Take Interstate 10 north out of central Tucson, exit at Tangerine Road, and drive west until the road climbs into the Tortolita foothills. The saguaros get taller, the lots get bigger, the road grade tilts up, and the mountains pull right up against the windshield. That is Dove Mountain — a 6,200-plus-acre master-planned community in northwest Marana that has been quietly shaped over four decades by Cottonwood Properties and the late George and David Mehl. Per the Town of Marana's spring 2026 development update, the official Dove Mountain community pages, the Cottonwood Properties company history, and the Discover Marana directory, Dove Mountain has now crossed into its final residential build-out window: most remaining homesites are scheduled to be delivered over the next twelve to twenty-four months, Pulte and Mattamy Homes are actively selling new product in Saguaro Reserve and Saguaro Reserve II, and the Regional Transportation Authority's Tangerine Road widening is on track to wrap its current phase this fall. Here is a fully sourced May 10, 2026 high-growth-area walk-through for Tucson buyers, Marana residents, and relocators evaluating the northwest metro. 6,200+ — Acres in the Dove Mountain master-plan. ~5,000 — Planned homes at full build-out. $588K — Median Dove Mountain sale price, last 12 months. 27.8% — Marana population growth since 2020 census From the T Bench Bar Ranch to a 6,200-Acre Master-Plan Per the Cottonwood Properties company history, the official Dove Mountain property-history page, the Arizona Daily Star (tucson.com), and the Southern Arizona Leadership Council biography of David Mehl, the land that is now Dove Mountain was first homesteaded in 1926 by Eugene 'Cush' Cayton, a Missouri transplant who had moved to Tucson for his health and on a local surveyor's advice bought a piece of Ruelas Canyon at the southern edge of the Tortolita Mountains. Cayton ran the T Bench Bar Ranch on that land until 1984. The following year, Tucson developers David Mehl and his late brother George — fresh off helping shape La Paloma in the central Catalina Foothills — acquired the original Cayton parcel through their family-owned Cottonwood Properties. Over the next fifteen years the Mehls expanded their holdings to more than 6,000 acres of contiguous Tortolita-foothill land, and Dove Mountain itself was launched as a master-planned community in the late 1990s. Today the master-plan covers a publicly cited 6,200-plus acres, with approximately 5,000 homes planned at full build-out across roughly fifteen distinctive subdivisions ranging from gated luxury enclaves on the ridgelines to mid-priced single-family neighborhoods nearer the Tangerine Road corridor. What's Actively Selling Right Now Saguaro Reserve at Dove Mountain — Pulte Homes (New Construction, Single-Story, Gated, 85658): Pulte's gated single-story new-construction community at 7735 W. Goji Berry Lane, Marana 85658, with floor plans ranging from approximately 1,841 to 2,582 square feet. Per Pulte's community page, Redfin's community profile, and Zillow's community listing, posted base prices have ranged from roughly $419,990 to $503,990 in spring 2026, with quick-delivery inventory typically priced toward the upper end of that band. Saguaro Reserve II — Mattamy Homes (New Construction, Gated, Mountain Views, 85658): Mattamy Homes's newest Dove Mountain neighborhood — a gated community of single-family homes that, per Mattamy's Saguaro Reserve II community page and Redfin's community profile, is positioned with Tortolita and Tucson Mountain views. The community is the second Saguaro Reserve product to come online in this corner of Dove Mountain and is one of the last large new-build offerings inside the master-plan footprint. Fairfield Homes at Dove Mountain (Luxury, From $799,900, Custom Touches): Per Fairfield Homes's Dove Mountain community page and Newhomesource, Fairfield Homes is selling a luxury product line at Dove Mountain with starting prices reported in the high $700,000s and rising into seven figures depending on plan, lot, and elevation. Fairfield's positioning sits between the entry-level Pulte/Mattamy product near Tangerine and the resort-adjacent custom-home sites further up the hill. The Highlands & Custom Sites Near the Ritz (Custom, Gated, Ridgeline Views, Resort-Adjacent): Per the official Dove Mountain new-homes page and Cottonwood Properties' Dove Mountain community page, a smaller inventory of custom-home homesites and resale activity continues in the upper-elevation neighborhoods nearest The Gallery Golf Club, The Golf Club at Dove Mountain, and The Ritz-Carlton Residences. Pricing in these enclaves typically tracks well into seven figures, with premiums for ridgeline orientation