Single storey homes often attract strong interest in Troon and Desert Mountain, but the source material contains no verified premium for one level over two, and this report will not invent one. The sampled evidence is about lots and about the split between dated houses and updated estates: 38 pre-1981 homes in ZIP 85262, of which builders acquired 20, changed hands at an average of 128.9 percent of new build prices on comparable lots (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Height is not separated in that sample, so the honest answer comes by method. Compare closed sales of similar size and condition on similar ground, allow for the larger footprint a single level home needs, and then test how each form performs both for a household buyer and for a builder planning the next house on the site.
Key Findings
- No single storey versus two storey premium figure exists for Troon or Desert Mountain in the source material, so the question is answered by comparison method in this report (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Builders took 20 of 38 sampled older homes, a 52.6 percent rate, meaning storey count is priced by rebuild buyers as well as by households (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Sampled older homes averaged 128.9 percent of new build prices on comparable lots, a blend of dated houses near land value and updated estates at premiums (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- A single level plan needs more lot coverage for the same living area, and county land value is driven primarily by lot size and zoning (Maricopa County Assessor, 2026).
- New construction locally has sold from 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 dollars and above, depending on community, lot and view (Redfin, 2026).
Why do buyers here talk so much about single level living?
Much of the demand is about how these houses are used. Troon, Troon North and Desert Mountain are guard-gated golf communities in North Scottsdale where many owners are seasonal or keep the property as a second home. A house that can be lived in entirely on one floor, with the main bedroom, kitchen and outdoor rooms on the same level, suits owners who arrive for part of the year and who do not want stairs to be part of daily life in a house they may keep for decades. The median seller nationally in 2025 had owned for 11 years before selling, a record high, and long ownership horizons reward layouts that stay comfortable as households change (National Association of Realtors, 2025).
That preference is real, but preference is not the same as a measured premium. A two storey house with a main level suite can deliver the same daily pattern while using its upper floor for guests, and some buyers prefer the separation and the elevated views an upper level can give toward the mountains or a fairway. North Scottsdale luxury statistics track the wider market in which both forms trade, but they do not isolate height as a priced feature (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, 2025). An owner who assumes a fixed percentage for single level living is building a price on folklore, and folklore is usually corrected by market time.
The useful question is narrower: on this street, for houses of this size and condition, what did closed sales actually pay for each form? Recorded deeds answer that question without opinion, and they can be read property by property against lot size and position (Maricopa County Recorder, 2026). That exercise, done carefully, is the method the rest of this report sets out.
How does the comparison method work in practice?
Begin by matching on everything except height. Living area, lot size, community, view, golf frontage, age and condition all move price more visibly than storey count in the available data, so a comparison that fails to hold those steady will credit height with value that belongs elsewhere. County parcel records give lot size and zoning for each candidate sale, the two factors the county itself uses to drive assessed land value (Maricopa County Assessor, 2026). Listing archives for ZIP 85262 then supply the closed prices and the market time each form needed to find a buyer (Redfin, 2026).
Next, compare price per square foot and total price separately, because the two can point in opposite directions. A compact two storey house may show a strong figure per square foot while a spreading single level house on a large lot shows a higher total, driven mostly by its ground. Automated value pages blend nearby sales of both forms and can hide that distinction entirely, which is one reason owners should treat such pages as a starting prompt rather than as evidence (Zillow, 2026). Where a pattern survives both ways of reading, total and per square foot, an owner has something defensible to say about height in that pocket of the market.
Then allow for the cost of the footprint. A single level house of a given size covers more of its lot, leaving less open ground and sometimes pressing against setback or coverage limits, while a two storey house can place the same rooms on a smaller base. On the large parcels common here, many running to half an acre or more, coverage is rarely the binding problem for the existing house, but it matters greatly for the next one, as discussed below.
Owners who want the broader context for what households currently ask for can read what types of homes buyers are looking for in Troon and Desert Mountain in 2026 alongside this method, and then return to the deeds for the pricing itself.
When can two storeys be worth more?
Height earns money when it buys a view or protects the ground floor plan. An upper level that lifts bedrooms or a retreat above the rear wall and into a mountain outlook is selling something a single level house on the same lot cannot offer, and view is priced as a separate asset in this market, alongside dirt and golf frontage. The research notes that a view lot and an interior lot of the same size can differ by several hundred thousand dollars in the land bid, and a well placed upper floor can capture part of that difference for the house itself.
