In Benson, the Median Home That Sold Was Built in 2025
Benson closed 125 home sales at a $269,990 median in the year to August 2026, with a median build year of 2025 — 26% less per square foot than Pima County.
A 12,400-acre project approved for 28,000 homes still has not broken ground. Benson recorded 125 closings anyway, at 26% less per square foot than Pima County, and sold them about as fast.
Over the twelve months ending August 31, 2026, LiveBy's aggregate of MLS records shows 125 residential sales closed inside Benson city limits — and the median one was built in 2025. Not remodeled in 2025. Built. Across Pima County over the same twelve months, the median home that sold was built in 1998. Benson is a town of 5,417 people by the Census Bureau's latest five-year estimate, at roughly 3,600 feet some 45 miles east of Tucson on I-10, and something is going up there fast enough to drag the middle of its market into the current build year. It is not the 12,400-acre project that has been on the city's books for years.
- 125
- Residential closings inside Benson city limits, September 2025 through August 2026
- $269,990
- Median sale price, up 10.4% from the prior twelve months
- 2025
- Median year built of the homes that sold
- $161.53
- Median price per square foot, 26% below Pima County's $218.27
- 40 days
- Median days on market, down from 69.5 a year earlier
- 32
- Active residential listings — about 3.1 months at this sales pace
The Median House That Sold Did Not Exist Three Years Ago
That median hides a wide spread. Benson's 125 closings ranged from a $55,000 sale to a $545,000 one and from a home built in 1900 to one built in 2026, averaging 2005.86 — the town still turns over plenty of old stock. But the midpoint landed on 2025, which means at least 63 of those 125 houses were finished in 2025 or 2026. The median home that sold had 1,671 square feet. Century Communities is building in Benson under its Century Complete brand, at Kartchner Vistas, with three floor plans — Alamar, Palmero and Verbena — running 1,290 to 1,815 square feet on three- and four-bedroom, two-bath layouts. That band brackets the median of everything that closed.
The Price Went Up Because the Houses Got Bigger
Benson's median sale price rose 10.4% year over year, from $244,556.50 to $269,990. Its median price per square foot went the other way: $164.37 to $161.53. Both are true because the median house grew — 1,543 square feet to 1,671, an 8.3% gain. A buyer reading the headline number alone would conclude Benson appreciated 10% in a year. Per square foot, it did not. What changed is how long it took to sell one: median days on market fell from 69.5 to 40, the share of sales that had cut their asking price first dropped from 60.2% to 46.4%, and closings rose from 118 to 125. Benson got faster and busier without getting more expensive by the foot.
The 12,400 Acres That Had Nothing to Do With It
The Villages at Vigneto is approved for as many as 28,000 homes on 12,400 acres — in a city of roughly 5,400 people. Its Clean Water Act permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been suspended, reinstated and challenged repeatedly: the Corps reissued it in 2019 to Scottsdale-based El Dorado Holdings, conservation groups said immediately they would challenge the revised version, and it was suspended again in 2021. Real Estate Daily News reported in August 2026 that there was still no construction underway. El Dorado reassigned portions of the project to other entities in 2025, and that August Benson's city manager described it as waiting on the foundational funding needed to begin. Every one of the 125 sales above happened without it.
What's Sitting Is Older Than What's Selling
Thirty-two residential listings were active when this was pulled, at a $269,000 median asking price — within a thousand dollars of what the median sale actually closed at. Their median build year is 1989, their median size 1,767.5 square feet, and their median time on the market 97.5 days, with 20 of the 32 already reduced. Set that beside a closed market with a 2025 median build year and a 40-day median contract, and the resale stock is plainly the patient half of this town. Thirty-two listings against 125 sales a year is roughly 3.1 months of supply, tighter than the four-to-six-month band this site treats as balanced.
What to Check Before You Write an Offer Here
For a buyer, the trade is explicit: 26% less per square foot than the Pima County median, on a house likely to be a year or two old, in exchange for a 45-mile drive to Tucson on I-10. Two things are worth checking before you write anything. First, whether a builder is still selling nearby — unsold new inventory sets the ceiling on what a resale next door is worth. Second, how long the listing has been up: the active median here is 97.5 days, so a listing at four weeks is genuinely fresh and one at four months has already been told something. For a seller, the 46.4% reduction rate and that 97.5-day active median say one thing twice: a resale here competes against new construction priced close to it, and the list price is where that competition is won or lost.
A Town Growing Without Its Big Project
Benson has spent years as the town where a very large development was about to happen. Amtrak's Sunset Limited still stops three days a week each direction at a sheltered platform on East 4th Street, which the railroad bills as a gateway to Kartchner Caverns State Park, the Coronado National Forest and Texas Canyon. What the town has quietly become instead is one of the newest housing markets within an hour of Tucson — not because the headline development moved, but because production builders filled in around it while the permits sat in court. If Vigneto ever starts, every number here becomes a footnote. Until then, the market Benson actually has is small, young, and priced a quarter below the metro next door.
