1.How Arizona Builds the Bill: Full Cash Value, Limited Value and the 10% Ratio
Arizona does not tax a home on its sale price. Every parcel carries two values. Full cash value is the assessor’s estimate of what the property is worth. Limited property value is what the tax is calculated on, and it is deliberately sluggish: under A.R.S. § 42-13301 it equals the prior year’s limited value plus 5%, and it can never exceed full cash value. That is the Proposition 117 mechanism, approved by voters in November 2012 and in force from tax year 2015. A house that has been on the roll for years usually carries a limited value well below its full cash value, because the limited value climbs at most 5% a year while the full cash value tracks the market.
- Start with the limited property value, or the full cash value where that is the applicable figure.
- Multiply by the assessment ratio for the class. Owner-occupied primary residences are Class 3, assessed at 10%, under A.R.S. § 42-15003.
- Subtract any approved exemption. What is left is the net assessed value.
- Apply the rates. Arizona quotes every rate per $100 of net assessed value, so $60,000 of assessed value is 600 rate units.
| Class | What it covers | Assessment ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Commercial | 16.5% |
| Class 2 | Agricultural, nonprofit and other | 15% |
| Class 3 | Primary residential, owner-occupied | 10% |
| Class 4.1 | Non-primary residential | 10% |
| Class 4.2 | Residential rental | 10% |
Primary taxes fund the day-to-day maintenance and operation of counties, cities and towns, and school districts. Secondary taxes fund bonded debt, special district taxes, and voter-approved overrides of statutory limits. They are levied at separate rates on the same bill, which is why a single quoted rate for anywhere in Arizona is almost always incomplete. The distinction matters in a brand-new subdivision, where bonds and special districts do most of the varying.
The Arizona Constitution, article 9, section 18, caps the primary tax collected from residential property at 1% of full cash value in any tax year. That ceiling covers the primary tax only — bonded debt and other secondary levies sit outside it, so a total bill can exceed 1% of value.
2.What a $600,000 Queen Creek Home Pays, Line by Line
This uses Maricopa County’s published tax year 2026 rates for tax area 952500, which pairs the Town of Queen Creek with Queen Creek Unified School District #95. Two assumptions, stated up front: the $600,000 is this year’s full cash value, and the limited property value is assumed equal to it. That is the worst case, because the 5% cap usually leaves an established home’s limited value lower.
| Line | Rate per $100 | Arithmetic | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full cash value, assumed | — | Given | $600,000 |
| Limited property value, assumed equal | — | Never above full cash value; rises 5% a year at most | $600,000 |
| Assessed value, Class 3 at 10% | — | $600,000 × 10% | $60,000 |
| Rate units | — | $60,000 ÷ $100 | 600 |
| Maricopa County, primary | 1.1463 | 1.1463 × 600 | $687.78 |
| Community college district, primary | 1.0776 | 1.0776 × 600 | $646.56 |
| Town of Queen Creek, primary | 1.4648 | 1.4648 × 600 | $878.88 |
| Queen Creek Unified #95, primary | 3.3903 | 3.3903 × 600 | $2,034.18 |
| Raw primary total | 7.0790 | 7.0790 × 600 | $4,247.40 |
| Less the owner-occupied state aid rebate | −1.5128 | −1.5128 × 600 | −$907.68 |
| Primary tax actually billed | 5.5662 | 5.5662 × 600 | $3,339.72 |
| Secondary tax, county and college and school bonds | 2.6226 | 2.6226 × 600 | $1,573.56 |
| Estimated annual total | 8.1888 | $3,339.72 + $1,573.56 | $4,913.28 |
The rebate line is Additional State Aid for Education, which automatically credits a percentage of school district taxes on owner-occupied homes and appears as its own line on the real bill. It is also the backstop for the constitutional cap: where primary taxes on an owner-occupied home would exceed 1% of full cash value, the state pays the difference in school taxes. That credit is why Maricopa County publishes both a raw Primary Rate and a lower Approx Residential Primary Rate for every tax area. Quote the wrong column and this estimate is off by $907.68.
The secondary line is published by the county as one blended 2.6226 for the tax area. It bundles the county’s flood control, library, fire district assistance, Central Arizona Water Conservation District and special health care district levies, the community college district’s secondary levy, and Queen Creek Unified’s 1.9508 bond levy.
