By Jessica Flint | Wall Street Journal
In central Arizona, tucked between Phoenix and Scottsdale in the Sonoran Desert, is Paradise Valley, a roughly 15-square-mile town where palatial houses with varying architectural styles have big views of Camelback Mountain and the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. Millionaires from across the U.S. moved here during the Covid-19 pandemic—and have stayed. “It’s a different world here now,” says Cheryl Anderson, a real-estate agent with Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty. “Real-estate prices have gone crazy.” Today, Paradise Valley’s 85253 ZIP Code has the country’s priciest desert residential real estate as ranked by median listing price, at $5.05 million in January 2024, according to Realtor.com. (
News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, also operates Realtor.com.) Residents appreciate the warm weather, low taxes and large lots—typically an acre or more—that offer privacy in nature within proximity to the U.S.’s fifth largest metropolitan area.
