Laura Houston
Northwest Valley Republic

High-dollar housing is booming in the West Valley, and experts say the upscale market is on track to rival north Scottsdale’s and Paradise Valley’s.

Officials hope that will lure more property-tax dollars and give industries a boost, especially if business executives move to estate communities springing up around Lake Pleasant, bringing jobs with them to avoid long commutes.

Over the past 10 years, Glendale has worked to diversify its housing market so residents “don’t have to leave the city limits to move up,” said Jon Froke, the city’s planning director.

In Arrowhead Lakes, where a 12,000-square-foot house will sit on a mountain foothill with a six-car garage, million-dollar homes have filled most of the lots over the past five years.

High-end housing is spreading along the 83rd Avenue corridor and out to Peoria at Vistancia and the Quintero Golf & Country Club.

Peoria has played host to this sort of housing with added prominence over the past five years, said Steve Prokopek, economic development director for the city.

He said Peoria approached the boom in upscale real estate with the idea of having one job opportunity for every Peoria resident.

“We’re trying to keep up with rapid residential growth and get more employers to move to the city,” he said. “Our goal is to do it right and not do it fast.”

Quintero owner representative Tom Colceri said out-of-state executives have come calling at the golf course, paying a $105,000 membership fee so they can build winter homes and condos on the course’s 280 lots.

Colceri says lots that recently were sold in the first phase of building went for as much as $1 million.

“The West Valley has made a very good, concerted effort to consider itself a high-quality region, the northwest Valley in particular,” he said.

Mountains, vistas and desert vegetation become premium real estate sites for $300,000 lots for custom homes perched on golf courses and expected to sport multimillion-dollar price tags, said R.L. Brown, a Phoenix housing market analyst. He said West Valley executive housing is in its infancy but estimates that in three decades the area will hit capacity in high-end mansions, thanks to spillover from the East Valley.

“Thirty years from today, someone will be looking out at Wickenburg, and it’d be like they were standing out at Carefree,” Brown said.