Pima County's Housing Tax Isn't Three Cents. It's Three Cents a Year.
Pima County approved $8.7 million for housing on September 8, 2026. Policy D 22.17 adds up to three cents to the county tax rate each year — not once.
A county board vote is usually somebody else's news. This one touches two documents you already own: the valuation notice that sets your tax bill, and the title commitment on anything you buy that took public gap financing.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors put $8.7 million into housing at its September 8 meeting. Two things in that package matter more than the headline number. One is where the money comes from: a policy that adds up to three cents to the county's primary property tax rate not once but every year for a decade. The other is the string on the spending end — a unit built or preserved with this money has to stay affordable to households at or below 80 percent of the area median income for 30 years, recorded against the parcel, outlasting the developer, the administrator who signed the contract, and in most cases the mortgage.
- $8.7M
- Fiscal 2027 allocation approved by the Board on September 8, 2026
- $5M
- The share directed to developing and preserving housing
- 30 yrs
- Minimum affordability period on county gap-funded units
- Sept. 30
- County deadline to apply for fiscal 2027 gap funding
What the Package Actually Splits Into
Two tracks, and the county names them plainly. Five million dollars goes to developing and preserving housing — the track the county calls Build More. Three and a half million and change goes to keeping households in the homes they already occupy: home repair, weatherization, rental and utility assistance, rapid rehousing. That is Keep People Housed. With this allocation, the county's Regional Affordable Housing Fund passes $33 million in total investment.
The county reports what the first $24.5 million produced through fiscal 2026: 618 affordable units added to the community's inventory, including 23 bridge and transitional units, with another 1,239 in planning or development, and 910 households helped to stay housed through the stability side. The Board's vote followed a unanimous recommendation from the Regional Affordable Housing Commission, which had reviewed both categories' performance at its August 21 meeting.
Three Cents, and Then Three Cents Again
The money has a source, and it is your tax bill. Board of Supervisors Policy D 22.17 — adopted June 3, 2025, under the unlovely title "Closing the Gap in Affordable Housing, Tackling Housing Insecurity, and Preventing an Escalation of Homelessness" — directs the County Administrator to put into each Recommended Budget an allocation to the Affordable Housing Fund of up to three cents of the primary property tax rate above the previous year's allocation. Read that last clause twice. It is not three cents once. It is up to three more cents each year, beginning in fiscal 2026/27 and sunsetting after fiscal 2035/36, and the policy says the annual allocation may not fall below the prior year's unless economic conditions or other fiscal considerations warrant a reduction.
Three cents of what, though, is the question a headline never answers. Arizona states county property tax rates per $100 of net assessed value, and Class Three owner-occupied residential property is assessed at ten percent of its full cash value or limited valuation under A.R.S. § 42-15003. So: a home with a $400,000 limited property value carries $40,000 of assessed value, which is 400 hundred-dollar units, which at three cents apiece is about $12 a year. That is one increment. Under the policy as written, another can land on top of it the following year, and again the year after. The arithmetic is from a published rate and a statute rather than a reading off anyone's bill — and the input is the limited property value on your valuation notice, not what the house would sell for.
The Part That Reaches a Closing Table
Pima County's gap-funding policy requires that units it helps finance stay affordable to households at or below 80 percent of the area median income for a minimum of 30 years. That is not a target or a preference. It is a term the county attaches to the money, and the county reports that since July 1, 2022 its board has approved $20,984,361 in gap funding across 28 projects, covering 1,857 units preserved or newly built.
A restricted unit is not a defective unit. It is a differently priced one with a document behind the price, and the document is discoverable before you write an offer rather than after an appraisal. The questions are narrow and answerable: which program restricted it, how many years remain, who administers the income certification, and what the resale terms say. All four live in recorded instruments and the title commitment. None of them is a phone call somebody can waive.
- Read the Recorded Document (Title commitment, Remaining term, Resale terms): An affordability restriction is recorded against the parcel, so it shows up in the title commitment rather than in listing copy. Pull it during inspection, read the remaining term and the resale provisions, and price the unit against those terms instead of against unrestricted comparables.
- Find Out Whose Program It Is (County gap funding, City programs, Federal tax credit): Pima County gap funding is one path with its own income test and 30-year minimum. The City of Tucson runs separate programs, and federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit properties carry their own compliance and extended-use terms. The program named in the document decides the income test, the length and the enforcing agency.
- Put the Levy in the Right Column (Limited property value, Per $100 assessed, Valuation notice): Arizona rates are quoted per $100 of assessed value, and Class Three residential property is assessed at ten percent of full cash or limited valuation. A rate expressed in cents is small money on one home and real money across a county, and both are true at once. The policy also stacks: check the limited property value on your notice, then remember the increment repeats.
What Happens Next, and When
The county is taking applications through September 30 for fiscal 2027 gap-funded projects. Awards from that round do not get decided quietly, and the calendar is written into the policy: the Regional Affordable Housing Commission oversees the annual gap-funding solicitation and recommends the projects to be funded by January 31 of each fiscal year, after which the Board acts in public. That agenda is the earliest reliable place to learn that a parcel near you is about to become sixty apartments, and it appears well before a sign does.
