Lakewood · Trading Up
Trading Up in Lakewood
Moving into more house, with the buy-and-sell sequencing worked out before you list.
The house is not the hard part
Trading up in Lakewood usually means one of two things. Either you are already here on an inland street and what you actually want is the water, or you have outgrown a smaller home elsewhere in Ahwatukee and this is where you want to land.
Either way, finding the house is rarely the difficulty. The difficulty is that you have to sell something and buy something, and the order you do them in has real financial consequences.
What you get from me is both sides run as a single plan rather than two transactions that fight each other. One set of dates. One person accountable for how they line up. And a decision about sequencing made with your equity and your financing in front of us, instead of with a rule of thumb somebody repeated to you at a barbecue.
There is a Lakewood-specific wrinkle worth naming early: moving from an inland home to a waterfront one inside the same community is not a like-for-like swap, because waterfront homes carry association rules inland homes do not.
Questions about your move? I'm glad to help.
Both halves of the move, without a handoff
Savvy Realty Group is my practice at HomeSmart, and a trade-up is where having one person on both sides of the move stops being a convenience and starts being the point.
I hold the Certified Listing Specialist designation on the selling side and CEBA on the buyer representation side, which is a fair description of what this move needs. I am also a Six Sigma Green Belt, which sounds out of place on a real estate site until a sale and a purchase drift a week apart and somebody is paying for a rent-back nobody planned. Sequencing is a process problem before it is a market problem.
The volume matters on a move like this because both halves of it need current data. Licensed since 2017, more than 80 transaction sides and over $52 million in career volume. I ranked in the top 5% of HomeSmart in 2025.
And eighteen years living in Ahwatukee, which is what tells me whether the house you are leaving and the house you are buying are really in the same market. Frequently they are not, even when they are four minutes apart, and that changes which one you should move on first.
Two transactions, one calendar
Run separately, a sale and a purchase pull against each other. The listing drifts, the right house appears before you are ready, and the biggest decision of the process gets made under time pressure. Run together, it looks like this.
- The numbers first. Your equity, your financing options, and honestly how much uncertainty you can tolerate for a few weeks. That is what decides buy first or sell first, and it is a different answer for different people.
- The valuation on what you have. Free, with no obligation, and drawn from comparable homes in the right part of the community rather than the zip.
- Preparation on the sale side. The prep walkthrough, my vetted trades for what needs doing, and a complimentary staging consultation. A rushed listing sells for less, and that discount comes straight out of your next house.
- Search running in parallel. Including the association provisions on anything waterfront, read before you write.
- Contingency structure decided deliberately. I will tell you honestly how a contingent offer is likely to be received on a specific property rather than letting you learn by losing it.
- Both closings managed together by me and my transaction coordinator, with a weekly update whether or not anything has happened.
The selling half runs through my full listing process and the buying half through the buying process. More on trading up here, or talk it through with me.
Where the range actually is
Lakewood is built around a man-made lake with greenbelt and walking paths through it, and the meaningful step up inside the community is usually toward the water rather than toward square footage. That is worth knowing because waterfront and inland homes here are not comparables for each other, on price or on terms.
If the step up you want is range rather than water, look wider before you commit. Mountain Park Ranch runs from condominiums and townhomes through to estate parcels inside one master community, with nine sub-associations underneath it, so which parcel a home sits in changes both dues and restrictions. The Foothills holds several distinct markets under one name, including gated pockets at the top end. Foothills Reserve trades flat usable yard for elevation and privacy on hilly terrain.
The community association names Kyrene de los Lagos Elementary, Akimel Middle School and Desert Vista High School, and assignments are worth confirming against the districts' current boundary maps for any specific address rather than assuming they follow the community line.
What Lakewood keeps that those do not is flat, walkable ground with water and green space at the center of it. If that is the reason you are here, moving up within the community is usually the better answer than moving out of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I sell my Lakewood home 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 paths carry genuinely different risks and yours is a numbers question we can actually work out before anything is listed.
Is moving from an inland home to a waterfront one in Lakewood a straight swap?
No. Homes directly on the water carry their own association rules that inland homes in the same community do not, including watercraft registration. It is a different purchase on different terms, and I read the provisions with you before you write.
What if my home sells faster than I expected?
That is a good problem and we plan for it at the start rather than reacting to it. Rent-back arrangements and close-date negotiation are both normal tools, and they work far better when they were part of the plan than when they are a rescue.
Lakewood
What trading up looks like in Lakewood
Built around its lake, with greenbelt and walking paths through it.
One of the Ahwatukee communities I work most often.
- The homes
- A lake-centred community with man-made water at its heart. Homes directly on the water carry their own set of association rules, including watercraft registration, that inland homes in the same community do not.
- Why people choose it
- Buyers who want water and green space as part of daily life rather than a drive away.
- Schools people ask about
- The community association has long named Kyrene de los Lagos Elementary, Akimel Middle School and Desert Vista High School. Kyrene de los Lagos is now a dual-language open-enrollment school rather than the assigned neighborhood school, and the Kyrene district is redrawing its boundaries for 2026-27 and again for 2027-28, so check the district's current maps for any specific address.
- Getting around
- Chandler Boulevard is the northern edge and the Loop 202 the southern one. Lakewood Parkway runs as a loop through the community, with 40th Street on its east side and 32nd Street on its west, and either street gets you to the 202 in two to five minutes.
- Nearby
- The lake itself, the greenbelt and the walking paths running through the community.
- The trade-off
- You are choosing water and greenbelt over the elevation and mountain proximity you would get in the Foothills communities. A lakefront lot also comes with rules an inland lot does not.
Lakewood
The associations in Lakewood
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
- Lakewood Community Association Governs the two lakes and their four boat docks, the ramadas, tot lots and the path network.
Dues and rules change, and which documents apply can depend on the parcel. Confirm both against the association before you write an offer.
Trading Up: keep exploring
Ready to make your move with Savvy Realty Group?