Rockridge

Rockridge sits on the lower slopes of Mars Hill, west of downtown and next to Coconino Estates, with Lowell Observatory on the hill above. The MLS groups it with Ridge Crest as one area, and sales there come from several small subdivisions: Malpais Estates on Boulder, Basalt and Lava Lanes, Rockridge West on Conifer Road and West Beal Road, Kachina Estates on North Aztec Street, and acreage on Kittredge Road and Tolchaco Road. Homes range from late-1960s houses to custom homes built in the early 2000s.

Rockridge is for buyers who want an established hillside neighborhood a few minutes from downtown, often without an HOA. Because it is several subdivisions under one name, we look at which one a home is in, since lot size, roads and rules change from street to street.

Because fewer than ten homes sold here in the last twelve months, these figures cover the last three years. The MLS shows 10 single-family closings, 3 of them in the last twelve months, between $796,000 and $1,690,000, with a median of $1,274,500 and the middle half between about $1,001,000 and $1,413,000. The typical home was about 2,820 square feet on about 16,700 square feet of land, built around 1984. Median days on market was about 56. Only the Rockridge West sales carried HOA dues, $260 to $286 a year.

Mars Hill is home to Lowell Observatory, and a listing on Kittredge Road describes the neighborhood as just above Coconino Estates near the Flagstaff Urban Trail System. Fort Valley Road leads north to the Museum of Northern Arizona and Arizona Snowbowl, and Thorpe Park, with its trails and ball fields, is nearby. Ridge Crest, the other half of the MLS area's name, is acreage on Venus Drive at the north end of Mars Hill; the Census Bureau's geocoder places two Venus Drive addresses outside city limits, and one listing there showed a well and a private road.