DC Ranch is one of the best-known master-planned communities in Scottsdale, Arizona. It has a reputation for offering an upscale, fun, and engaging way of life that is challenging to find anywhere else in the Greater Phoenix area.

It is also a sprawling community that sits just at the foothills of the majestic McDowell Mountains. People who live here enjoy spectacular mountain views right from their front porches.

As a family-oriented community, DC Ranch comprises dozens of neighborhoods, all of which feature the dozens of styles of attached and single-family homes for which the community is well-known. Buyers can find single-family homes in styles like modern, Tuscany, and southwest of Santa Fe. They can also find townhouses and condominiums for sale.

Established real estate agents like Carl Chapman REALTOR and West USA Realty are readily available to show interested buyers the listings in DC Ranch. The prices for homes, which were built between 1998 and 2021, in the community are designed to fit a wide array of home-buying budgets. Agents can also tell buyers more about the many upscale, resort-like amenities that are available to DC Ranch residents throughout the year.

In fact, many of the community amenities are within walking distance of the neighborhoods in DC Ranch. Residents can especially enjoy golfing and other activities at the community's nine-acre indoor/outdoor recreational complex.

Moreover, DC Ranch residents are close to some of the best schools, shopping, businesses, golf, and country clubs, and community centers in Scottsdale. Much of the daily life in DC Ranch is designed to connect residents to nature, particularly the mountains and beautiful desert landscapes that surround the community. The amenities encourage people to get out of their homes and stay fit, active, and engaged with others in their neighborhoods and beyond.

For example, residents can take enjoyment from using the miles of trails and pathways that traverse throughout the community. These paths and trails are open year-round for walking, jogging, hiking, and biking.

Residents of DC Ranch can also find plenty to do at the various community centers located throughout the area. These centers offer a host of classes, social events, athletic programs, and more for residents to enjoy and use as opportunities to stay connected to their neighbors in DC Ranch.

DC Ranch also encourages residents to give back to the community by volunteering and taking part in programs designed to help the needy. Residents can donate supplies and money, take an active role in dispersing goods to the needy, and otherwise do their part to make the area a better place to live. The volunteer opportunities are a part of the DC Ranch Giving Back program that is open to everyone who lives in the community.

Finally, DC Ranch is located just 29 miles northeast of Phoenix and 27 miles from Sky Harbor International Airport. It is close to major thoroughfares like Loop 101 and Arizona State Highway 51.

The convenient location of the DC Ranch is only part of the reason that this community is so popular among Scottsdale home buyers. The homes themselves are likewise designed to offer every comfort and convenience that any homeowner could want.

The homes in DC Ranch are all relatively new, none being built any later than 1998. They also are spacious and offer hundreds, or sometimes even thousands, of square feet of living space.

Buyers can find both attached and single-family homes on the market in DC Ranch. The median sale price for a home in the community is $1.2 million. However, sales prices can range from $370,000 to $27.5 million.

Further, closing prices on homes for sale in DC Ranch can range from $210,000 to $24 million. The typical buyer in DC Ranch pays around $546 per square foot.

Most homeowners in DC Ranch pay around $9800 a year in property taxes. They also pay, on average, $321 a month in homeowners association fees.

Homes for sale in DC Ranch typically sell within 65 days. This sale time is less than it was a year ago when it took homes around 121 days to sell.

Likewise, home prices in DC Ranch have tripled in the last year. Between 30 and 35 homes, each month are sold in the community.

The homes in DC Ranch can have anywhere from one to eight bedrooms. They can also have one to 13 bathrooms and 900 to more than 15,000 square feet of living space. Many homes also have two and three-car garages and sit on quarter to five-acre lots.

The outsides of the homes in DC Ranch typically feature decorative tile rooftops. They also have rock and stone landscaping, covered front terraces, and paved driveways.

The insides of the homes for sale in DC Ranch come with upscale features like:

• Sliding patio doors
• High ceilings
• Floor to ceiling windows
• Recessed lights
• Fireplaces
• Tile floors
• Quartz counters
• Stained wood cabinetry
• Electric ranges
• Kitchen islands
• Walk-in showers
• Garden bathtubs
• Dual vanity bathroom sinks
• Utility rooms with cabinets and counters

Many DC Ranch homes also have gated, enclosed backyards with high privacy fencing. The backyards feature covered paved terraces and large yards. Some also come with in-ground swimming pools.

Life within DC Ranch itself falls under the governance of the community's homeowners association. The HOA actually consists of three separate councils and commissions. It also partners with 10 sub-associations to govern the individual neighborhoods within DC Ranch.

The three governing missions in DC Ranch include the community council, the ranch association, and the covenant commission. The community council is responsible for the vision and facilitation of initiatives that are responsible for improving the quality of life, protecting collective interests, and promoting the DC Ranch brand.

