Living on the Fairway in Phoenix: A Buyer's Guide to Golf Communities

We get asked about golf constantly, especially from clients moving here from out of state. Sometimes it's "which courses are good?" and sometimes it's "can we live on one?" The first question is fun. The second one deserves a little more care, because a golf course home is really two purchases at once: the house, and a long-term relationship with a piece of land next door that you don't own.

So here's what we'd walk a friend through before they write an offer on that patio-overlooking-the-fairway listing. 

1. "Golf home" means three different things here

Before anything else, figure out which one you actually want, because they come with completely different paperwork.

On the course. Your back wall faces a fairway or green. You get the open space and the view, and you also get everything that comes with living next to an active business.

In a golf community. The neighborhood was built around a course, but your home may or may not touch it. Club membership might come with the house, be optional, or have nothing to do with the house at all.

Near the course. You live in a regular neighborhood and drive five minutes to your tee time. Honestly, this is the right answer for a lot of golfers, it's the most flexibility for the least commitment.

None of these is better than the others. They just answer different questions, and it's worth knowing which question you're asking.

2. Know your course types because they behave differently as neighbors

Municipal courses are owned by a city. Public or daily-fee courses are privately owned but open to anyone who books a tee time. Resort courses are tied to a hotel and open to the public. Semi-private clubs sell memberships but also take public tee times. Private clubs are members and guests only.

Here's why this matters for a buyer and not just a golfer: the owner of the course is almost always a separate entity from your HOA, and from you. The fairway behind your house is usually its own parcel, with its own owner and its own business model. Your view depends on that business doing well. Which leads to the most important section in this post.

3. What actually protects the green space behind your house

This is the part out-of-state buyers almost never know to ask about, and it's the one we'd underline twice.

Golf courses in the Valley have closed before, and when they do, the neighbors find out very quickly what legal protection the open space really had.

Arizona does give golf courses a special property tax valuation and to qualify, the course owner has to record a deed restriction limiting the property to golf course use for at least ten years, refiled as needed so it always runs at least ten years out. That sounds like permanent protection. It isn't, quite. That restriction is a covenant between the course owner and the County Assessor, and the consequence for converting the land to another use is a tax penalty on the owner. It's a strong financial incentive to keep the course a course. It's not, by itself, a promise to you.

What protects you is what's recorded for the homeowners' benefit CC&Rs or other restrictions that run with your neighborhood and give homeowners the right to enforce golf course use. The clearest local example is Ahwatukee Lakes. The owner closed that course in 2013, and a developer later tried to build homes on it. Two neighbors whose homes bordered the course sued, and the courts, including the Arizona Court of Appeals in 2019 sided with them, because the course was protected by recorded restrictions that homeowners could enforce. It was a long, expensive fight. It was also winnable only because the right documents existed.

So the questions to ask:

• Who owns the course, and is it healthy? Ownership changes, sales, deferred maintenance, and closure rumors are all worth knowing about before you buy.
• Is there anything recorded that requires the land to stay a golf course and who can enforce it? We'll pull the CC&Rs and recorded documents and have a title professional or attorney weigh in when it matters.
• What happens if the course closes? If the honest answer is "nothing stops it from becoming something else," that doesn't mean don't buy. It means price the view accordingly.

Water is part of the course's health, too. Golf courses in the Phoenix area are regulated by the Arizona Department of Water Resources, which limits how much groundwater a course can use, and those limits have tightened over successive state management plans. Water is one of the biggest line items any desert course carries. A good local example of a course solving for it: Moon Valley Country Club and Lookout Mountain Golf Club partnered with the City of Phoenix on a pipeline to irrigate with raw canal water instead of drinking water. When a course has a durable water plan, that's a very good sign for the homes around it.

4. Does a membership come with the house?

Golf communities here handle this every possible way, and listings don't always make it clear.

• Some communities attach a membership to ownership. At Anthem Golf & Country Club, for example, owners in the country club community become social members when they take title which comes with its own dues, separate from the HOA. Golf privileges are an additional, separate membership.
• Some offer membership as optional. You can join, and you can also just enjoy the neighborhood.
• Some memberships transfer with the home at closing, sometimes with a fee and an equity membership may have value the seller expects to be paid for.
• Some golf communities have no connection to the club at all. The course is a neighbor, not an amenity.

What to get in writing before you're under contract: whether membership is required, optional, or unavailable; the categories offered (full golf, social, sports, seasonal); whether a membership transfers with this specific home; the current initiation, dues, food and beverage minimums, and any recent or planned assessments; and whether there's a waitlist or sponsor requirement. Costs change constantly, so get current numbers straight from the club's membership office not from a listing, and not from a blog, including this one.

5. Living on the fairway: the honest version

We love a fairway lot. Here's the full picture so you can love it with your eyes open.

• Errant golf balls are part of the deal. Some lots catch a lot more than others, depending on which side of the fairway you're on and where the landing zone sits. Stand in the backyard during a busy morning before you commit. Ask your insurance agent how ball damage would be handled, and check how the CC&Rs address it.
• Mowers start early. Course maintenance happens before the first tee time, which in summer means very early.
• Cart paths mean traffic. Some lots back onto a path, and you'll hear every foursome go by.
• Your wall may not be up to you. Golf course homes commonly have rules about view fencing, wall height, and what you can build or plant along the course edge. Read the CC&Rs before you plan the backyard.
• The view changes with the season. Most Valley courses overseed in the fall City of Phoenix courses do it in October, closing for roughly two weeks so expect a stretch where the course is closed and the grass looks rough before the winter rye fills in green.

6. You don't need a club to golf a lot here

This surprises people: some of the best value in Valley golf is the City of Phoenix's own course system, which runs a mix of 18-hole and 9-hole courses, including Cave Creek Golf Course in north Phoenix and Papago in the city's center.

The Phoenix Golf Premium Card gives Maricopa County residents year-round discounted rates at every city course, with a senior version for residents 62 and up. Non-residents can get a standard card good at a subset of the courses. For a lot of households, that card plus a home near a course is the smartest golf setup in town.

7. Our corner of it

We spend most of our time in North Phoenix and the neighborhoods around the preserves, and golf runs right through them.

Moon Valley  is literally built around Moon Valley Country Club, a private club that's been the heart of the neighborhood since the early 1960s. Lookout Mountain Golf Club is a resort-style course along the edge of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve, with the mountain itself as the backdrop. Stonecreek Golf Club is a public course in Paradise Valley Village. Cave Creek Golf Course is the city-run option up north. And Anthem has two courses inside its guard-gated country club community.

Each one is a different kind of neighbor, private club, resort course, daily-fee, municipal, which is exactly why section 2 matters.

8. Before you write an offer, our golf home checklist

1. Which kind of golf home is this, on the course, in a golf community, or near one?
2. Who owns the course, and how is it doing?
3. What's recorded that keeps the course a course, and who can enforce it?
4. Is membership required, optional, transferable, or unavailable and what are today's numbers, from the club itself?
5. What do the CC&Rs say about walls, view fencing, landscaping, and course-edge easements?
6. What's this specific lot like on a weekday morning? Go stand in the backyard.
7. How does your insurance handle golf ball damage?

Let's find your spot near the green

Whether you want the fairway out your back door or just a quick drive to your favorite tee box, we'd love to help you find the version of the golf life that actually fits. Click here to seach available golf community homes when you're ready to look at homes, we'll walk the backyards with you and dig into the paperwork behind the view. We're here for you!

— Jessie & Stephen S&J Real Estate Team | W & Partners