through current comparables than quote a single median.

Desert Highlands is in Scottsdale Unified School District, in the Desert Mountain Learning Community. Homes are generally zoned to Cheyenne Traditional School, Desert Canyon Middle School, and Desert Mountain High School. As with every North Scottsdale community, boundaries can shift by address, so we confirm the specific zoned schools with SUSD before it factors into a decision.

It depends on the individual home more than the town-wide market right now. Because every property here is custom, condition and how well a home has been maintained since it was built matter more than timing the market. Well-kept homes with a clear view corridor still draw offers, while homes needing updates are sitting longer. We start with recent closed comparables for the specific product type, not a community-wide average.