Height also helps where the lot is at the smaller end of the local range. The sample minimum lot was 8,332 square feet, far below the half acre parcels found elsewhere in these communities (Frontier Capitals, 2026). On a tighter parcel, going up may be the only way to deliver the room count buyers expect at this price level without consuming the entire yard. A two storey house that preserves a usable backyard and pool area on a modest lot can therefore be the more valuable product, not the lesser one.
Finally, condition can overwhelm form. An updated two storey estate belongs to the premium half of the sample story, while a dated single level house belongs to the land value half, and a buyer choosing between those two actual houses will pay for the updated one. Storey count is a secondary characteristic that refines a price after condition, lot and position have set its band. Owners who reverse that order, leading with height and hoping condition will be forgiven, usually learn otherwise through reductions and through months spent defending a figure the closed evidence never supported.
What does a builder see when comparing the two forms?
A builder is pricing a replacement, so the existing roofline matters mainly as evidence about the lot. A spreading single level house proves that a generous footprint fits the parcel and satisfies community design review, which lowers uncertainty for a new single level design. A two storey house proves that height has been accepted on that site, which can matter where a builder wants elevation for views in the new plan. Either proof has value, and neither turns the old structure itself into an asset the builder will pay to keep.
The arithmetic behind the bid is the residual method from the research. A finished sale of 3,500,000 dollars, less roughly 1,400,000 dollars in hard and soft construction costs and less a margin near 20 percent, leaves residual land value around 1,350,000 to 1,550,000 dollars, before 30,000 to 50,000 dollars of site preparation. That illustration is simplified rather than promised, but it shows why footprint and height permissions flow into land value: a lot that can legally and practically carry the finished house a builder wants to sell supports a stronger bid than a lot where the desired form is doubtful.
Redevelopment context matters as well. Nationally, 6.9 percent of new single family detached homes built in 2024 stood on lots acquired for redevelopment (National Association of Home Builders, 2025). In this ZIP sample the builder acquisition rate was 52.6 percent, far above that national share, so an owner here should expect the rebuild reading of the property to be part of almost any serious valuation conversation (Frontier Capitals, 2026). City requirements on native plants and site clearance also shape what clearing either form of house will involve, and a careful buyer prices that work in advance (City of Scottsdale, 2026).
For owners testing that builder reading directly, the features that make Troon and Desert Mountain homes sell faster is a useful companion, because speed in this market usually follows a clear match between a property and the buyer type most likely to value it.
How should an owner use a height claim when pricing?
Use it as a supported adjustment or not at all. If the deed comparison on the street shows single level homes of similar size and condition closing above two storey homes, name those sales and carry the difference into the asking figure with the evidence attached. If the local sales show no such pattern, price the house on its lot, condition and outlook and let the single level plan be presented as a lifestyle strength in the showing rather than as a number in the arithmetic. Buyers respect the first approach and test the second kind of claim by waiting.
Presentation can still honour the preference buyers bring. Show how the main rooms connect on one level, how guests are accommodated without disturbing the owners, and how the outdoor rooms extend the living space across the lot. For a two storey house, show the separation, the view from above and the ground floor suite if one exists. In both cases the showing should answer the daily life question that sits behind the height question, which is how the house will feel to live in during a long ownership. With 91 percent of sellers nationally using an agent in recent profile data, most listed owners will make that presentation through a broker, while direct sellers need to make it themselves with equal care (National Association of Realtors, 2025).
Timing interacts with form as well. A house whose appeal rests on a contested premium tends to spend longer on the market, and luxury market time here can run from three to nine months in the research ledger, with six months of holding costing 40,000 to 90,000 dollars on a 2,400,000 dollar sale. A defensible price that both forms of buyer can understand is worth more than a hopeful premium that has to be defended for two seasons.
Selling the property without arguing about its roofline
An older house whose value sits mainly in its ground can be sold directly, and at the 2,400,000 dollar level used in the research the savings from doing so are plain. The transaction stays private, with no parade of showings, no open house and no public marketing stretch, a quiet route that suits a guard-gated community. Closing can be arranged in 7 to 21 days for owners who want to move quickly, or pushed months into the future with a leaseback for owners who need the house while they relocate, instead of the 60 to 120 plus days a listed older luxury property commonly takes. No commission is payable, avoiding the standard 5 to 6 percent charge that equals 120,000 to 144,000 dollars on a sale of this size (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Recent commission analysis found the buyer agent share alone averaged 2.4 percent in early 2025, confirming that the full listed cost remains substantial (Redfin, 2025). Seller closing costs are also avoided, a further 1 to 2 percent that, added to commission, pushes the usual deductions past 140,000 dollars at this level. The house is taken as it stands, without inspections or repair negotiations, so the 10,000 to 30,000 dollars in credits that ageing luxury homes frequently concede is not deducted at the end.