The Town’s slice: $878.88 of an estimated $4,913
The Town’s primary rate is $1.46 per $100 for FY2026-27, adopted by Ordinance 891-26 on June 3, 2026 and effective July 1 — down from $1.55, and carried as 1.4648 on Maricopa County’s 2026 table. The Town reports a median-valued home’s Town portion at about $429 a year, unchanged since a five-year property tax freeze policy was adopted in 2022: the levy is held flat for existing owners, so the rate falls as new construction adds value. The levy is expected to raise about $15.5 million in FY2026-27. The Town levies no secondary property tax on either county side.
This is an illustration built from published rates, not a bill, and it is general information rather than tax advice. Your parcel’s limited value will not be a round number, exemptions change the net assessed value, and rates reset annually. Confirm anything that matters with the county assessor, the county treasurer or your own tax professional.
3.Same Town, Three Tax Areas: The School District Sets the Bill
Maricopa County’s 2026 table lists three tax area codes pairing a school district with the City of Queen Creek. The county, the community college district and the Town charge identical rates in all three. The school district does not, and neither does the rebate that offsets it.
| Tax area | School district | Raw primary | Primary billed to owner-occupied homes | Secondary | Estimated tax, $600,000 home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 952500 | Queen Creek Unified #95 | 7.0790 | 5.5662 | 2.6226 | $4,913 |
| 602500 | Higley Unified #60 | 6.7581 | 3.7805 | 2.0514 | $3,499 |
| 802500 | Chandler Unified #80 | 6.7600 | 5.2472 | 2.9723 | $4,932 |
The raw primary rates sit within a third of a point of each other. The rebate is what separates them: area 602500 bills owner-occupied homes 3.7805 against a raw 6.7581, while area 952500 keeps 5.5662 of its 7.0790. On the same house that is roughly $1,400 a year between the cheapest and the dearest of the three — real money against a mortgage payment, and invisible when comparing neighborhoods on price per square foot.
Do not infer a school assignment from a tax area code, or a tax area code from a subdivision name. A parcel’s tax area is printed on its own record at the county assessor; attendance boundaries are a separate matter, set by the districts themselves. Check the specific parcel, then confirm the district for that exact address — how to verify Queen Creek school boundaries walks through the district’s own lookup tool.
4.The Pinal County Side: What Is Verified and What We Will Not Estimate
Queen Creek straddles two counties, and the Town’s own annexation page is explicit that annexing land does not change the county it sits in. Two houses paying the identical Town rate can therefore carry different county and community college layers. Their school district layers can differ too, but on boundaries the districts draw themselves: Queen Creek Unified serves most of the Town on both county sides, so the county line is not what decides the school layer. Pinal County publishes its rates itemized by jurisdiction rather than pre-summed by tax area, and its most recent sheet as of September 20, 2026 is FY2025-26 — one cycle behind Maricopa’s.
| Layer on the Pinal County side | Primary | Secondary |
|---|---|---|
| Pinal County, primary levy plus two school reserve funds | 3.6630 | — |
| Pinal County Library District | — | 0.0890 |
| Pinal County Flood Control District | — | 0.1620 |
| Fire District Assistance | — | 0.0519 |
| Central Arizona College | 1.6460 | 0.1151 |
| Town of Queen Creek (older vintage of the same town-wide rate) | 1.5485 | 0.0000 |
| School district | Not verified for a Town parcel | Not verified |
Add those rows up and you still do not have a bill, because the school district line is missing — and in the Maricopa example that was the largest single line, $2,034.18 of a $4,247.40 raw primary total. J.O. Combs Unified #44 appears on Pinal’s sheet at 3.2092 for maintenance and operations plus 0.1027 capital outlay and a 1.0076 bond levy, but it principally serves San Tan Valley and its overlap with incorporated Town land could not be confirmed from a primary source. That is why no Pinal-side total, combined rate or estimated bill appears anywhere on this page: a figure missing its biggest component would be misleading rather than merely incomplete. Pull the parcel at the Pinal County Treasurer, where last year’s actual bill is itemized, and see how Queen Creek and San Tan Valley differ if you are weighing addresses near that line.
Pinal’s sheet shows the Town at 1.5485 and Maricopa’s shows 1.4648. There is only one Town rate, charged town-wide on both county sides, so 1.5485 is not a Pinal-specific rate — it is an older vintage of the same figure, published before the Town’s June 2026 cut, and Pinal’s next sheet should carry the lower number. Check which tax year a rate is labeled with before comparing two counties’ documents.