and golf frontage. The Resort Anchors: Ritz-Carlton and Two Golf Clubs Per The Ritz-Carlton's own property page, the W.E. O'Neil Construction project profile, the Dove Mountain history pages, and Wikipedia's Dove Mountain entry, The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain opened on December 18, 2009 as a five-story, 227-guestroom luxury resort with 26 detached casitas at 15000 N. Secret Springs Drive in Marana 85658. The resort is the largest Ritz-Carlton-branded development in the continental United States and was built in collaboration with Cottonwood Properties of Tucson and Greenbrier Southwest Corporation of Scottsdale. The resort sits on a 27-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course operated as The Golf Club at Dove Mountain, which together with the separately operated Gallery Golf Club makes up The Clubs of Dove Mountain. The Gallery hosted the WGC Match Play Championship from 2009 through 2014 and is one of two golf clubs that residents commonly cite as a daily-life amenity. For relocation buyers, the practical read is that Dove Mountain is one of the few master-planned communities in the Tucson metro where a Forbes Five-Star resort, two championship golf clubs, and the trailhead for a federally-recognized public trail system all sit inside the community footprint. Trails: 29 Miles in the Tortolita Mountain System Per Discover Marana's directory listing for the Tortolita Mountain Trail System, the Town of Marana parks-and-recreation trails page, American Trails' Wild Burro Trail entry, and AllTrails' Wild Burro Loop profile, the Tortolita Mountain Trail System runs ten named trails for a combined twenty-nine miles along the ridgelines and canyons immediately above Dove Mountain. The main public trailhead — the Wild Burro Trailhead at 14810 N. Secret Springs Drive in Marana 85658 — was completed in 2012 and offers a stabilized 40-space parking lot, a shaded ramada, restrooms, drinking fountains, and benches. Hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians share the system. Inside the master-plan, the Town and Cottonwood Properties additionally cite roughly sixty miles of internal community trails connecting the residential subdivisions to the Wild Burro Trailhead, and the Ritz-Carlton Residences's amenities pages describe approximately forty-five miles of those trails as accessible from the Residences trailhead. For buyers cross-shopping Dove Mountain against other northwest Tucson communities, this trail network is one of the more concrete daily-use distinctions between this master-plan and a conventional Marana subdivision. Schools: Dove Mountain CSTEM K-8 and Marana Unified Per the Marana Unified School District, U.S. News Education's K-12 profile, GreatSchools, and Niche, the Dove Mountain CSTEM K-8 school at 5650 W. Moore Road in Marana 85658 serves the master-plan as the in-community public school. The school operates a Computer Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (CSTEM) curriculum across all PreK-through-eighth grades and reports a current enrollment of approximately 938 students. Per most-recent published Arizona Department of Education data summarized by U.S. News, fifty-six percent of Dove Mountain CSTEM K-8 students score at or above proficient in math and sixty-four percent score at or above proficient in reading — both above the broader district averages. Marana Unified's Mountain View High School at 3901 W. Linda Vista Boulevard is the assigned high school for the master-plan and is a comprehensive A-rated comprehensive 9-12 campus. Ironwood Elementary and Tortolita Middle School also serve portions of the wider Dove Mountain area depending on subdivision. The takeaway for relocation buyers prioritizing public-school access: the in-community CSTEM K-8 means most Dove Mountain residents do not need to leave the master-plan footprint for primary or middle school. Why Dove Mountain shows up on the high-growth-area list in 2026: Per the Town of Marana's official 2026 Development Update, Dove Mountain is now described as 'one of the town's largest residential developments, entering its final phase, with most homes expected to be completed within the next year.' That positioning — a near-finished, amenity-rich master-plan — is structurally different from the early-build status of newer Marana communities like Mandarina or Tortolita Shadows, and it is a meaningful detail for buyers calibrating between 'buy now in a built-out community' and 'buy ahead of an amenity ramp.' What the Numbers Say in Spring 2026 Per market data aggregated on Redfin, Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com, Compass, and Movoto for Dove Mountain and the surrounding 85658 zip code, the Dove Mountain median