In this process Frontier Capitals works by sourcing off-market homes for builders and placing each one with a vetted builder. Its role is that of a wholesaler, reaching agreement with the owner and matching the home to a builder, and it never claims to be the builder itself. An owner comparing a direct offer with a listing should still ask for the normal proofs: funds evidence in the buyer name dated within 30 days for the full amount, deeds recorded in the buying entity name that can be checked in county records, earnest money of at least 1 percent, and no pairing of an assignment clause with a token deposit (Maricopa County Recorder, 2026). Those checks are set out for the wider market in the methodology behind this research, and they apply whatever the roofline of the house being sold.
Methodology and limitations
This report is built from the sample compiled for the series, 38 pre-1981 homes in ZIP 85262 with 20 acquired by builders, plus county parcel and deed records, closed listing evidence for the ZIP and North Scottsdale luxury statistics (Frontier Capitals, 2026; Maricopa County Recorder, 2026; Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, 2025). Seller tenure and agent use figures come from the national seller profile, and commission context comes from both the association data and the commission study in the source pool (National Association of Realtors, 2025; Redfin, 2025).
The governing limit is explicit: no source in the material separates price by storey count for this ZIP, and no per property inspection or appraisal was undertaken for this report. Claims about single level premiums elsewhere in the country were not imported, because lot sizes, community rules and buyer mix in Troon, Troon North, Troon Village and Desert Mountain differ from national stock. The sample average describes a blend of dated and updated houses, and individual results will fall on either side of it for reasons the sample cannot rank.
Conclusion
Single storey homes in Troon and Desert Mountain enjoy genuine buyer affection, especially among seasonal and long horizon owners, but the local evidence does not support a fixed premium over two storey homes. Value follows lot, condition, position and view first, with height refining the result where it buys an outlook, fits a tighter parcel or matches how the next household wants to live. An owner who prices by the deed comparison method in this report can defend the figure to either buyer type.
Owners who would like that comparison worked through for a specific address can telephone Frontier Capitals at 401-219-4207 or email [email protected].
When two houses share a lot size and a street, should the simpler roofline set the price, or should the life lived inside each floor plan decide it?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a percentage premium for single storey homes here?
No verified percentage exists in the source material for ZIP 85262. The sample does not separate results by storey count, so this report answers by comparing matched closed sales instead (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
Do builders prefer lots with single storey houses on them?
Builders price the lot and what it can carry. An existing single level house can prove a broad footprint fits, while an existing two storey house can prove height is accepted, and either point can help a rebuild plan (City of Scottsdale, 2026).
Does a two storey home ever sell for more on the same street?
Yes, where the upper level captures a view, preserves yard space on a smaller lot, or where the two storey house is simply the better maintained property. Condition and position regularly outweigh form.
How should I check the pattern on my own street?
Compare recorded deeds for homes of similar size, condition and lot in the same community, reading both total price and price per square foot, and see whether a height pattern survives both readings (Maricopa County Recorder, 2026).
Does storey count affect how fast a home sells?
Only indirectly. Clear pricing, a plan that matches likely buyers and a lot that reads well tend to drive pace, while an unsupported premium for any feature, including height, tends to extend market time (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, 2025).
Sources
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189 neighborhood builder acquisition sample: 38 homes sampled in 85262, 20 acquired by builders, average older home price 128.9 percent of new build. Market data.
- Maricopa County Assessor, 2026. Parcel and permit records, Scottsdale AZ. Official record.
- Maricopa County Recorder, 2026. Recorded deeds and transaction records, Scottsdale AZ. Official record.
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Industry report.
- Redfin, 2026. Recently sold homes and new construction, ZIP code 85262, Scottsdale AZ. Market data.
- Redfin, 2025. Real estate commissions report, May 2025. Market data.
- Zillow, 2026. Home values and recently sold, 85262. Market data.
- Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, 2025. North Scottsdale luxury market statistics. Industry report.
- National Association of Home Builders, 2025. NAHB analysis of the Builder Practices Survey. Industry report.
- City of Scottsdale, 2026. Native plant and site-clearance permit requirements for residential redevelopment. Official record.