Pima County, Arizona Eviction Risk: Low

Pima County carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.9/10, placing it in the Moderate tier, yet that average obscures real variation across the county's 49 cities and census-designated places. More telling is the county's rank: it sits at 1 of 15 Arizona counties, meaning no other county in Arizona scores higher on risk. Landlords operating here face a market where renter share runs at 35.1% of households and average rent sits at $1,324 per month, with rent burden averaging 31.2% of renter income, a combination that historically correlates with elevated lease-compliance stress and collections difficulty.

For investors sizing up Pima County against alternatives in Arizona, the picture is nuanced. The county's 1.0 million residents create genuine demand, and many suburban nodes are meaningfully safer than the county average suggests. However, the intra-county spread from 2 to 3.2 out of 10 means neighborhood selection is as important here as it is almost anywhere in the state, and due diligence on individual zip codes is not optional.

The cities inside Pima County

The highest-risk locations in the county are Flowing Wells, South Tucson, Chiawuli Tak, and Haivana Nakya, each scoring 2.3/10, the ceiling of what any city here reaches. Tucson proper, with a population of 547,073, scores 5.3/10, as do Casas Adobes (population 72,059) and Drexel Heights (population 27,675). These higher-risk communities concentrate near or within the core urban area, and landlords with units in those corridors should build longer vacancy buffers and tighter screening protocols into their underwriting.

The lower end of the spectrum tells a different story. Green Valley, with 22,114 residents, scores just 2.5/10, the lowest in the county by a meaningful margin. Sahuarita scores 2.7/10, and Oro Valley comes in at 2.4/10, both substantially below the county average. Marana (population 56,938) sits at 2.4/10. The core lesson is that eviction risk in Pima County is hyper-local: two properties separated by a few miles can carry materially different risk profiles.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord in Pima County operates under the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (A.R.S. § 33-1301 et seq.). The notice schedule is relatively landlord-favorable: nonpayment of rent triggers a 5-day notice under ARS § 33-1368(B), a curable material noncompliance requires a 10-day notice under ARS § 33-1368(A), and terminating a month-to-month tenancy requires 30 days under ARS § 33-1375. An uncontested eviction typically resolves in 21 to 35 days; contested matters run 60 to 120 days. Arizona state law preempts any local attempt at rent control, and no just-cause requirement applies to terminations, which provides landlords with meaningful lease-management flexibility. The Arizona eviction process does carry real out-of-pocket costs: court filing fees range from $210 to $350, sheriff lockout fees add $50 to $150, and attorney fees commonly run $500 to $3,000, depending on contest level. Understanding Arizona eviction costs upfront lets investors model worst-case cash flow before acquiring here. Landlords who want the full picture on rules covering deposits and habitability should also review Arizona security deposit limits and Arizona tenant protections under A.R.S. § 33-1324.

With a poverty rate averaging 14.3% across the county, the risk spread from Green Valley to Flowing Wells is not cosmetic, and the city-level grid above is the most direct tool for pinpointing where within Pima County an investment stands on that spectrum.