sale price over the trailing twelve months is approximately $588,353, up about three percent year-over-year, with active inventory split between resale single-family product in the $400,000s to $700,000s, new-construction product from Pulte and Mattamy in the low $400,000s to mid $500,000s, Fairfield's luxury line from $799,900, and custom-home and resort-adjacent inventory pricing well into seven figures. Newhomesource currently shows nineteen quick-delivery homes available across the active Dove Mountain communities. For metro-wide context, Redfin's Tucson dashboard reports a March 2026 metro median sale price near $325,000 (Zillow) or $310,000–$365,000 depending on data source and methodology, with a 4.7-month inventory and average market time of roughly 79 to 82 days. The directional read is consistent across data providers: Dove Mountain prices typically run well above the broader Tucson metro median and slightly above the broader Marana 85653/85658 median, which is what buyers should expect from a foothills, golf-and-resort-oriented master-plan. What's Changing in the Next Twelve Months Three projects on the immediate Dove Mountain access map are worth tracking through 2026 and 2027. First, the Tangerine Road widening: per the Regional Transportation Authority of Pima County and the Town of Marana's traffic-alerts page for the Tangerine Road and Interstate 10 interchange, the current phase of the ten-mile Tangerine corridor improvement — extending east toward La Cañada Drive in Oro Valley — is on schedule to wrap in the fall of 2026. The third and final phase, running from Marana Tech Drive to Dove Mountain Boulevard, is now in design. The cumulative effect for Dove Mountain residents will be a wider, flatter, less flood-prone Tangerine with a separated bike path connecting the master-plan to Oro Valley and The Loop. Second, the Walmart at Crossroads at Gladden: per Real Estate Daily News and Inside Tucson Business, Walmart Stores Inc. closed on a 28.14-acre site at the I-10 and Tangerine interchange on December 18, 2025 for $9.78 million in cash, with a 176,000-square-foot store and fueling stations now in entitlement, expected to add a major daily-needs anchor within roughly a ten-minute drive of Dove Mountain. Third, the master-plan's own final-phase delivery: per the Town of Marana's 2026 Development Update, most of Dove Mountain's remaining residential lots are scheduled for completion over the next year, which will close out the build-out window and shift the community's market dynamic toward predominantly resale activity from 2027 onward. Why This Matters for Buyers and Relocators Two takeaways from the spring 2026 picture. First, build-out timing: a buyer considering Dove Mountain in 2026 is buying near the end of the master-plan's new-construction window. That has trade-offs in both directions — the upside is mature streetscape, finished trails, an open Ritz-Carlton, working golf clubs, and a CSTEM K-8 school already in operation; the trade-off is that the window for buying brand-new product directly from a national homebuilder is closing. Second, the Tangerine Road project: when the current phase wraps this fall and the third phase ultimately delivers, the daily-drive math from Dove Mountain to I-10, Oro Valley, and central Marana changes meaningfully. For a buyer evaluating Dove Mountain against Oro Valley's Stone Canyon, La Reserve, or Sun City Vistoso, against Catalina Foothills resale, or against the newer Marana communities along the I-10 frontage, the differentiators are: the foothills setting, the in-community resort and golf, the trail network, the CSTEM K-8 school, and the fact that the master-plan is structurally near-complete rather than just getting started. For sellers already inside Dove Mountain, the build-out timing is a current, factual market-condition update worth being aware of when discussing comparable sales and the broader story being told to incoming northwest-Tucson buyers. Quick reference: Dove Mountain, master-planned community in Marana, AZ 85658. 