Is the Village of Oak Creek Considered Part of Sedona AZ and How Does Living There Compare to Living in Uptown or West Sedona

The short answer is no. The Village of Oak Creek, also known by its official Yavapai County designation of Big Park, is an unincorporated community located in Yavapai County, roughly six miles south of the Sedona city limits along State Route 179. It has its own zip code (86351) separate from Sedona's primary zip codes of 86336 and 86351 overlaps exist, which adds to the confusion, but administratively the Village sits outside the incorporated boundaries of the City of Sedona.

What the Maps and Mailing Addresses Show

Mailing addresses in the Village of Oak Creek typically read "Sedona, AZ 86351," which is the single biggest reason buyers and renters assume they are moving into Sedona proper. The U.S. Postal Service assigned Sedona as the mailing city for this area decades ago, and that convention stuck. But the mailing city on an envelope has nothing to do with municipal governance, zoning authority, or which county collects your property taxes.

The Village falls entirely within Yavapai County jurisdiction. Sedona itself is a split-county city: the northern portion of Sedona, including Uptown, sits in Coconino County, while the western portion of the city, including West Sedona, sits in Yavapai County. This means the Village of Oak Creek and West Sedona share the same county government, even though West Sedona is inside the city limits and the Village is not. For buyers, this distinction affects everything from building permits to annexation risk to the specific tax rates applied to your property.

Why the Confusion Exists

The Village of Oak Creek shares Sedona's most iconic red rock backdrop. Cathedral Rock, one of the most photographed formations in Arizona, sits directly adjacent to the Village. Tlaquepaque Arts and Shopping Village is a few miles north on SR 179, and the entire SR 179 corridor from the Village through the Uptown Y-intersection is marketed regionally as the "Red Rock Scenic Byway." When visitors and newcomers drive that corridor, there is no obvious sign telling them they have crossed into or out of Sedona. The landscape is continuous, the architecture feels similar, and the tourist economy overlaps.

Real estate listings in the Village are frequently marketed as "Sedona area" or even simply "Sedona" in headline copy, which compounds the confusion for out-of-state buyers doing online research. If you are relocating and searching online, it pays to look at the actual parcel address and county records rather than the listing headline alone.

2. Housing Stock and Price Ranges: Village of Oak Creek vs Uptown and West Sedona

Each of these three areas has a distinct housing character, price floor, and lot profile. Understanding those differences is the fastest way to narrow your search before you ever set foot on a property. For a broader look at what buying here involves from start to finish, the guide on buying a home in Sedona, AZ covers the full process, costs, and timeline.

What Homes Look Like in the Village of Oak Creek

The Village of Oak Creek has the broadest mix of housing types of the three areas. You will find single-family homes on quarter-acre to half-acre lots, townhomes, condominiums, and a significant number of golf-course-adjacent properties surrounding the Sedona Golf Resort, an 18-hole course designed by Gary Panks that opened in 1988 and sits at roughly 3,900 feet elevation. Subdivisions like Foothills South, Bell Rock Vista, and Pinnacle Point offer detached homes with red rock views at price points that generally run below comparable square footage in Uptown or West Sedona.

As of September 2026, median home prices in the Village of Oak Creek are tracking in the range of $650,000 to $800,000 for single-family detached properties, though entry-level condos can be found in the $350,000 to $450,000 range and luxury homes with sweeping Cathedral Rock or Bell Rock views push well past $1.5 million. The Village also has a higher concentration of short-term rental properties than most parts of the Sedona area, which affects both availability and the character of certain streets and subdivisions.

For a detailed look at what HOA fees look like across these communities, the article on HOA fees in Sedona AZ communities is worth reading before you make any offers, since HOA presence in the Village is common and the monthly costs vary considerably by subdivision.

What Homes Look Like in Uptown Sedona

Uptown Sedona sits at the northern end of SR 179 where it meets SR 89A, at roughly 4,350 feet elevation. This is the commercial and tourist heart of the city, and residential properties here are woven in between galleries, restaurants, jeep tour operators, and the trailheads for Marg's Draw and Soldier Pass. The housing stock leans toward older builds from the 1970s and 1980s on smaller lots, with a scattering of newer infill construction and remodeled properties commanding significant premiums.