The larger frame is the county's Regional Housing Strategy and Funding Plan, a ten-year blueprint calling for $250 million in county investment and anticipating additional state and federal money layered on top. The Board is scheduled to revisit Policy D 22.17 in fiscal 2028/29 to assess what the allocations have done. Whatever you make of the target, the mechanism is the ordinary one: a rate in cents, a fund, a competitive window, and a restriction that gets recorded and then sits on a parcel for three decades.
Quick reference (September 14, 2026): the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved an $8.7 million fiscal 2027 allocation on September 8, 2026 — $5 million to develop and preserve affordable housing and $3.7 million for programs that help people remain in their homes — with applications for fiscal 2027 gap-funded projects open through September 30. County gap funding requires units remain affordable to households at or below 80 percent of area median income for at least 30 years. Board Policy D 22.17 provides for an allocation of up to three cents of the primary property tax rate above the previous year's allocation, each year from fiscal 2026/27 through fiscal 2035/36, subject to annual Board review and approval; the per-home figure above is arithmetic from that three-cent increment, Arizona's per-$100 rate convention and the ten percent Class Three assessment ratio, and it is an illustration rather than a quotation from any tax bill — a specific parcel depends on its own limited property value and on the rate the Board actually adopts in a given year. Program terms, deadlines and rates change; confirm anything you intend to rely on with Pima County and, for a specific property, with the recorded documents and your title company. General information only, not legal, tax or investment advice.
Sources
Pima County, AZ — Newsroom, "Board approves $8.7 million investment in affordable housing, housing stability" — pima.gov/2720/Newsroom — published September 9, 2026, accessed September 14, 2026 (for the Board approving an $8.7 million investment at its September 8, 2026 meeting; for the fiscal 2027 allocation from the Regional Affordable Housing Fund including $5 million to develop and preserve affordable housing and $3.7 million for programs that help people remain in their homes, including home repair, weatherization, rental and utility assistance and rapid rehousing; for the Build More and Keep People Housed categories; for the Board's action following a unanimous recommendation from the Regional Affordable Housing Commission, which reviewed both categories at its August 21 meeting; for approximately $24.5 million invested through fiscal 2026, having helped add 618 affordable housing units including 23 bridge and transitional units, with another 1,239 units in planning or development and 910 households helped to remain housed; for the total through the Regional Affordable Housing Fund surpassing $33 million with the fiscal 2027 allocation; for the Regional Housing Strategy & Funding Plan being a ten-year blueprint calling for a $250 million county investment and anticipating additional state and federal resources; and for the county accepting applications through September 30 for fiscal 2027 gap-funded projects). Pima County, AZ — "Housing Development, Preservation and Stability" — pima.gov/2534/Housing-Development-Preservation-and-Sta — accessed September 14, 2026 (for Board Policy D 22.17 Gap Funding requiring units to be affordable for households earning at or below 80 percent of Area Median Income for 30 years; and for $20,984,361 in gap funding approved across 28 projects since July 1, 2022, resulting in 1,857 preserved or newly developed affordable housing units). Pima County, Arizona Board of Supervisors Policy D 22.17 — "Closing the Gap in Affordable Housing, Tackling Housing Insecurity, and Preventing an Escalation of Homelessness" — the adopted policy text published by Pima County at content.civicplus.com/api/assets/az-pimacounty/6dcad6e0-a690-43f2-b552-bdd6413c1e85 — adopted June 3, 2025, effective July 1, 2025, accessed September 14, 2026 (for the directive that each year the County Administrator shall include in the Recommended Budget a proposed allocation to the Affordable Housing Fund of up to three cents of the Primary Property Tax Rate above the previous year's allocation, with the annual allocation not to be less than the amount approved for the prior fiscal year unless economic conditions or other fiscal considerations warrant a reduction; for the policy beginning in Fiscal Year 2026/27 and sunsetting after Fiscal Year 2035/36; for the total investment of $250 million or more over ten years including the $50 million already in the county's base budget; for all annual allocations being subject to final Board review and approval; for the Regional Affordable Housing Commission recommending the Build More and Keep People Housed breakdown by August 31 of each fiscal year and overseeing the annual gap funding solicitation and recommending projects to be funded by January 31 of each fiscal year; and for the Board reviewing Policy D 22.17 during Fiscal Year 2028/29). Arizona Revised Statutes § 42-15003 — azleg.gov/ars/42/15003.htm — accessed September 14, 2026 (for class three property being assessed at ten per cent of its full cash value or limited valuation, as applicable). Pima County, AZ — "Board of Supervisors-approved affordable housing projects" — pima.gov/3484/Board-of-Supervisors-approved-affordable — accessed September 14, 2026 (for gap-funding awards being published as approved projects). The per-home dollar figure above is computed from the policy's three-cent increment, Arizona's convention of expressing rates per $100 of net assessed value, and the ten percent class three assessment ratio; it is an illustration, not an appraisal or a tax quotation, and the rate actually levied in any year is set by the Board. This post makes no claim about any specific parcel's restriction status. Nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice. 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
- Local Real Estate News
- Pima County
- Affordable Housing
- Property Taxes
- Deed Restrictions
- Gap Funding
- Housing Policy