Sources
Every market figure is a LiveBy aggregate of MLS data; LiveBy's responses credit MLS of Southern Arizona (MLSSAZ) and Arizona Regional MLS (ARMLS). LiveBy — closed-sale statistics, property type Residential, City of Benson boundary (5e78a3c577d381411861aa24), interval 2025-09-01/P1Y — accessed September 30, 2026 (for the 125 closings; the $269,990 median and $271,011.10 mean close price; the $55,000 low and $545,000 high close price; the 2025 median and 2005.86 average year built, with a 1900 low and 2026 high; the 1,671-square-foot median living area; the $161.53 median price per square foot; the 40-day median days on market; 58 of 125 sales carrying a price reduction; and the 0.97 sale-to-list ratio). LiveBy — the same boundary and arguments for 2024-09-01/P1Y — accessed September 30, 2026 (for 118 closings; a $244,556.50 median close price; a 2024 median year built; a 1,543-square-foot median living area; a $164.37 median price per square foot; a 69.5-day median days on market; 71 of 118 with a price reduction; and a 0.98 sale-to-list ratio). LiveBy — active-listing statistics, property type Residential, status Active, same boundary — accessed September 30, 2026 (for the 32 active listings; the $269,000 median list price; the 1989 median year built; the 1,767.5-square-foot median living area; the 97.5-day median days on site; and 20 of 32 already reduced). LiveBy — closed-sale statistics, property type Residential, Pima County boundary (5afc4af02f86c27281e528b1), interval 2025-09-01/P1Y — accessed September 30, 2026 (for the 13,486 closings; the $365,000 median close price; the $218.27 median price per square foot; the 1998 median year built; the 38-day median days on market; and the 43.33% price-reduction share). U.S. Census Bureau — American Community Survey 2020–2024 five-year estimates, table B01003 (Total Population) for Benson city, Arizona (place 0405770) — retrieved through the Census Reporter API at api.censusreporter.org/1.0/data/show/latest — accessed September 30, 2026 (for the 5,417 population estimate, margin of error ±19). U.S. Geological Survey — 3D Elevation Program point query service at epqs.nationalmap.gov — accessed September 30, 2026 (for ground elevations of 3,565 to 3,628 feet at four points across downtown Benson, which is where the roughly 3,600-foot figure comes from; note that the 4,229-foot elevation widely repeated for Benson does not match the federal elevation data at the town center). Amtrak — "Benson, AZ (BEN)" station page — amtrak.com/stations/ben — accessed September 30, 2026 (for the 105 East 4th Street address, the "Train Station - Platform with Shelter" designation, and Amtrak's own description of the station as a gateway to Kartchner Caverns State Park, Coronado National Forest and Texas Canyon). Amtrak — "Sunset Limited" route page — amtrak.com/routes/sunset-limited-train.html — accessed September 30, 2026 (for service three days a week in each direction between New Orleans and Los Angeles, with Benson listed as a station on the route). Real Estate Daily News — "Whatever Happened to The Villages at Vigneto?" — realestatedaily-news.com/whatever-happened-to-the-villages-at-vigneto/ — published August 14, 2026, accessed September 30, 2026 (for the 12,400 acres and as many as 28,000 homes; the Clean Water Act permit suspended, reinstated and challenged repeatedly before being suspended again in 2021; the absence of construction; El Dorado Holdings and its 2025 reassignment of portions of the project to other entities; and Benson's city manager in August 2025 on the foundational funding needed to begin). Arizona Public Media — "Housing development near San Pedro River gets green light, again" — news.azpm.org/s/68997-housing-development-near-san-pedro-river-gets-green-light-again/ — published August 8, 2019, accessed September 30, 2026 (for the Army Corps' reissued permit to the Scottsdale-based El Dorado Holdings and the conservation groups' stated intent to challenge the revised version). Century Communities — "Kartchner Vistas" — centurycommunities.com/find-your-new-home/arizona/tucson-metro/benson/kartchner-vistas/ — accessed September 30, 2026 (for Century Complete as the builder, the three floor plans named Alamar, Palmero and Verbena, the three-to-four-bedroom and two-bathroom counts, and the 1,290-to-1,815-square-foot range). The roughly 45 miles between Tucson and Benson is approximate road distance along Interstate 10. Percentage changes, the 26% price and per-square-foot gaps, the count of sales implied by a 2025 median year built, and the months-of-supply figure are arithmetic on the LiveBy aggregates above. MLS records for a closed period keep changing for weeks after it ends, so a re-run of any query here may differ slightly. This post is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase real estate. Kyle Berglund and Tierra Antigua Realty fully support and comply with the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act.
Topics
- Benson
- Cochise County
- New Construction
- Home Prices
- Days on Market
- Villages at Vigneto
- Tucson Metro
- Community Spotlight