Yesterday several real estate bloggers from the Phoenix are met for lunch at Rock Bottom at Desert Ridge, an open-air retail center in north Phoenix on the border of Scottsdale. Given my recent writings about Scottsdale, I didn’t think it would be prudent for me to cross the border.

Still, the Scottsdale cabal was waiting for me and I narrowly escaped from being beaten with Prada bags and tassled shoes.

Steve Belt was the first to answer my claims of Scottsdale being overrated. I was all set to respond in the comments, but we on the west side keep it real. We don’t forget where we come from (even if I was raised in the East Valley.) So in true east-west rap fashion, I’m posting my response here. Hit ‘Em Up it ain’t, but this is a family show.

(And I can virtually guarantee that none of the Scottsdale crowd knows what the above paragraph means.)

1) Steve talks about the appreciation in Scottsdale’s median home price. Here, I don’t have a thing to argue with him. So take that.

(Pathetic, Dalton … must get tougher.)

2) Scottsdale students and schools do perform well. So do those in the Peoria and Deer Valley districts, among others.

3) Scottsdale has a tremendous greenbelt, if you can get through traffic on Scottsdale road to access it.

4) Give me Arrowhead Ranch. Newer, also holds its value well, molded around two golf courses and modeled a bit after McCormack Ranch. All for a couple of hundred thousand dollars less.

5) Resort visitors = more traffic. And The Wigwam ain’t too shabby, for that matter.

6) I’ll give you the art galleries (though others exist in this town, including the West Valley Art Museum) but I’m not conceding the clubs. Maybe that’s because I’m just too old for that kinda thing.

7) Glendale is the host of the Fiesta Bowl every year, the BCS Championship Game every four and this year hosted the Super Bowl. We also have two NASCAR races a year, which is worth mentioning since they draw six-figure crowds as well.

See above.

Special bonus - we have a Margaritaville and Scottsdale doesn’t.

Overall, my point isn’t to denigrate Scottsdale because that’s all but impossible to do. But I do want to open folks’ eyes to the wider Phoenix real estate market. There are multiple other options at a significantly lower percentage of the cost. Scottsdale or Bust may not be the best strategy for someone looking for a home in the Valley.

Yes, you can purchase something turnkey in Scottsdale where you can lock the door when you leave to return to wherever it is from which you hail. But you can do that here in the West Valley just as easily, just for less.

Come for the price, stay for the value.

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Last week I had the opportunity to sit down with some folks with HIFX, one of the largest currency exchange firms around. They’ve got some interesting tools that should help Canadian buyers looking for real estate down here in the states, particularly in the Phoenix real estate market, and I’ll be adding those over the next day or so.

You also may have noticed the middle tab with the maple leaf - any of the information here that may be of interest to Canadians buying Arizona real estate is ending up in a separate category and can be accessed through that tab.

There will be more complete information as we go but here’s one brief point mentioned last week … HIFX is anticipating the Canadian dollar to hold its strength against the U.S. dollar into 2009. There may be minor fluctuations, like the 3-cent swing a couple of weeks ago that lifted the American dollar above the Canadian for the first time in many months, but near-parity is the expectation for a while to come.

Technorati Tags: Phoenix real estate, Canadian buyers Arizona real estate

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