Median single-family prices in the Uptown corridor as of September 2026 are generally in the $750,000 to $950,000 range, with properties directly on or near Jordan Road or with unobstructed Schnebly Hill or Coffee Pot Rock views crossing the $1 million threshold with regularity. Lot sizes in Uptown tend to be smaller than in the Village, often in the 6,000 to 10,000 square foot range, and the density of tourism activity means foot traffic and noise are part of the daily environment.

What Homes Look Like in West Sedona

West Sedona stretches along SR 89A from the Uptown Y-intersection westward toward Cottonwood, covering a wide band of residential neighborhoods including Andante, Mystic Hills, Sedona Shadows, and the areas around Dry Creek Road and Long Canyon Road. Elevations here range from about 4,300 to 4,600 feet. This is where the largest share of full-time Sedona residents actually live, and the housing stock reflects that: more single-family homes on larger lots, more established neighborhoods with mature landscaping, and a lower concentration of vacation rentals compared to the Village or Uptown.

West Sedona median single-family prices as of September 2026 sit broadly in the $700,000 to $900,000 range, though the Dry Creek and Long Canyon corridors, with their proximity to Secret Canyon and Boynton Canyon trailheads, push into the $1.2 million to $2 million-plus range for newer or view-oriented properties. Lot sizes here are often a quarter acre to a full acre, giving West Sedona a more spacious feel than Uptown.

3. Commute, Access, and Getting Around Each Area

Where you live in relation to SR 179 and SR 89A shapes your daily drive more than almost any other factor. Traffic on both corridors can be significant during peak tourist season, which in Sedona runs from late September through mid-May and spikes again in the summer monsoon months when day-trippers pour in from Phoenix.

Driving Times Between the Three Areas

From the Village of Oak Creek to the Uptown Y-intersection is approximately 7 miles via SR 179, a drive that takes 12 to 20 minutes in normal traffic and can stretch to 30 or 35 minutes on a busy Saturday in March or April when the roundabouts at Bell Rock and Tlaquepaque back up with rental cars. From the Village to the center of West Sedona along SR 89A adds another 5 to 8 minutes beyond the Uptown Y, making the total Village to West Sedona drive roughly 20 to 30 minutes on a typical day.

Residents of the Village who commute to Cottonwood for work or services have a roughly 15 to 20 minute drive south on SR 179 to SR 260, which is notably easier than the drive from Uptown or West Sedona, where the route to Cottonwood runs the full length of SR 89A through the Mingus Mountain descent. For anyone working in Cottonwood, Camp Verde, or the Verde Valley, the Village's southern position is a practical advantage.

Airport and Highway Access

Sedona Airport sits on Airport Mesa in West Sedona, accessible from SR 89A via Airport Road. It handles general aviation and charter flights. For commercial flights, Phoenix Sky Harbor is the primary option: from West Sedona, the drive to Sky Harbor is roughly 110 miles and takes about 1 hour and 50 minutes in light traffic via I-17 south. From the Village of Oak Creek, the route is essentially the same length, with a slightly different on-ramp via SR 179 south to I-17, adding or subtracting only a few minutes depending on traffic at the junction.

4. Amenities, Parks, and What Is Physically Around You

The physical surroundings of each area are distinct enough that buyers who visit all three in a single day almost always come away with a clear preference. Here is what you actually encounter day to day in each location.

Village of Oak Creek Amenities

The Village has its own grocery anchor in the form of a Safeway on SR 179, a handful of locally owned restaurants, a gas station cluster, and the Sedona Golf Resort clubhouse. The Bell Rock Pathway, a paved multi-use trail running from the Village northward past Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte, starts essentially at the community's doorstep. The Cathedral Rock trailhead at Back O' Beyond Road is a short drive from most Village addresses. Crescent Moon Ranch, a Coconino National Forest day-use area along Oak Creek with picnic sites and the famous Red Rock Crossing swimming and photography spot, is less than two miles from the center of the Village.

For a focused look at what it means to own near Cathedral Rock specifically, the article on buying a home near Cathedral Rock in Sedona, AZ goes into the specific trailheads, view corridors, and property types in that immediate area.

The Village is notably quieter than Uptown on weekday mornings. The tourist foot traffic that defines Uptown's sidewalks does not reach the Village's residential streets in the same way, though SR 179 itself carries substantial through traffic heading to the trailheads and galleries further north.

