Scottsdale was an outpost of barely 2,500 people in the 1930s when America’s most famous architect arrived to establish the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Wright’s Taliesin West in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains set the standard for harmonizing architecture with desert surroundings – the style has been emulated in Scottsdale ever since. Paolo Soleri took Wright’s teachings and blended them with Native American influences to create Consanti, his studio-home, while the Scottsdale Public Library stands as an exceptional example of modern Southwestern architecture.

Wright’s 125-foot spire design was considered too radical for the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, but Scottsdale built it in the early 2000s on East Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard. Old Town Scottsdale showcases examples of traditional Spanish Colonial architecture, like the Old Adobe Mission. The Jokake Inn invokes old and new Scottsdale – built in 1926, the modest adobe guest house was considered the height of desert elegance in its day. Nowadays it can be admired on the grounds of the ultra-posh Phoenician resort.

The real estate market in Scottsdale is typically preceded by one word – luxury. Since the 1990s the run-up in house prices in Scottsdale has been among the highest in the United States. Overall, single family homes still dominate the real estate market with 81,123 potential properties. Multi-family dwellings (275) and apartments (133 properties) are relatively scarce, while the majority of the city’s 34,413 condo units have sprouted in Old Town. Scottsdale's large tourism and service industries take up 2,439 commercial properties with another 2,025 zoned for mixed-use. Light industry occupies 297 properties. The city still has room to expand east and west, so buyers can also scout the inventory of 5,716 vacant lots that remain in Scottsdale.