Ahwatukee Foothills · Trading Up
Trading Up in the Ahwatukee Foothills
Moving into more house, with the buy-and-sell sequencing worked out before you list.
The step up is often two streets away rather than two towns
You have outgrown where you are. Another child, a job that is now permanently at the kitchen table, or the slow realization that the house you bought first was always the house you bought first.
What is unusual about trading up in the Ahwatukee Foothills is that this association holds the whole range inside itself. Somebody in one of the older pockets can move into a gated neighborhood like Tapestry Canyon or The Sanctuary, into a canyon setting at Cabrillo Canyon, onto the water at Miralago, or into something built in the early 2020s at Palma Brisa, without leaving the association they already belong to.
That makes the search easier and the sequencing no easier at all. You still have to sell something and buy something, and the order you do them in has consequences measured in tens of thousands of dollars and several weeks of not knowing where you will sleep.
What you get from me is those two transactions run as one plan, with your equity and financing looked at properly before anything is listed.
Questions about your move? I'm glad to help.
Why move-up sellers and buyers use Savvy Realty Group
A trade-up is two jobs, and most agents are noticeably better at one of them. I am Amy Richardson, Savvy Realty Group at HomeSmart, and I run both sides of these regularly, which is the only way the dates actually line up.
Over my career it is more than 80 transaction sides and over $52 million in volume, across both buying and selling, most of it inside Ahwatukee and the Southeast Valley.
The other half of it is that I spent twelve years in my family's financial advisory practice before real estate, and six years before that as a project manager at Wells Fargo. That sounds unrelated until you are at a kitchen table deciding whether to carry two mortgages for six weeks.
The Foothills wrinkle is on the sale side. If you are selling an older home in one pocket to buy a gated or newer one in another, both prices have to be read at neighborhood level. A number built from the Foothills as a whole is averaging over 4,300 homes across markets that price nothing alike, and it will be wrong on both ends of your move rather than one.
Your sale gets the same preparation as any listing I take: a walkthrough before photography, a complimentary staging consultation, professional photography and an educational video with full drone footage. Anything beyond that is agreed together, based on what the home needs. See how I handle move-up moves generally, or send me your numbers.
Two transactions, one calendar
Run separately, a sale and a purchase fight each other. Run together, every date is chosen deliberately. The selling half is at the six-step listing process and the buying half at how I help you buy.
- Numbers first. I map your equity, your carrying capacity and what your current home is realistically worth, priced from your own pocket of the Foothills rather than the association at large.
- The sequencing call. Selling first gives you certainty and a stronger offer, and risks a gap with money and nowhere to live. Buying first removes that and risks carrying two properties. I lay both out against your position. You choose.
- Prepare the sale properly. The walkthrough, the trades, the staging consultation and the photography all happen before you are under time pressure. That step is here, and it protects your next down payment.
- Decide the terrain deliberately. Moving from flat to hillside changes daily life more than most people expect. It buys elevation, views and privacy and costs flat usable yard, and that should be a choice rather than a discovery.
- Write the purchase with the right structure. Contingent offer, rent-back, extended close: which is credible depends on the specific seller, and I will tell you honestly how yours is likely to be received.
- Both closings, one coordinator. My transaction coordinator tracks both sets of dates so nothing depends on you remembering an appraisal deadline during a move.
Where the step up could land
Inside the association, the upper end is Tapestry Canyon and The Sanctuary, both gated. The Sanctuary is itself split between lake homes and hillside homes, so even that decision has a decision inside it. Miralago gives you a small man-made lake, Cabrillo Canyon a canyon setting, Tuscan Hills a Mediterranean character, and Palma Brisa an early-2020s contemporary house rather than a renovation project.
Outside it, the near neighbors are worth a look before you settle. Foothills Club West is master-planned with a clubhouse and its own named neighborhoods, each carrying tract declarations on top of the master rules. Foothills Reserve sits harder against the mountain, and Calabrea right beside it is gated and entirely custom at about 90 homesites with most at half an acre or larger.
You already know the trade Ahwatukee makes, which is quiet and mountain-side separation instead of density and nightlife. Most move-up buyers here decided that years ago, which makes this a simpler conversation than a relocation.
If the top of the market is where you are heading, the upper end of the Foothills is the next page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I trade up without leaving the Foothills?
Often, yes. This association holds over 4,300 homes across a very wide range, from older pockets through to gated neighborhoods like Tapestry Canyon and The Sanctuary and newer stock at Palma Brisa. Whether the specific house you want exists here at your number is the real question.
Should I sell first or buy first?
It depends on your equity, your financing options and how much uncertainty you can live with for a few weeks. I will not hand you a rule of thumb, because the two answers carry genuinely different risks and which suits you is a numbers question we can work out at a kitchen table.
Will my current home price correctly if it is in an older pocket?
It will if the comparables come from your pocket rather than the association at large. Reasoning from the Foothills as a whole averages over 4,300 homes across markets that price nothing alike, which puts both ends of your move on the wrong number.
Is hillside worth stepping up into?
It depends what you want from a garden. Hillside terrain buys elevation, views and privacy and costs flat usable yard and easy walkability. That is a real trade rather than a marketing point, and it is worth being honest with yourself about which side of it you fall on.
Ahwatukee Foothills
What trading up looks like in Ahwatukee Foothills
The Foothills Community Association: 4,300+ homes and 35+ local businesses.
One of the Ahwatukee communities I work most often.
- The homes
- One of the largest communities in Ahwatukee at over 4,300 homes, holding a wide spread of neighborhoods. Among them: Tapestry Canyon and The Sanctuary, both gated and at the luxury end, with The Sanctuary split between lake homes and hillside homes. Cabrillo Canyon sits in a canyon setting, Miralago is built around a small man-made lake, Tuscan Hills carries a Mediterranean character, and Palma Brisa is newer, built by Blandford in the early 2020s and contemporary in style. Canyon Springs, Shadow Rock, Majestic Hills, Black Rock Canyon, Candlewood Views, Eagle Ridge and Camelot Ridge are also inside the association.
- Why people choose it
- Almost everyone, because the community is large enough to contain several distinct markets. A gated luxury hillside buyer and an early-2020s contemporary buyer are both buying in the Foothills.
- Getting around
- Most Foothills residents take 24th Street down to the Loop 202.
- Nearby
- Over 35 local businesses sit within the association's own footprint, alongside the mountain access the Foothills are named for.
- The trade-off
- The name covers so much ground that it tells you very little on its own. Which neighborhood a home sits in matters far more here than the Foothills label does, and that is the distinction most out-of-area buyers miss.
Ahwatukee Foothills
The associations in Ahwatukee Foothills
The association that applies here, linked to its own site so you can read the documents rather than take my word for it.
- Master association
- The Foothills Community Association Over 4,300 homes and more than 35 local businesses inside its own footprint. Managed by Trestle Management Group. 480-422-0888.
Dues and rules change, and which documents apply can depend on the parcel. Confirm both against the association before you write an offer.
The method
How we do it in Ahwatukee Foothills
Trading Up: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Savvy Realty Group?