One more Pinal-side line to watch for: the Queen Creek Island Fire District, which serves unincorporated Pinal County land near Queen Creek, levied a secondary rate of 2.6306 on the FY2025-26 sheet, up from 2.2352 the year before. It is a separate taxing district rather than the Town’s own fire department, and it does not apply inside the incorporated Town.
5.When Arizona Property Taxes Are Due
The calendar is statewide, set by A.R.S. § 42-18052, identical in both counties, and unchanged by whether a mortgage servicer pays out of escrow on your behalf.
| Installment | Due | Delinquent after | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| First half | October 1 | 5 p.m. on November 1 | Any bill over $100 |
| Second half | March 1 of the following year | 5 p.m. on May 1 | Any bill over $100 |
| Whole bill, one installment | October 1 | 5 p.m. on December 31 | A total tax of $100 or less |
If a delinquency date falls on a weekend or holiday it moves to 5 p.m. the next business day. One trap: the Arizona Department of Revenue’s plain-English overview says a bill of $100 or less must be paid in a single installment by November 1, while A.R.S. § 42-18052(C) says it is due October 1 and delinquent only after December 31. The statute governs.
6.Do People Over 65 Pay Property Taxes in Arizona?
Yes, and the relief Arizona offers owners 65 and over is not an exemption from the tax. It is Senior Valuation Protection, the senior freeze, and it freezes the valuation rather than the bill. An approved application locks the limited property value for three years; the rates applied to that frozen value can still rise, so the tax can still go up.
| Requirement | Maricopa County | Pinal County |
|---|---|---|
| Age | At least one owner 65 or over | 65 or over |
| Residency | Two years of proof | Two years; occupied at least nine months a year; up to 10 acres on one parcel |
| Income limit | $47,712 one owner, $59,640 two or more, all sources, averaged over three years | Same limits |
| How to file | Online, by mail or by email | In person only — the page states no applications by mail are accepted |
| Window | January 1 to September 1 | September 1 cutoff; shown as closed on September 20, 2026 |
| Term | Three years, renewable | Three years, re-qualification required |
The limits and the three-year term are identical across the two counties, which suggests they are set at state level. The confirmed difference is the filing method, and it matters: a Pinal-side owner cannot post an application and faces the same September 1 deadline. That is worth putting on the calendar in January, not August, particularly across Queen Creek’s age-restricted and 55-plus communities. Maricopa County also runs an Elderly Assistance Fund, administered by the County Treasurer, that further reduces the primary school district portion for approved freeze participants; no equivalent was found on Pinal’s pages, which is not the same as confirming there is none.
Senate Bill 1224, enacted September 26, 2025, changed what happens when a participant loses eligibility. The limited property value is no longer simply unfrozen — the county must recalculate it under the Rule B calculation in A.R.S. § 42-13302, bringing the parcel into line with comparable properties that were never frozen. Named triggers include a change of ownership, the home ceasing to be the primary residence, a parcel split or merger, a value change above 15% from new construction or demolition, and a failure to renew.
7.Widow, Widower, Disability and Veteran Exemptions: the 2026 Numbers
This is where copied-and-pasted articles go wrong most often. The dollar figures written into A.R.S. § 42-11111 are base amounts; subsection (H) requires the Department of Revenue to index them upward every year — the exemption and income limits by a GDP price deflator, the assessment cap by a federal house price index from tax year 2026. The county assessors publish the operative figures, and they are meaningfully higher than the statute text.
| Item | Codified statute figure | 2026 operative figure |
|---|---|---|
| Exemption amount | $4,188 | $4,873, per the Maricopa County Assessor |
| Income limit, no children under 18 at home | $34,901 | $39,865 |
| Income limit, with qualifying children | $41,870 | $47,826 |
| Cap on total Arizona assessed valuation | $28,459 | Not restated on the Maricopa Assessor’s 2026 page; the statute indexes this cap annually from tax year 2026. Pinal County’s veterans page states $36,454 for the veteran exemption. |
Note what the exemption reduces: it comes off the assessed value, not off the bill. At tax area 952500’s combined 8.1888 per $100, a $4,873 exemption is worth about $399 a year — real, but not the several thousand dollars the headline figure suggests to a first-time applicant.