6,200-plus acres, approximately 5,000 homes planned, developed by Cottonwood Properties (David Mehl). Anchored by The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain (15000 N. Secret Springs Dr., opened December 18, 2009), The Clubs of Dove Mountain (27-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature plus The Gallery Golf Club), Dove Mountain CSTEM K-8 (5650 W. Moore Rd., ~938 students), and the Wild Burro Trailhead (14810 N. Secret Springs Dr.) into the 29-mile Tortolita Mountain Trail System. Active builders in spring 2026: Pulte (Saguaro Reserve), Mattamy (Saguaro Reserve II), and Fairfield Homes. Trailing-twelve-month median sale price approximately $588,000; new-construction base prices from roughly $419,990. Tangerine Road Phase 2 widening targeted for fall 2026 completion; Phase 3 to Dove Mountain Boulevard in design. Sources Town of Marana — 2026 Marana Development Update (maranaaz.gov/Newsroom-Entries/2026/Marana-Development-Update), on Dove Mountain entering its final phase with most homes expected within the next year, the Tangerine Road widening status, and broader town development pipeline. Town of Marana — Growth FAQ (maranaaz.gov/Departments/Economic-Development-and-Tourism/Growth-FAQ) and Tangerine Road and Interchange Improvements traffic-alerts page (maranaaz.gov/Departments/Public-Works/Traffic-Alerts/Tangerine-Road-and-Interchange-Improvements). Regional Transportation Authority of Pima County — "Work continues on west end of Tangerine Road project to upgrade 10-mile corridor improvement" (rtamobility.com), on the ten-mile corridor scope and the Marana-to-Oro-Valley bike-path connection. Cottonwood Properties — Company History and Dove Mountain community pages (cottonwoodproperties.com), on David and George Mehl, the 1985 acquisition of the original Cayton parcel, and the eventual 6,000-plus-acre assembly. Dove Mountain — official site (dovemountain.com), Property History page, Developer page, New Homes page, School page, and the 'Marana's Dove Mountain Community' article. Wikipedia — Dove Mountain entry (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_Mountain) for the publicly cited 6,200-acre and ~5,000-home figures and the largest-Ritz-Carlton-in-continental-US descriptor. The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain — official property page (ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/tusrz-the-ritz-carlton-dove-mountain) and W.E. O'Neil Construction project profile (weoneil.com), on the December 18, 2009 opening, 227 guestrooms plus 26 casitas, and the Cottonwood Properties / Greenbrier Southwest collaboration. The Clubs of Dove Mountain — Golf Club at Dove Mountain pages (clubsofdovemountain.com) on the 27-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature course. The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Dove Mountain — amenities, history, and Wild Burro Trail guide pages (theresidencesdovemountain.com). Discover Marana — Tortolita Mountain Trail System and The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain directory listings (discovermarana.org), on the trail system's 10 trails / 29 miles, the 2012-completed Wild Burro Trailhead, and resort context. American Trails — Wild Burro Trail, Arizona profile (americantrails.org). AllTrails — Wild Burro and Alamo Springs Loop profile (alltrails.com). Marana Unified School District — Dove Mountain CSTEM K-8 page (dovemountain.maranausd.org); U.S. News Education K-12 profile (usnews.com), GreatSchools (greatschools.org), and Niche (niche.com), on enrollment, CSTEM curriculum, and proficiency rates. Pulte Homes — Saguaro Reserve at Dove Mountain community page (pulte.com/homes/arizona/tucson/marana/saguaro-reserve-at-dove-mountain-210997) and Redfin community profile (redfin.com/AZ/Marana/Saguaro-Reserve-at-Dove-Mountain/community/29452), on plans, footprints, and posted base pricing from approximately $419,990 to $503,990. Mattamy Homes — Saguaro Reserve II community page (mattamyhomes.com/arizona/tucson/marana/saguaro-reserve-ii-3500s) and Redfin community profile (redfin.com/AZ/Marana/Saguaro-Reserve-II/community/13110566). Fairfield Homes — Dove Mountain community page (fairfieldhomes.com/subdivision/fairfield-homes-at-dove-mountain) and Newhomesource community profile. Real Estate Daily News — "Walmart Closes on Site for 176,000 SF Building at Crossroads at Gladden in Marana" (realestatedaily-news.com), on the December 18, 2025 closing for $9.78 million and 28.14-acre site detail. Inside Tucson Business and Tucson.com — supplemental coverage of Marana's residential and commercial pipeline. World Population Review — Marana, Arizona 2026 population estimate of 67,257, up 27.8 percent from the 2020 census base of 52,626 (worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/arizona/marana). Real estate market context drawn from publicly available aggregator dashboards on Redfin, Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com, Compass, Movoto, and Realtytrac for Dove Mountain and the 85658 zip code, plus Redfin's Tucson metro housing-market dashboard for March 2026 (median sale price near $325,000 per Zillow, $310,000–$365,000 across providers). MLSSAZ / MLS of Southern Arizona — March 2026 metro-wide statistics for additional context (tucsonrealtors.org/mlssaz-statistics). All data current as of May 10, 2026. This post is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase real estate.