The Arroyos sits in the lower-to-mid elevation band of Big Sky, the master-planned community tucked into the northwest hillsides of Simi Valley. Built by Toll Brothers in the mid-2000s, this sub-tract leans toward family floor plans on graded pad lots, with most homes falling between roughly 3,000 and 4,200 square feet. Prices in May 2026 generally range from about $1.0M to $1.4M depending on plan, lot, and view orientation. If you are weighing The Arroyos against other Big Sky tracts or against Wood Ranch and Bridle Path, this page walks through what makes it different — builder, lot characteristics, HOA, Mello-Roos exposure, school boundaries, and recent sale activity — without the marketing fluff.
Where it sits inside Big Sky
The Arroyos occupies a mid-elevation shelf along the eastern flank of the Big Sky master plan. Access is typically from Big Sky Drive off Erringer Road, then via interior collector streets that curve up into the tract. Compared with Promontory or Pinnacle higher on the hill, The Arroyos sits closer to the community park, the elementary school, and the trailhead access points that thread through the arroyos the tract is named after.
The practical effect is shorter drive times to the 118 freeway at Erringer or First Street and shorter walks to Big Sky Elementary. View orientation here is mixed: some lots back to open hillside or arroyo channels with filtered valley vistas, while interior lots look across the community. Buyers focused on full panoramic ridge views generally end up paying a premium to move higher into Vistas, Summit Pointe, or Pinnacle, but families who want the school-and-park convenience tend to find The Arroyos a workable balance.
Builder history and floor plans
Toll Brothers built The Arroyos as part of its broader Big Sky program in the mid-2000s. The plans here lean family-functional rather than estate-scale: four to five bedrooms, a downstairs bedroom or office on most plans, a large great room open to the kitchen, and a formal dining room. Master suites are upstairs on the majority of plans, with one or two single-story options that trade more sparingly on resale.
Toll product from this era is recognizable for tall entry foyers, generous ceiling heights on the main level, and tile roofs in Mediterranean and Tuscan elevations. Interior finishes from the original build are now twenty years old on the earliest closes, so most resale homes have had at least one round of kitchen and primary-bath updates. When I tour Arroyos homes I pay close attention to whether HVAC, water heater, and roof underlayment have been addressed — those are the items that matter at this age more than countertop swaps.
- Plan footprints generally 3,000–4,200 sq ft, 4–5 bedrooms.
- Most plans have an upstairs primary; limited single-story options.
- Downstairs bed/office is common on the larger plans.
- Three-car garages are typical, often tandem on smaller lots.
- Tile roofs and stucco exteriors as built.
Lot sizes, pads, and view characteristics
Lots in The Arroyos generally run from roughly 6,500 to 10,500 square feet. Because the tract sits on a graded hillside shelf, pads tend to be flat with either an uphill slope behind the home or a downhill drop to a manufactured slope at the rear property line. That matters for two reasons. First, the buildable yard is usually the pad itself — slopes are landscape-only under the CC&Rs. Second, downhill-pad lots often capture the better view corridor but require slope maintenance the owner is responsible for under the HOA documents.
View characteristics vary lot by lot. Some Arroyos homes have an open arroyo channel behind them and look across to the next ridge; others sit on interior streets with neighbor-to-neighbor sightlines. When I show buyers in this tract I always walk the actual rear yard at the time of day they would use it — a lot that looks open in a listing photo can feel different once you stand on the pad and see where the neighbor's second story actually lands.
HOA fees and what they cover
HOA dues in The Arroyos generally run about $180 to $250 per month as of May 2026. The master Big Sky HOA covers community common areas — the entry monuments, perimeter slopes, the community park, trail easements, and the shared landscape strips along collector streets. Some sub-areas within Big Sky carry an additional sub-association fee for items like a private street or a maintenance slope behind a particular row of homes; ask for the current billing statement during escrow rather than relying on listing copy.
What the HOA does not cover is also worth knowing. It does not maintain the rear slope behind your own lot in most cases — that is owner responsibility under the CC&Rs, and it shows up at resale through inspection findings on drainage and slope stability. It also does not cover front-yard landscape; you mow your own lawn and trim your own trees, subject to architectural review for major changes.
Mello-Roos / CFD assessment
Big Sky was developed with Community Facilities District (Mello-Roos) financing to pay for infrastructure including roads, water, sewer, drainage, and school facility contributions. In The Arroyos, the CFD line item on the annual property tax bill typically runs in the range of about $2,500 to $4,000 per year, depending on the specific lot and the original assessed value at issuance. This is in addition to the base 1% ad valorem property tax and other small voter-approved bonds.
