What counts as luxury real estate in Scottsdale, and what does it cost?

What counts as luxury real estate in Scottsdale, and what it costs, is easiest to answer from what homes here have sold for. In October 2026, the Cromford Report showed single-family homes in the City of Scottsdale selling for a median of $1,235,000 over the past 12 months, and a median of $1,229,305 for homes that closed in the most recent month. Over those same 12 months, the average sale price was $1,666,770.

I'm Jen Keene, a REALTOR® with eXp Luxury in Scottsdale, AZ, and I'm the agent people call at every stage of their life. If you're buying or selling a home in Scottsdale, below is how I read those numbers, how one national company defines luxury, the figures for two ZIP codes in the north of the city, and what a price in this range means for your loan, your property taxes and your closing.

Redfin, which publishes reports on luxury homes, defines luxury homes as the 5% of homes in a metro area with the highest estimated values, and it measures that inside each metro area, so under Redfin's definition the line moves with local prices and isn't one national dollar figure. That's Redfin's definition, and it's measured across a whole metro area rather than one city.

For your purposes, the more useful question is where a particular home sits among recent Scottsdale sales of similar homes. The figures I quote here come from the Cromford Report, which reports on single-family homes in the City of Scottsdale as a whole and in individual ZIP codes. When you're looking at a specific home, I'll pull the recent sales around it so you can see where it falls.

In October 2026, the Cromford Report showed single-family homes in the City of Scottsdale selling for a median of $1,235,000 over the past 12 months. Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. In October 2026, homes in the city sold for a median of $463.75 a square foot over the past 12 months, and homes listed for sale were asking a median of $519.14 a square foot.

The same source also covers ZIP codes. In October 2026, the Cromford Report showed single-family homes in ZIP 85255, the DC Ranch, McDowell Mountain Ranch and Grayhawk area, selling for a median of $1,725,000 over the past 12 months. In October 2026, homes in ZIP 85262, the Desert Mountain and Estancia area, sold for a median of $1,639,000 over the past 12 months.

Each of those is its own measurement, so I quote them one at a time and don't add the two ZIP codes together or average them. The city and ZIP code figures are all from the Cromford Report's October 2026 close, measured on November 1, 2026.

In October 2026, the Cromford Report showed 4.1 months of supply for single-family homes in the City of Scottsdale, which means it would take a little over four months to sell everything listed at the current rate of sales. The median home in the city went under contract within 26 days of being listed, and homes that closed were on the market a median of 46 days.

In October 2026, ZIP 85262 had 6.6 months of supply, which means it would take 6.6 months to sell everything listed there at the current rate of sales. If you're selling, that number tells you how much patience to plan for, and if you're buying, it tells you how many homes you'll be choosing from. Here's my post on the Scottsdale housing market with the rest of the citywide numbers.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced on November 25, 2025 that the 2026 conforming loan limit for a one-unit property is $832,750 in most of the country, and Homebuyer.com's loan limit page lists $832,750 for a one-unit home in Maricopa County for 2026. The limit is the largest loan Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will buy from a lender. A mortgage above it is called a jumbo loan. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's page on conventional loans says jumbo loans usually need good credit and a high down payment to qualify, and that pricing can vary widely by lender.

What counts against the limit is the amount you borrow, so your down payment decides which side of $832,750 your loan lands on. The limit is set every year, so check the figure for the year you'll close. Before you look at a single house, I walk you through pre-approval and the buyer broker agreement, and that's when your lender can tell you which kind of loan you'd have and what it would cost you.

Arizona taxes a home on its limited property value, and Proposition 117, which voters passed in 2012, limits how fast that value can grow. Under A.R.S. 42-13301, the limited property value is the prior year's limited value plus five percent, and it can't be more than the home's full cash value. The Maricopa County Assessor's office says that since 2015 the limited property value has been used for both primary and secondary property taxes on most properties.

The Assessor also says the five percent limit has an exception when an owner adds or removes improvements. If you're buying a home that's had an addition or a new casita, ask the seller what was built and when, and ask for the current tax bill so you're working from the real figure for that address.

Article 9, Section 24 of the Arizona Constitution says the state, a county, a city, a town or any other political subdivision can't impose any new tax, fee, stamp requirement or other assessment on selling, buying or transferring an interest in real property. The same section says it doesn't apply to a tax, fee or assessment that was already in place on December 31, 2007.

Your closing costs are still real, and your escrow company's estimate is where you'll see them line by line before you sign. A licensed Arizona attorney or a tax professional can tell you how any of this applies to your own sale.

If you're buying or selling, these are the steps I'd take, in this order.

1. Pick the right area and date. Use the City of Scottsdale figure for the city and the ZIP code figure for the ZIP code, and note the month the numbers are for.
2. Compare price per square foot. Set the home's price per square foot next to the median for homes sold and the median for active listings in the same area.
3. Look at the recent sales around the home. I'll pull the sales of similar homes nearby, which tell you more about one house than a citywide median can.
4. Check your loan amount against the conforming limit. If you're buying, get pre-approved first so you know which kind of loan you're looking at.
5. Read the tax figures. Ask for the current tax bill and whether anything was added to the home recently.
6. If you're selling, look at three prices. I bring three prices to a listing appointment and you choose, and I'll tell you at that appointment if a number isn't reachable.

On a luxury listing, the advertising goes beyond the listing sites, with placements through eXp Luxury, the Wall Street Journal and Robb Report, and I'll walk you through each of those at the listing appointment. Here's my post on marketing a luxury home in Scottsdale, which goes into the photography, video, showings and weekly updates.

If you're selling one home and buying the next, I handle both halves. After the listing is signed, I tour the next place with you in person, whether that's a smaller home, a lock-and-leave or a larger one, so the sale and the purchase are planned together.

• Reading the average as the typical price. The median is the middle sale, so ask for the median when you want the middle of the market.
• Mixing areas. A ZIP code figure and a citywide figure are separate measurements, and adding two ZIP codes together gives you a number nobody measured.
• Quoting a number without its date. A figure from last spring describes last spring, so check the month on every number you're given.
• Planning around the price instead of the loan. The conforming loan limit applies to what you borrow, so run the loan amount past your lender before you set a budget.
• Using a national definition as a local price. Redfin's 5% line is measured by metro area, so it doesn't give you a Scottsdale number on its own.

Call me at (480) 203-6605 or send me a message and tell me the address or the area you're looking at. I'll pull the recent sales of similar homes so you can see where that home falls and what it's likely to cost you to buy, or what it's likely to bring if you're selling.