For a thorough overview of the Village's physical layout and what residents say about daily life there, the Village of Oak Creek neighborhood guide on Homes.com provides additional context on the area's geography and housing composition.

Uptown Sedona Amenities

Uptown Sedona is the most commercially dense of the three areas. Tlaquepaque Arts and Shopping Village, a collection of galleries and artisan shops built around a central courtyard on SR 179 just south of the Y-intersection, is walkable or a very short drive from most Uptown addresses. The main strip along SR 89A through Uptown has dozens of restaurants, wine bars, crystal shops, jeep tour operators, and the Sedona Heritage Museum on Jordan Road. The Uptown trailhead parking area gives direct access to Marg's Draw and connections into the Soldier Pass and Brins Mesa trail systems.

Living in Uptown means proximity to all of that activity, which is a genuine draw for some buyers and a deterrent for others. Weekends from October through May bring significant pedestrian and vehicle congestion along the main commercial strip. Residents report that errands requiring a grocery run typically mean driving to the Bashas' or Whole Foods on SR 89A in West Sedona, since Uptown's retail is oriented almost entirely toward tourism.

West Sedona Amenities

West Sedona functions as the everyday commercial core for full-time residents across the entire Sedona area. SR 89A through West Sedona has a Bashas' grocery store, a Whole Foods Market, Home Depot, multiple urgent care clinics, the Sedona Public Library, Sedona City Hall, Verde Valley Medical Center (the area's primary hospital, located just over the hill in Cottonwood but commonly accessed via SR 89A), and a full range of local services from hardware to dentistry. The Dry Creek Road corridor branches off SR 89A in West Sedona and leads to trailheads for Dry Creek, Boynton Canyon, and Long Canyon, all within Coconino National Forest.

Sedona Red Rock High School and several elementary schools are located in West Sedona along Cultural Park Place and Navajo Drive. For information on the schools serving each of these areas, the Sedona-Oak Creek Unified School District publishes enrollment and program details directly at their district website, which is the most accurate source for current school boundaries and options.

5. Taxes, HOAs, and Ownership Costs Across the Three Areas

The administrative split between these areas has real financial consequences that buyers sometimes overlook until they are already in escrow. Understanding how property taxes and HOA costs differ across the Village, Uptown, and West Sedona can meaningfully affect your monthly carrying costs.

Property Taxes and Jurisdiction

Property taxes in the Village of Oak Creek are assessed entirely by Yavapai County. Properties in West Sedona are also in Yavapai County but are subject to the City of Sedona's additional municipal tax levies, which include a city primary and secondary property tax rate. Properties in Uptown Sedona are in Coconino County and are subject to Coconino County rates plus the City of Sedona's levies.

In practical terms, the Village of Oak Creek's tax burden is often slightly lower than comparable properties inside the city limits, because Village owners pay Yavapai County rates without the City of Sedona overlay. The difference on a $750,000 home can be several hundred dollars per year, though the exact gap depends on the specific assessed value and any special taxing district levies that apply to a given parcel. The article on property taxes on a $1 million home in Sedona, AZ walks through how the Sedona-area tax calculation actually works with real numbers.

HOA Presence and Costs

HOAs are common in the Village of Oak Creek, particularly in the planned subdivisions near the golf course and in the condo complexes along SR 179. Monthly dues in Village HOA communities typically run from $75 to $350 per month depending on the community, with golf-course-adjacent associations sometimes running higher due to shared amenity maintenance. Some Village subdivisions have no HOA at all, particularly older custom-home neighborhoods on larger lots.

In West Sedona, HOA presence is patchier. Many of the older residential streets have no HOA, while newer planned developments and gated communities in the Dry Creek corridor do carry monthly fees. Uptown Sedona's residential pockets are mostly older neighborhoods without formal HOA structures, though some condo buildings have their own associations. Before making an offer anywhere in the Sedona area, confirming HOA status and reviewing CC&Rs is a standard step that Amy D. Brown walks every buyer through as part of the due diligence process.

If you are considering the Village as an investment or short-term rental property, the rules differ meaningfully from those inside the city limits. The guide on investment property in Sedona, AZ covers short-term rental regulations, licensing requirements, and what to look for in a revenue-producing property across the entire Sedona area including the Village.