The Ranch association is responsible for managing and protecting the community's environmental and fiscal assets. The covenant commission serves to establish and protect the community's architectural and landscape designs.

These three missions likewise coordinate with the sub-associations that govern the 10 neighborhoods found within DC Ranch. The 10 DC Ranch neighborhoods are:

• The Villas
• The Villas at Desert Park Village
• Courtyards at Market Street
• Village at Market Street
• Villas at Desert Camp
• Columbia
• Tapadero
• The Village at Silverleaf
• Icon at Silverleaf
• Courtyards at Desert Park

Homeowners in DC Ranch can find resident services that are available to them on the main DC Ranch HOA website. The resident services found on the website that are available year-round to them include:

• Security and gate access
• Home and landscape changes
• Standards and guidelines
• Assessments and fees information
• Neighborhood voting members
• Trash and recycling

The DC Ranch website likewise has links on it for contacting the three governing missions. Residents of DC Ranch can also find links for getting involved, selling and renting one's home, and registering tenants who lease homes in the community.

The DC Ranch HOA website is also where residents can find information about all of the amenities that are available throughout the community to all homeowners and renters. They can take advantage of the amenities found at the Village Health Club & Spa, which offers more than 170 group fitness classes and yoga classes and employs nine professional trainers. It also offers:

• Cardio rooms
• Weight training rooms
• Day spas
• Med spas
• Basketball courts
• Fencing rooms
• Golf courses
• Racquetball courts
• Squash courts
• Tennis courts
• Swimming pools
• Triathlon tracks

They can also make use of the amenities found at the Desert Camp Community Center, which offers:

• Fitness rooms
• Locker rooms
• Basketball courts
• Tennis courts
• Pickleball courts
• Built-in courtyards
• Event facilities
• Outdoor heated recreational pools
• Tot pools

The Homestead Community Center in DC Ranch offers amenities like:

• An adventure playground
• Basketball courts
• A community theater
• An oasis water feature
• A commercial kitchen

This community center can be rented for private and public events.

People who live in DC Ranch can enjoy the acres of green space at Desert Spring and Homestead Parks. This park likewise has amenities like:

• Fire pits
• Waterfalls
• Seat walls
• Shaded canopies
• Ramadas

Homestead Park also has a life-sized chessboard.

When not making use of the exercise and recreational facilities at the community centers and parks in DC Ranch, people who live here can join in the many activities and classes that are offered year-round. Some of the community events that are open to all residents and designed to encourage friendship and connection include:

• Food truck nights
• Starlight concert series
• Spotlight speaker series
• Lifelong learning
• Creative arts
• Comedy Night
• Social hours
• Yappy hours
• Moonlight movies

There are also dozens of clubs that are open to residents of all ages. These clubs typically meet at the community centers or local parks. Some of the clubs that are available to DC Ranch residents revolve around pastimes and hobbies like:

• Bridge
• Canasta
• Pickleball
• Art
• Wine tasting
• Women's interests

There are also community youth camps, art classes, and continuing education courses that are routinely made available to DC Ranch residents.

Finally, DC Ranch is part of the Scottsdale Unified Public School District, which is highly ranked and one of the best-performing school districts in the state of Arizona. This district has an enrollment of a little more than 22,000 students. This enrollment allows it to offer a student-to-teacher ratio of 18:1, which is on par with the national student-to-teacher ratio of 16:1.

The Scottsdale Unified Public School District gets a national grade of A for its overall excellence. It gets grades of A in specific areas like academics, teacher quality, and college preparation. It gets a grade of B in areas like clubs and activities, health and safety, and diversity.

In the state of Arizona itself, the Scottsdale Unified School District performs exceedingly well. The state ranks it as the fourth overall best district in Arizona. It also ranks as the fourth-best district for student-athletes with the array of sports programs that it makes available.

It ranks as the seventh-best district in Arizona for the quality of teachers that it employs. State standardized test scores show that more than two-thirds of its students are proficient in critical subjects like mathematics and reading.

The high academic standards carry over into the high school graduation rate that the Scottsdale Unified School District offers. In fact, 93 percent of students in the district graduate successfully from high school. This high percentage rate far exceeds that of the national average high school graduation rate of 85 percent.

Further, high school juniors and seniors who take the college admissions ACT test receive an average score of 28. This ACT test score average shadows that of the national ACT score average, which currently sits at 20.6.

Finally, many of the students who graduate from the Scottsdale Unified School District go on to attend in-school universities and colleges. A majority of them choose to attend nearby Arizona State University, which offers a number of campuses in Phoenix and Scottsdale. Others choose to go to the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University.