With 300 days of sunshine a year, low taxes and safe streets, it’s no wonder Californians flock to the so-called “Beverly Hills of Arizona.”
Located between Phoenix and Scotsdale, Paradise Valley is the wealthiest municipality in Arizona, with the average home costing a whopping $2.87 million.
The affluent area has already proven popular with celebrities such as Alicia Keys, Michael Phelps and Stevie Knicks.
And now a large number of new California residents are arriving, said luxury real estate agent Joan Levinson. Business Insider – and recent immigrants said they were simply fed up with rising crime and the high cost of living.
Paradise Valley is the wealthiest municipality in Arizona, located between Phoenix and Scotsdale, and features luxury golf courses.
On sale for $8,888,888, this five-bedroom home is nestled among cacti and spectacular rock outcrops, designed to maximize views of the Camelback and Mummy Mountains.
Homebuyers are looking to leave expensive, plagued big cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The numbers show that California has been losing more and more residents to Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county, in recent years.
An average of 1,555 people moved from Santa Clara County, home to the tech hub Silicon Valley, each year between 2016 and 2020. This is a 38 percent increase compared to the period between 2011 and 2015, Business Insider reported.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County lost an average of 8,614 residents to Maricopa County each year between 2016 and 2020, an increase of 48 percent between 2011 and 2015.
And San Diego has seen 5,206 residents in the area annually since 2016.
Kelly Jones, an Arizona real estate agent, told Business Insider: “California as a whole has taxes that have really been hurting everyone, and they’re looking at the cost of living there versus here.” It’s much cheaper to live here.
Arizona also boasts lower crime rates, which is a big draw for residents of many large California cities, with increasing numbers of people leaving cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco in the wake of crippling crime crises. homelessness, crime and opioids.
The mountainous desert city of Paradise Valley is the wealthiest municipality in Arizona, located east of the state capital, Phoenix, and stretches 15.4 miles from Scottsdale to Camelback Mountain.
Known for its luxury golf courses, it is made up of more than 5,000 homes, with the best properties on the market selling for more than $20 million.
Venture Capital founder Ken Sawyer moved to Paradise Valley with his family from San Francisco in 2019.
He told Business Insider: “Every month, there are more and more people both in the tech world and in California in general.”
‘We love San Francisco. But he stopped providing the public education we wanted, he stopped providing the security we wanted.
“The ability to live in Paradise Valley really provided us with a much higher quality of life.”
Taylor and Amelia Graber moved to Paradise Valley from San Diego in 2021.
Medical entrepreneur Taylor told Business Insider: ‘I love San Diego. But the cost of living is more expensive there. Buying a house there is more expensive. Taxes are more expensive there.’
Graber estimated that the marginal tax rate for his household income in California was more than double that of Arizona, at 4.5 percent.
Arizona also has a booming tech scene, making it easier for Californians to relocate their jobs to Silicone Valley.
This $75 million home under construction is the most expensive on the market in Paradise Valley
Renderings of the property show several pools with a waterfall and lazy river.
The listing promises two bowling alleys, an indoor shooting range, a golf simulator, and a movie theater/Metaverse.
The annual median home price in Paradise Valley reached $2.87 million last year, a 14 percent increase from the previous year, according to Realtor.com.
This is more expensive than the average property price in San Francisco and Los Angeles: $1.19 million and $957,000 respectively, Business Insider reported.
The most expensive neighborhood in Paradise Valley is Clearwater Hills, where mansions are priced between $20 million and $30 million.
Designers in the area favor Georgian and Mediterranean styles, but modern glass and metal constructions are also common.
Robert Joffe, founder and associate broker of the Joffe Group, told Mansion Global: ‘This area of Arizona has enormous appeal. People are coming from all over the country to buy houses here.’
He added: “It wasn’t long ago, maybe five years ago, that I sold the most expensive house in the MLS (in Arizona), and it was $12.75 million.”
Last year, an 18,500-square-foot home near Mummy Mountain broke that record and sold for $23.5 million.
And the record is expected to be broken once again with five homes currently listed for more than $25 million, according to real estate site Redfin.
The area is popular with celebrities such as Alicia Keys, Michael Phelps and Stevie Knicks, who previously owned properties there.
Keys described her four-bedroom property as “a magical place” in 2016, before selling it for $3.1 million.
She said: “The wonderful weather, the incredible scenery, the arts and culture, and the fact that Phoenix is not as overrun as other warm weather destinations, were also a big reason for us.”
This spacious 16,035-square-foot property is for sale for $20 million
The $20 million home has eight bedrooms and ten bathrooms spread across several buildings.
The master closet alone cost $1 million to design and build.
The house was designed by Matt Boland and renovated and expanded from 2015 to 2023.
The owner spent a year and a half searching for the site and another year along with millions of dollars excavating the land, according to the listing.
It then took two and a half years to build the house with steel and blocks.
Olympic swimmer Phelps even secretly married his wife Nicole Johnson in the Valley in 2015.
The couple then moved to a nearby mansion and stayed there for three years before deciding they needed more space in 2018 and selling the house for $3.5 million, but reportedly stayed in the area.
The most expensive home currently listed in Paradise Valley is a $75 million, 13-bedroom, 16-bathroom, 40,000-square-foot modernist palace.
It’s under construction, but renderings show a wide entrance with pools (including a lazy river) and lounging areas.
And there will be no shortage of entertainment, as the listing promises: “Two bowling alleys, indoor shooting range, golf simulator, movie theater/Metaverse, spa, a home gym, casino room, recording studio, collectors gallery.” .
For those who want to relax, it will have a ‘sauna, snow room, Vitality Pools, two massage/treatment rooms’.