Trends in home values in the City of Tucson and Pima County
62.4% of households in the Tucson region own their home (as of 2018).
Home prices vary widely around the City of Tucson and within Pima County. This chart shows the history of home prices in the Tucson area by ZIP code (as estimated by the Zillow index price), monthly from January 1996 through March 2020. While each ZIP code follows the same general trajectory, it is clear that the magnitude of home prices differ across ZIP codes in the city and county. For Zillow index price by neighborhood click the "Neighborhoods" tab at the top of the page!
The chart is interactive: click on any ZIP code in the legend to turn it on or off in the chart.
The Zillow index price by ZIP code is also shown in the map below, current for April 2020. (Gray areas are ZIP codes not included in the Zillow data.)
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Home values over the last decade in the Tucson MSA
As shown below, home values declined substantially between 2010 and 2013 in the Tucson MSA, when the region was still feeling the effects of the Great Recession. There was a slight increase between 2013 and 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, however, at that point median home value was still significantly below the 2010 median value.
| ACS Year | Median Home Value (Tucson MSA) | % change from previous |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | $198,300 | N/A |
| 2013 | $167,500 | -15.5% |
| 2018 | $173,500 | +3.6% |
Home Price Growth by Census Tract
While home price growth for the entire Tucson MSA was +3.6% between 2013 and 2018, price growth varies widely around the MSA. There are several tracts with fairly lower median home prices that experienced more than 100% growth between 2013 and 2018 - tract 45.04 between Grant and Sweetwater along I10, tract 45.13 at Flowing Wells and Wetmore, and tract 40.39 between Broadway and Speedway (west of Pantano). Tract 46.30 at Thornydale and Lambert is an example of a higher median home price area that experienced 67.2% growth between 2013 and 2018. Finally, the tracts with the lowest growth were 45.05 between Flowing Wells and Fairview (north of Miracle Mile) at -51.3% growth and 27.04 between Mountain and Campbell (north of Prince) with -40.8% price growth in the same timeframe.
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Median Home Price by Census Tract
The map below shows median home price by Census tract from the 2018 5-year American Community Survey - the most recent data available by tract. Median home price in a given tract ranges from $16,600 to $619,000. (Keep in mind that median home prices in the ACS data are based on survey respondents' answers to a subjective question asking for the dollar value of the home - it is neither the tax value nor the appraised value of the home.) The highest median priced homes are located in Census tracts in northeast Tucson, mostly outside of city limits near Swan and Sunrise, while the lowest median priced homes are located in southwest Tucson, around the I10 - I19 split.
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Comparing Tucson’s Home Prices
How does Tucson MSA (all of Pima County) compare to other western MSAs? According to a recent article on the Making Action Possible (MAP) dashboard, Tucson has the fourth lowest median home price among 12 western metropolitan areas, through the end of 2019. However, the article also states that Tucson had the second highest home price growth rate among its peers, at 7.1% in 2019. Tucson was one of the slowest metro regions to recover home values following the housing market crash of 2008; in fact, Tucson was one of only two comparable metros that had not regained pre-2008 median home prices as of 2019.
