Only about 14 percent of Pima County is private land. The rest is the Tohono O'odham Nation, federal land and state trust land, which means the private rural parcels that do exist — around Vail, Corona de Tucson, Three Points, Picture Rocks, Marana's outskirts, Arivaca and Ajo — trade in a fairly thin market.
Unincorporated parcels fall under Pima County zoning, which the county's parcel layer reports directly; parcels inside Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita or South Tucson fall under city or town zoning. The Tucson AMA covers the metro basin, so groundwater for new subdivisions requires an assured water supply, while a single exempt domestic well is still the norm for an individual rural lot.
Pima County's assessor and GIS data are among the most complete in the state, including current zoning on every parcel. Our research tool reads that data directly.
What the public record says about Pima County
- County seat and size. Pima County's seat is Tucson. It counted 1,043,433 residents in the 2020 Census across 9,188.69 square miles of land. Source
- Groundwater designation. Parts of Pima County lie in the Tucson, Pinal and Santa Cruz Active Management Areas. Source
- Who owns the land. Pima County is 42% tribal land, 19% federal, 15% state trust and only 14% private. Source
Water and wells
Parts of Pima County lie in the Tucson, Pinal and Santa Cruz Active Management Areas. Whether a particular parcel is inside a boundary is a map question, not a county question — the parcel research tool checks ADWR's boundary layer for the exact parcel, and the well lookup guide shows how to find any registered well on it.
County offices for land research
These are the offices that hold the records a buyer, title company or attorney will ask about. Links marked unchecked link point to official county domains we have not yet opened ourselves.
| Assessor | www.asr.pima.gov unchecked link |
|---|---|
| GIS / parcel maps | www.pima.gov unchecked link |
| Recorder (deeds, easements) | www.recorder.pima.gov |
| Treasurer (property tax) | www.to.pima.gov unchecked link |
| Planning & zoning | www.pima.gov unchecked link |
Look up a parcel in Pima County
Enter an address or assessor parcel number. We pull the parcel record, FEMA flood zone, ADWR water designation and elevation from public sources and label where each one came from.
Sources
Checked 2026-10-02. Links go to the agency or publication named.
General information, not legal, tax or survey advice. First 48 Offers LLC is a real estate investment company that buys land. It is not a law firm, brokerage, surveyor or title company. Arizona statutes, county procedures and agency boundaries change, and every parcel turns on its own facts. Verify anything important with the county, the agency named, or an Arizona attorney before relying on it.