When home buyers arrive in Scottsdale, they often come with opinions about what part of town they want to live in. Friends or family will say that they should only live in North Scottsdale, where the newer homes are, or they should find something downtown, close to all the restaurants and night life. Regardless of the local knowledge that they’ve received, buyers quickly see that North Scottsdale, South Scottsdale, and the area they surround all have personalities of their own. In addition to home prices varying widely, home size and age is also very different.
To give you some sense of the differences, I’ve broken the city down into 3 areas that are defined on the following map. The red circle encompasses what I will call North Scottsdale, and the purple circle includes South Scottsdale, downtown, and neighborhoods north to Indian Bend Road. In between, you will find many of the “ranches”, including Scottsdale, McCormick, and Gainey Ranch. (For today, I’ve left out Scottsdale 85254, since this area is mostly located in the city of Phoenix.)
In all of the charts you will see below, the light blue line is the average for all of Scottsdale. The other lines will denote the various zip codes in Scottsdale.
North Scottsdale: 85255, 85262, 85266
Mid Scottsdale: 85258, 85259, 85260
South Scottsdale: 85250, 85251, 85257
The information I’m providing you is taken from homes currently on the market, not all of the homes in the given geographical area. It will give you an idea of the differences based on the inventory of single family homes for sale in Scottsdale over the past 3 months.
Average Price per Square Foot
The average price per square foot for a home for sale in Scottsdale is currently $260 per square foot.
In South Scottsdale, home prices vary from $120 to just over $200 per square foot.
In central Scottsdale, prices currently average $200-245 per foot, while in the northern parts of the city, prices average $260-330 per square foot.
As you can see, there has been a steady, gradual decline in home listing prices pretty much through the city over the past 90 days.
Median Home Age
The average age of a home on the market in Scottsdale is surprisingly just under 15 years. 
In the southernmost part of the city, homes for sale are older, with a median age of 50 years, while in the area just north of downtown Scottsdale, the median age is closer to 35 years old.
Further north, the median age of homes for sales in the McCormick and Gainey Ranch areas (85258) is 24 years, while to the north (85260), homes are in the 21 year range, and to the east (85259) towards Fountain Hills, the median age drops dramatically to 13 years.
In the northern reaches of Scottsdale, the median age of homes for sale ranges from 8-11 years.
As you would expect, these numbers are pretty static in all zip codes.
Median Home Size
When it comes to home size, the differences between the areas are even more striking.
The median home size in Scottsdale is just over 3200 square feet. However, in South Scottsdale the median home size is closer to 2000 square feet.
In central Scottsdale, the median home size varies considerably more, from a median of 2600 square feet for homes between Indian Bend and Bell Roads (85258 and 85260), and jumping to 3800 square feet east of that area (85259).
In North Scottsdale, homes for sale in all zip codes are considerably larger than the city median, ranging from 3600 to 4300 square feet.
What’s it all mean?
In South Scottsdale, the homes for sale are smaller, quite a bit older, and less expensive. Think affordable. First-time home buyer. Investment. Rental.
In North Scottsdale, homes are much larger, typically built in the past 10 years, and cost considerably more than the Scottsdale average. Think luxury. Vacation home. Golf get-away. Desert living.
Then, there’s the middle of Scottsdale playing in with the rest of the picture for a diverse Scottsdale home market, providing a little something for anything thinking of buyer in Scottsdale.
Data Source: Altos Research
