Land for Sale in Pinal County, AZ

Pinal County stretches between Phoenix and Tucson along Interstate 10, with 425,264 residents in the 2020 census, up from 375,770 in 2010. It covers 5,374 square miles, so it holds everything from fast-growing suburban edges around Maricopa and San Tan Valley to open desert, farmland and mountain ranch land. Buyers come for lots and acreage that cost less than metro Phoenix. Water is the issue that matters most here, so this guide covers the wildcat subdivision problem before the market.

Pinal County at a glance

County seat: Florence. Cities: Casa Grande, Maricopa, Apache Junction, Eloy and Coolidge; towns include Florence, Kearny, Superior, Mammoth and Queen Creek.
Census-designated places include Arizona City, Oracle, Saddlebrooke, Gold Canyon and Picacho.
2020 population 425,264, up from 375,770 in 2010; 5,374 square miles.
Interstate 8, Interstate 10, US 60 and State Routes 79 and 87 cross the county.
The county includes parts of the Tohono O'odham Nation, the Gila River Indian Community and the San Carlos Apache Reservation, and all of the Ak-Chin Indian Community.

The Pinal County land market

Pinal County is the growth edge of the Phoenix metro. Cities such as Maricopa, Casa Grande and Apache Junction see the most new housing, while farther out, around Eloy, Arizona City, Florence and Coolidge, there are larger lots, former farm parcels and open desert. Buyers include builders, investors holding land for the next wave of growth, and people who want a few acres for a home, shop or horses. Prices climb the closer a parcel gets to a paved arterial, city water and the I-10 corridor, and fall quickly with distance from services.

Water and wildcat subdivisions

Arizona manages groundwater by Active Management Area, and Pinal is one of them. Under the state's assured water supply rules, a subdivision of six or more lots has to show a long-term water supply, but a division into five or fewer lots generally does not. That is the so-called wildcat subdivision loophole. High Country News quotes an Arizona water expert saying that if you are developing a property with fewer than six lots you legally do not have to have any water, and that nothing stops developers from splitting land into four or five lots. The same article reports that a halt on new assured water supply certificates was announced for Pinal County in 2019.

The practical risk for a buyer is that a cheap lot may have no water provider, no proven well and only hauled water. In the Rio Verde case near Scottsdale, hundreds of homes depending on trucked water lost their supply when the city cut it off. A state groundwater model has also found that expected demand for pumping in the Pinal AMA outstrips supply by more than 8 million acre-feet, according to KJZZ, so well drilling can be deep and expensive. Ask the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the seller for the water provider letter, check whether the parcel is in an approved subdivision, and get a well driller's estimate for the area.

Reservations, roads and flood zones

Large parts of Pinal County are tribal land, so confirm that the parcel is private fee land and not part of a reservation, state trust land or a federal holding. In farm and desert areas many parcels sit on unpaved roads, so check recorded legal access. Washes flood in monsoon storms; look up the FEMA zone and drainage for the parcel before you buy.

Before you buy land in Pinal County

A written water source: a water provider letter, or a well with a record of depth and yield.
Whether the lot is part of an approved subdivision or a lot split of five or fewer lots.
Recorded legal access and who maintains the road.
Whether the land is private, state trust or reservation land.
Flood zone, power availability and septic approval.

How to verify legal access to land Land due diligence checklist

Frequently asked questions

What is a wildcat subdivision in Arizona?

It is a division of land into five or fewer lots, which generally does not need to show an assured water supply, so the lots may have no water provider. Ask for the water source before you buy.