The Desert Mountain Digest · August 2026
August, on the mountain.
Seventy-five homes are on the market behind the gate, from just over a million to eighteen. A hundred and forty-four closed in the last twelve months. But the interesting number isn't either of those — it's the distance between them. The average home that sold here went for $3.2M. The average home currently listed asks $4.7M. That gap is the whole story of a Desert Mountain summer.
$460M
Traded on the mountain · last 12 months
$733
Average sold price per square foot
Nearly half a billion dollars changed hands behind this gate in twelve months, across a hundred and forty-four homes. For a single community, that is a remarkably active market — and it is why Desert Mountain trades on its own terms rather than following the Valley.
The nuance is in the pace. Homes that closed took an average of 167 days. The homes standing on the market right now have been listed an average of 263 days — and they are asking, on average, about 47% more than the homes that actually sold. Neither number is a verdict on the community. Both are a verdict on pricing. On the mountain the buyer pool is real but it is finite, and it is unusually good at waiting.
Source: ARMLS · Desert Mountain · closed, expired and cancelled, Aug 2025 – Aug 2026
Marta’s Picks
$18,000,000
41917 N 101st Place · Desert Mountain
4 bed · 6 bath · 7,752 sqft · Active
MARTA'S TAKE
The top of the mountain's standing market, and the highest price per square foot on any active listing in Scottsdale above $3M — not the highest price, the highest rate. That is what new construction at this elevation costs to replicate, and it is the number every other new build up here is quietly measured against.
$8,500,000
42715 N 98th Place · Desert Mountain
5 bed · 9 bath · 12,680 sqft · Active
MARTA'S TAKE
Twelve and a half thousand square feet at about $670 a foot, against a community average sold price of $733. At the top of this market the biggest houses trade at the lowest rate per foot, because the buyer pool for twelve thousand feet is a handful of families a year. That is not a flaw in the house; it is arithmetic, and it is worth understanding before you build one.
$7,750,000
9771 E Falling Star Drive · Desert Mountain
4 bed · 5 bath · 7,244 sqft · Active
MARTA'S TAKE
Seven-plus thousand feet, priced in the band where the mountain's genuine competition sits. Between $7M and $9M there are only a handful of active listings here — thin enough that a well-prepared house has the segment largely to itself, and thin enough that a wrongly-priced one has nothing to hide behind.
NEW
$4,400,000
10047 E Scopa Trail · Desert Mountain
4 bed · 5 bath · 5,311 sqft · Active
MARTA'S TAKE
New to the board, and priced meaningfully above the community's average sale. That is not a criticism — the first three weeks are the only ones where a listing is genuinely new, and a home that opens correctly rarely joins the 263-day cohort. Watch what happens here; it will tell you more about the autumn market than any forecast.
$4,999,500
9974 E Chiricahua Pass · Desert Mountain
5 bed · 9 bath · 6,638 sqft · Active
MARTA'S TAKE
Nine bathrooms, six and a half thousand feet, and a Chiricahua Pass address — one of the streets that reliably holds value up here. Location inside the gate matters more than most buyers expect, and the difference between a good street and a merely fine one is not visible on a portal map.
Moving This Month
9821 E Sundance Trail$4,400,000PENDING
37200 N CAVE CREEK Road 1019$3,975,000UNDER CONTRACT
11240 E APACHE VISTAS Drive$3,899,000PENDING
11131 E GRAYTHORN Drive$3,500,000UNDER CONTRACT
37200 N CAVE CREEK Road 1142$3,301,900PENDING
9937 E TAOS Drive$2,850,000UNDER CONTRACT
Statuses update automatically, twice daily — this section maintains itself between issues.
The mountain is patient. Its sellers cannot afford to be.
What the two averages actually mean
A market where homes close at $3.2M while the standing inventory asks $4.7M is not a slow market — it is a market that has already told you where it clears. The homes that sold did not sell because they were cheaper. They sold because they were priced where a buyer was. If you are considering a move in the next year, the useful conversation happens before the listing goes up, while price and presentation are still decisions.
Listing data refreshed Aug 15, 2026 8:21 PM UTC. Listing data sourced through this site’s licensed IDX display;
per-listing courtesy noted above. All information should be verified by the recipient and
none is guaranteed as accurate by ARMLS. © 2026 Arizona Regional Multiple
Listing Service, Inc. All rights reserved. Marta Walsh · Russ Lyon Sotheby’s
International Realty · Equal Housing Opportunity.