I tell every buyer the same thing: do not estimate Mello-Roos from a sibling sale down the street. Pull the actual tax bill for the specific APN you are in contract on. The County Assessor and Tax Collector make this available, and a good escrow officer will include a tax breakdown in the prelim. Some CFDs in Big Sky have amortization schedules that step down in the later years; others run flat. Knowing your number — and how long it runs — affects your true monthly carrying cost and your future resale story.
Schools
Children living in The Arroyos are generally boundaried into Simi Valley Unified School District's Big Sky Elementary (within the Big Sky community itself), Sycamore Canyon K–8 / Middle program, and Royal High School. Boundaries can and do change — SVUSD periodically adjusts attendance areas, and inter-district transfers, magnet programs, and charter options are all separate processes. The right move is to confirm the current boundary for any specific address directly with the district.
Performance and program data for each school is published on the California School Dashboard, which is a more reliable source than third-party rating sites. If a specific program — dual-language, AP capacity, special education services, transportation eligibility — is decision-driving for your family, call the school directly. I do not coach buyers on school quality. I help you find the data and verify the boundary.
Recent sale comps
The table below summarizes recent Arroyos sale activity by floor-plan size band, not by address. Sale prices reflect the May 2026 market and will move as inventory and interest rates change. Per-square-foot pricing in The Arroyos has been compressing slightly compared with hillside tracts higher up — buyers are paying more for view than for raw square footage at the current price point.
| Plan Size Band | Bed/Bath | Recent Sold Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~3,000 sq ft | 4 bed / 3 bath | $1.00M – $1.10M | Interior or partial-view lot |
| ~3,400 sq ft | 4 bed / 3 bath | $1.10M – $1.20M | Standard pad, mixed views |
| ~3,700 sq ft | 5 bed / 4 bath | $1.20M – $1.30M | Downstairs bedroom common |
| ~4,000 sq ft | 5 bed / 4.5 bath | $1.25M – $1.38M | Larger pads, some view |
| ~4,200 sq ft | 5 bed / 4.5 bath | $1.30M – $1.42M | Top of plan range, view premium |
Resale and view-corridor premium
Across Big Sky, view-corridor lots have been trading at roughly a 15% to 25% premium over comparable interior lots on the same plan. The Arroyos does not have the most dramatic view inventory in Big Sky — that designation belongs to Pinnacle and Promontory higher on the hill — but a meaningful subset of Arroyos lots back to open arroyo channels with mountain or filtered valley views, and those homes consistently trade at the top of the per-square-foot range for the tract.
Resale performance in The Arroyos has tracked the broader Simi Valley hillside market: days on market in the low-to-mid 20s in May 2026, with well-prepared, accurately priced homes going under contract inside two weeks and over-priced or under-prepared listings sitting longer and trimming. The Toll-built product holds value because the floor plans are functional and the lots are usable; deferred maintenance is the most common reason a price reduction becomes necessary.
Common buyer scenarios
Three buyer profiles show up most often in The Arroyos. The first is the move-up family from a Wood Ranch or central-Simi starter home who wants a larger floor plan and a hillside setting but does not need the full estate-style lot you find higher up. The second is the commuter who prioritizes the freeway access at Erringer and First Street and is willing to trade some view for a shorter morning. The third is the downsizer from a larger Bridle Path or estate home who wants single-story living — limited in The Arroyos, so when a single-story plan comes up it tends to move quickly.
For each scenario the right questions are different. Move-up buyers should scrutinize floor-plan flow and storage, not just bedroom count. Commuters should drive the actual route at the actual departure time. Downsizers should look hard at stair-free living and primary-suite location. None of those questions are answered by the MLS sheet.
- Move-up family from central Simi or Wood Ranch wanting larger plan + hillside setting.
- Commuter prioritizing 118 freeway access over maximum elevation.
- Downsizer hunting for a single-story or main-floor primary option.
Wildfire exposure, insurance, and brush clearance
Parts of The Arroyos sit within California's designated Fire Hazard Severity Zones because of the surrounding hillside topography. The practical implication is two-fold: defensible-space requirements that the homeowner must maintain seasonally, and insurance underwriting that has become tighter across California hillside areas over the past several years. Neither item is a deal-breaker on its own — Big Sky remains an active, insurable market — but both items require diligence rather than assumption.