- Rated 100% service-connected disabled by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, including individual unemployability or total disability: the primary residence is fully exempt, with no dollar cap, under A.R.S. § 42-11111(C).
- Rated below 100%, or with a non-service-connected disability: the $4,873 is multiplied by the VA disability percentage, then applied by share of ownership. The Maricopa County Assessor’s own example is $4,873 × 60% = $2,924, applied to a 50% share where two owners are on title. An honorable discharge is required.
- One category only. Under A.R.S. § 42-11111(N) an individual cannot claim more than one of the widow, widower, total-and-permanent-disability and disabled-veteran categories, even when eligible for more than one.
The Maricopa County Assessor states that income qualifications apply to all applicants, including those seeking the 100% service-connected veteran exemption, citing HB 2672 and SB 1749 — which the statute text alone does not make obvious. Deadlines are early: February 28 in Maricopa County, or September 1 with an approved waiver. Pinal County publishes its window — the first Monday in January to the last day of February, with first-time applicants required to apply in person — on its veterans exemption page; it does not publish a deadline for the widow, widower and total-disability categories that we could verify, so ask the Pinal County Assessor directly for those. Confirm current figures on the Maricopa County Assessor or Pinal County pages before filing.
8.Special Districts, CFDs and the CAGRD Line
A community facilities district is defined in A.R.S. § 48-701 as a tax-levying district formed by a municipality — or by a county in an unincorporated area, or in an incorporated area with the municipality’s consent — for a public infrastructure purpose: sewage and water systems, streets, parks, public buildings. Where one exists, its assessment is a secondary tax with its own line on the county property tax bill — which is where a buyer would see it, rather than in any summary rate quoted for a town or a tax area.
Neither county’s official special-district rate table contains a row naming Queen Creek as the host municipality, and a search of the Town’s own site returned nothing on CFDs. Maricopa’s table does list a “Cortina CFD” with no city column — that row is not confirmed to relate to the Queen Creek neighborhood of the same name, and the City of Goodyear in the far West Valley operates a community facilities district called Cortina. Treat any claim that a specific Queen Creek subdivision carries a CFD as unverified until you see the line item on that parcel’s own tax bill.
A line that does appear on most Queen Creek utility customers’ bills comes from the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District. The Town reports the CAGRD assessment currently sits on roughly 89% of those customers’ property tax bills — a share of the Town’s utility base, not of Queen Creek addresses generally — and has posted a Notice of Intent for a Water Resource Fee that would eventually replace it — moving the cost from the property tax bill to the utility bill — with a public hearing set for November 18, 2026. As of September 20, 2026 it is proposed, not adopted; the detail sits with the Town’s water rates and supply plan. None of this covers HOA dues, billed by the association rather than the county, or the sales tax that differs by county side.
9.The Five-Minute Check Before You Sign
Each item below can be done from a phone in a parking lot, and together they replace the guesswork that produces a surprise in the first October after closing — the same discipline the 30-day relocation checklist applies to utilities and registrations.
- Pull the actual prior-year bill from the county treasurer instead of estimating — it is the only figure on this list that is not a projection.
- Find the parcel record: the Maricopa County Assessor parcel search on one side, the Pinal County Assessor property search on the other.
- Read the tax area code on that record. On the Maricopa side it tells you which of the three published combined rates applies.
- Compare full cash value against limited property value on the parcel record. The tax is calculated on the limited value, which can rise at most 5% a year and can never exceed full cash value, so a wide gap means the taxed value sits well below the market number.
- Scan the bill’s secondary lines for a special district, a fire district, a CFD or a CAGRD assessment — these are what make two similar houses bill differently.
- If an owner aged 65 or over will be on title, check the senior freeze window now; it closes September 1, and Pinal County requires an in-person filing.
- Put October 1 and March 1 on the calendar, then check that your lender is escrowing both halves out of your monthly payment.
One framing for buyers arriving from out of state: Arizona quotes rates per $100 of assessed value rather than as a percentage of price, which makes a cross-state comparison awkward. The portable version of the example above is about 0.82% of taxed value for tax year 2026 in tax area 952500 — and the taxed value is often below market value. Anyone planning a move from California or from Chicago should run parcel-level numbers rather than a state-versus-state average.