Sell Your Commercial Property Fast In Tucson, AZ

Who rents in Tucson

Tucson had an estimated 547,073 residents in the 2020–2024 American Community Survey, living in 228,020 occupied homes. Renters occupied 109,803 of them, a 48.2% share, against 118,217 owner households. That near-even split is unusual for a large Arizona city. Mesa and Chandler both sit near 35% renters.

The city's median household income was $57,073, well below the $82,752 recorded in Mesa over the same period, per ACS table B19013. Lower incomes shape the tenant base: more households rent by necessity, more of them share units, and more stay in older, lower-rent buildings rather than moving up to new construction.

Two institutions anchor demand. The University of Arizona reports 54,384 students for fall 2025 and more than $1 billion in annual research activity. Students, graduate researchers and university staff fill much of the rental housing in Midtown and the neighborhoods around campus, and they lease on an academic calendar that sets a predictable turnover peak each summer.

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is the second anchor. A 2023 statewide military study, as summarized by the base support group DM50, credits Davis-Monthan with 13,977 local jobs, about 5,473 more indirect and induced jobs, and roughly $3 billion in total impact on the local economy. The same summary counts 13,271 military retirees living locally. Airmen on assignment and newly hired civilian staff typically rent first.

Rents and affordability

Median gross rent in Tucson was $1,145 over 2020–2024. That compares with $1,620 in Mesa and $1,528 in Glendale over the same period, per ACS table B25064. Lower rents are one of the reasons renters and employers look at Tucson instead of the Phoenix area.

Low rents do not mean low rent burden. Of Tucson's renter households, 51.8% spend 30% or more of income on gross rent, and 26.1% spend at least half. For owners, that means renewal increases meet resistance quickly, and collections at older Class C buildings depend heavily on tenant screening and on voucher-backed tenancies.

HUD's Fair Market Rents set the benchmark for Housing Choice Vouchers in the metro. The FY2026 figures show how far Tucson sits below the Phoenix area at every unit size:

Tucson figures are from HUD's FY2026 Tucson MSA schedule and cover all of Pima County. Phoenix figures are from HUD's Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler schedule. The gap is widest for studios and one-bedrooms, the unit types that dominate older Tucson walk-ups and garden complexes.

The apartment stock

Tucson has 247,823 housing units, and 65,956 of them, or 26.6%, are in buildings with five or more units, per ACS table B25024. The mix leans toward small and mid-size properties: 12,496 units in 5–9 unit buildings, 17,030 in 10–19 unit buildings and 14,670 in 20–49 unit buildings, compared with 21,760 in complexes of 50 or more. Mobile homes add another 15,046 units, a sizable low-cost alternative to apartments.

The housing is old. Tucson's median year built is 1979, and 52.5% of all units date from before 1980. The 1970s alone account for 50,063 units. Only 6.1% were built in 2010 or later. Many of the small apartment buildings in Midtown and South Tucson come from that 1960s–1980s period, with original plumbing, roofs, single-pane windows and evaporative cooling that buyers will budget to replace.

The areas named on our Tucson page differ. Midtown holds much of the older walk-up and courtyard stock near the university. Oro Valley and Marana are separate towns to the northwest with newer, more owner-heavy housing, and South Tucson is a small, separately incorporated city surrounded by Tucson. Each has its own city tax rate and rules, so check the parcel's jurisdiction before comparing buildings.

Property taxes on apartment buildings in Pima County

Arizona places property used solely for residential rental in legal class 4, and its assessed value is 10% of the limited property value. Under A.R.S. 42-13301, that limited value can rise no more than 5% a year and can never exceed full cash value. The recalculation triggers in A.R.S. 42-13302 cover new construction, changes in use, splits and similar events, but not a change of ownership, so a buyer generally inherits the existing limited value. Owners who disagree with a notice of value have 60 days from the mailing date to petition the assessor.

The rate applied to that assessed value depends on location. For FY2026, Pima County's adopted rates per $100 of assessed value include 4.1943 for the county primary levy, 0.4085 primary and 0.5510 secondary for the City of Tucson, 3.3701 primary and 2.2225 secondary for Tucson Unified School District, 1.2176 for Pima Community College, 0.3289 for flood control and 0.5579 for the library district. Those levies total about $12.85 per $100. On a building with a $2 million limited value, assessed at $200,000, that works out to roughly $25,700 a year before smaller district charges. Parcels outside the city or in other school districts will differ. Unincorporated areas in fire districts pay a separate fire levy, and the same county schedule lists 2.6600 for Golder Ranch and 3.2042 for the Northwest district, so a building just past the city line can carry a noticeably different bill.

Arizona has no real estate transfer tax, and the state constitution bars new ones. The Department of Revenue also confirms that cities stopped collecting transaction privilege tax on long-term residential rent on January 1, 2025, which removes a line item that older Tucson operating statements may still show.

Landlord rules and local compliance

Tucson cannot regulate rents on private buildings. A.R.S. 33-1329 preempts rent control statewide, with an exception for housing owned, financed, insured or subsidized by a state agency or a city. Buildings with those agreements may carry rent limits that pass to a buyer.

The Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act sets the core rules. Security deposits are capped at one and a half months' rent, and an itemized accounting is due within 14 business days after move-out and the tenant's demand. For unpaid rent, a landlord may end the lease after a five-day written notice. Owners must also keep their registration current with the Pima County Assessor under A.R.S. 33-1902, and out-of-state owners must name an Arizona statutory agent.

The registration rules carry real penalties. The statute allows a $1,000 penalty plus $100 a month for a newly acquired rental that goes unregistered, and $150 a day for an existing property, each after a 10-day chance to cure. A buyer will ask for proof of current registration, and a seller who cannot show it may face a holdback at closing. Lease violations other than rent follow a 10-day notice for material noncompliance, and a landlord who wrongfully withholds a deposit can owe twice the amount withheld.

What this means if you own a building here

A Tucson seller is usually selling an older building with steady demand and limited pricing power. Buyers will look at the gap between in-place rents and the HUD and Census benchmarks above, the share of units with deferred work, and how the limited value compares with market value. A low limited value is an asset in a sale, since it carries over.

Gather a trailing 12-month rent roll and net operating income statement that removes any old rental-tax line, and list major system ages. Our cap rate calculator can help you test value. Skyline Capital Investments buys 5+ unit buildings across Tucson and Pima County, listed or off-market, and our seller page explains how we underwrite.