Defensible-space rules are published by CAL FIRE and enforced through the county and the local fire authority. The required clearance zones (typically zero to five feet immediately around the home, five to thirty feet of reduced fuel, and thirty to one-hundred feet of fuel modification) apply to all hillside-exposed lots. Insurance shopping should start during the contingency period, not after close — pulling quotes from multiple carriers and confirming the cost and availability of the policy before removing the inspection contingency protects you from a surprise at funding. Some buyers also pull a wildfire-risk report from the carrier to identify any structural mitigation that would lower the rate.
- Defensible-space zones 0-5, 5-30, 30-100 ft maintained by owner.
- Insurance quotes from multiple carriers during contingency, not after.
- Hardened building materials at the perimeter reduce underwriting risk.
- CAL FIRE Hazard Map confirms the zone designation for the specific APN.
What I tell clients about The Arroyos
When a buyer asks me to compare The Arroyos to other Big Sky sub-tracts, I frame it as a trade-off triangle: view, lot size, and convenience. The Arroyos optimizes for convenience — close to the elementary school, close to the park, close to the freeway exits — at the cost of the biggest views and the largest lots, which sit higher up the hill. If convenience is the top driver and you can find a downhill-pad lot with a workable view corridor, The Arroyos is often the best dollar-for-dollar value in Big Sky.
When a seller asks me what to do to prepare an Arroyos home for market, I focus on three things: address the 20-year systems items (HVAC, water heater, roof underlayment if needed) before listing rather than negotiating them in escrow, refresh the kitchen and primary bath to current finishes if they have not been touched, and stage to show the floor-plan flow. Buyers at this price point are comparing your home to remodeled comps and to newer Lennar product in Belridge — your presentation has to compete.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Arroyos a gated community?
Big Sky as a whole is not fully gated. A few interior streets have gates at specific private-lane segments, but The Arroyos itself is publicly accessed through the main Big Sky entry off Erringer Road. If a fully gated tract is a decision driver, look at the Simi Valley gated community filter page on this site for a cross-neighborhood list.
Who built The Arroyos and when?
Toll Brothers built The Arroyos in the mid-2000s as part of the broader Big Sky master plan. Most closes fall between 2004 and 2008. Plans here are family-functional in the 3,000 to 4,200 square foot range, with three-car garages and mostly upstairs primary suites. A small number of single-story plans were built and trade infrequently on resale.
How much is Mello-Roos in The Arroyos?
CFD assessments in The Arroyos generally fall in the range of about $2,500 to $4,000 per year, varying by lot and original assessment. The number is on the property tax bill for the specific APN. I never quote a number for a specific address without pulling the bill — the variance lot-to-lot is real and it affects your true monthly carrying cost.
What schools serve The Arroyos?
By current SVUSD boundary, children typically attend Big Sky Elementary (inside the Big Sky community), Sycamore Canyon K–8 / Middle, and Royal High School. Boundaries are subject to change by the district. Always confirm the current attendance area for a specific address with SVUSD enrollment before relying on it for a purchase decision.
Are there view homes in The Arroyos?
Yes, but not at the same scale as Pinnacle or Promontory higher on the hill. A subset of Arroyos lots back to open arroyo channels and capture mountain or filtered valley views. These lots trade at roughly a 15% to 25% premium over comparable interior lots on the same floor plan. For a cross-tract view comparison see the Big Sky view homes page on this site.
What is the HOA in The Arroyos?
Monthly dues generally run about $180 to $250. The master HOA covers community common areas, the entry monuments, the community park, perimeter slopes, and trail easements. It does not maintain your private rear slope or your front-yard landscape. Always request the current HOA disclosure packet during the contingency period for the most accurate fee, reserve, and assessment information.
Is The Arroyos in a wildfire hazard zone?
Portions of Big Sky, including parts of The Arroyos, fall within California's designated Fire Hazard Severity Zones because of the hillside setting. This is addressable through brush clearance, hardened building materials at the perimeter, and homeowner insurance shopping. CAL FIRE publishes the maps and SVUSD/county publish brush clearance requirements. Disclose and verify rather than guess.
How long do homes stay on the market in The Arroyos?
In May 2026, Big Sky as a whole has been running roughly 24 days on market median. The Arroyos has tracked the community average. Well-prepared, accurately priced homes regularly go under contract in under two weeks. Overpriced or under-prepared listings sit longer and almost always trim — the buyer pool at this price point is informed and comparing actively.
