McCormick Ranch HOA Fees: Understand the Full Cost of Ownership

One listing says $265 a year. The resale disclosure packet on the same house says $612 a month. Both numbers are accurate. Both describe the same address in McCormick Ranch. Neither one, by itself, tells you what you're actually signing up for.

The difference reflects McCormick Ranch's layered association structure. Reviewing the fees that apply to a specific property can help buyers compare costs.

One Name, Sixty-Seven Realities

McCormick Ranch reads on paper like a single, cohesive Scottsdale community: one name, one greenbelt, one set of lakes. It started that way, more or less. Anne and Fowler McCormick ran the land as an Arabian horse breeding operation through the mid-1900s, and when the ranch was sold to a developer in 1970, it became one of the first master-planned communities in the Valley. Over the following decade, that master plan was subdivided into more than sixty different subdivisions, each platted, built, and governed a little differently.

The master association that resulted, the McCormick Ranch Property Owners' Association, is the one every home shares. MRPOA's 2026 assessment is $265 a year, and that fee covers the commons: the lakes, the greenbelt corridor, architectural review at the master level. It is a real number, and it is the number that ends up printed on the listing sheet, because it is the only fee that applies uniformly across a community with dozens of different local rulebooks underneath it.

Costs and controls that vary by property—including exterior paint approval, front-yard maintenance, gate access, and roofing reserves—are handled one layer down by the sub-association for that address. Fees and responsibilities vary among those associations.

How Sub-HOA Fees Vary

Detached-home subdivisions with no shared exterior maintenance, like Paseo Village, run close to the master fee alone, often around $200 a year on top of MRPOA. Gated patio-home communities such as Las Palomas typically run $580 to $720 a month, because that fee is doing real work: front-yard landscaping, gate maintenance, exterior paint cycles. Condo communities like Belcara land in a similar range, often $410 to $685 a month, covering building insurance, roofing reserves, and pool service.

The highest figure shown here is roughly forty-three times the lowest annualized sub-HOA figure, in addition to the $265 master fee. To estimate annual carrying costs, include any applicable sub-HOA dues as well as the master fee.

How Subdivision Mix Affects the Community Median

Subdivision-level differences also shape how useful the community-wide median is. Because McCormick Ranch is marketed and searched as one neighborhood, it gets one median price, and as of August 2026 that figure sits close to $995,000. That figure blends sales across four distinct price tiers under one neighborhood name: entry-level attached homes in subdivisions like Belcara and La Mariposa running roughly $345,000 to $700,000, core single-family inventory in Estados de la Mancha and Tierra Feliz around $750,000 to $1.4 million, an upper tier of lake-adjacent and golf-frontage homes from $1.4 million to $2.5 million, and waterfront estates above $2.5 million.

A buyer comparing McCormick Ranch to another Scottsdale community by median price alone is comparing a figure blended across four markets with that other neighborhood's figure, so the comparison may omit subdivision-level detail relevant to the decision.

How Frontage Relates to Home Prices

Frontage is another factor to consider when comparing home prices. Lakefront and golf-course frontage in McCormick Ranch carry a real premium, generally 12 to 25 percent over comparable homes without that frontage, and it is a premium that doesn't show up clearly in listing photos or standard search filters. Two three-bedroom homes of similar square footage, one backing Comanche Park and one backing Lake Marguerite, can be worlds apart on price even though both are filed under the same neighborhood name and often the same price-per-square-foot averages.

This isn't unique to McCormick Ranch as a concept, but the sixty-seven-subdivision structure makes it more consequential here than in a smaller, more uniform community. The comp set that matters is never "McCormick Ranch." It's the specific subdivision, and sometimes the specific street.

How Association Rules Affect a Purchase

The layered-governance pattern also affects the purchase process. Approval requirements can vary by subdivision, so buyers should confirm which rules apply to a specific property.

Any exterior change, a new patio cover, a landscaping redesign, a paint color, needs MRPOA approval at the master level. If your subdivision has its own sub-association, and most do, the review process may involve another layer. Buyers used to a single-HOA process elsewhere sometimes don't realize that until they're mid-renovation.

Rental plans also depend on the applicable association rules. MRPOA's rules restrict stays under thirty days regardless of what the City of Scottsdale otherwise permits, so an investor who checks the city's short-term rental licensing rules and stops there is missing the association-level restriction that actually governs the property. If a short-term hold is part of your plan for a McCormick Ranch purchase, that's a conversation to have with the specific sub-association before you write an offer, not after.

For context on how much a master fee alone can vary by community, and how little that number tells you about total cost, nearby Scottsdale Ranch's master association charges $463 a year, nearly double MRPOA's rate. Compare total association costs rather than the master fee alone.

Three Things to Ask For Before You Compare Anything

If you're weighing a McCormick Ranch home against another Scottsdale neighborhood, the community median and the master HOA fee are useful starting points, but neither necessarily captures the specific property's price and total association costs. Before you compare, ask for:

1. The exact subdivision name and its specific sub-association, not just confirmation that MRPOA applies.
2. Closed sales from that subdivision over the last twelve months, not the community-wide median.
3. Written confirmation of the sub-association's rental minimum and architectural review process, since both can be stricter than the master association's baseline.

Those three things will tell you more about what you're actually buying than anything on the listing sheet.

A Few Honest Answers

Is the $265 MRPOA fee the only HOA cost in McCormick Ranch? No. It's the shared master fee. Most homes also fall under a subdivision-level sub-association with its own separate dues, and for condos and gated patio homes, that second fee is usually the larger of the two.

Does every subdivision have a sub-association? No. Some, mostly detached single-family sections, have no meaningful sub-association layer beyond MRPOA. Others, particularly condos and gated patio communities, have both.

Why can the community median price shift from month to month? Because it is a median across sales from four price tiers, and the mix of what sold in a given month can shift the median even when no individual subdivision's pricing has changed.

McCormick Ranch rewards the buyer who treats it as sixty-seven small decisions rather than one big one. If you're comparing it to another Scottsdale neighborhood and want the subdivision-level numbers that actually apply to your search, Kristi Newman can walk through the specific sub-associations, fee schedules, and comps that fit what you're looking for. Schedule a free consultation and let's find the right fit inside McCormick Ranch, not just the right median.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.