Rio Verde Foothills homes for sale in the Rio Verde area

About 20 square miles of unincorporated desert east of Scottsdale: 136th Street (the Scottsdale city limit) on the west, Tonto National Forest on the north, the 184th Street alignment on the east (next to Rio Verde), and the Jomax Road alignment and McDowell Mountain Regional Park on the south.

Boundary traced along streets from the official plan description.

The area was ranch country (the E.O. Brown family and the P-Bar Ranch among the larger operations) and passed into private ownership through land exchanges from 1960 to 1971; development stayed inside the Rio Verde master plan until the 1980s. Home building grew from about one house a year in the 1980s to about 330 homes by 2000 and roughly 400 more from 2001 to 2003, much of it through lot splits of five or fewer parcels (so called wildcat subdivisions) that avoid Arizona's 100 year assured water supply rule. Maricopa County updated its 1979 Desert Foothills Policy and Development Guide into the Rio Verde Foothills Area Plan in 2005.

Scottsdale, which had warned since 2015, stopped letting haulers take its water outside city limits on Jan 1, 2023; a 2023 state law and a standpipe agreement restored interim supply through Dec 31, 2025, and the Arizona Corporation Commission approved an EPCOR standpipe on Nov 29, 2023. EPCOR opened its new filling station and pipeline on Jan 1, 2026.

Rural acreage. Custom and semi custom homes, manufactured homes and horse properties on one to five acre lots, with some small lot split developments and a few recorded subdivisions. County parcel records show about 3,600 homes inside the mapped area, many of them built in the last decade (median year built 2017).

When homes were built

Scattered homes from the 1970s and 1980s, faster growth from about 2000, and a large share built since 2010 (median year built 2017 in county parcel records).

Home styles

Ranch, Southwest and desert contemporary custom homes, manufactured homes, barns and arenas.

Lots

Mostly one acre plus (Rural-43, one acre minimum) and some Rural-190 (about 4.36 acre minimum); horse privileges common, especially between 136th and 160th Streets.

Home types

Custom single family on acreage, manufactured homes, a few small subdivisions.

HOAs and gates

Mostly no HOA; a few subdivisions have HOAs.

Neighborhoods inside

Granite Mountain Ranch, Rio Mountain Estates

School districts (county records)

Cave Creek Unified School District (100%)

Inside Rio Verde Foothills: Open desert, horse properties, riding and boarding stables, home based businesses. No commercial centers or schools inside the plan area.

Nearby: McDowell Mountain Regional Park trails, Tonto National Forest and the Verde River (Needle Rock, Box Bar), Scottsdale's McDowell Sonoran Preserve, North Scottsdale shopping and dining along Pima Rd and Scottsdale Rd, Rio Verde golf.