Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.
I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.
And while every neighborhood in Tucson might be more expensive than living in rural Arizona, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Tucson neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Tucson are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
92 cost of living index
94 cost of living index
97 cost of living index
95 cost of living index
90 cost of living index
96 cost of living index
96 cost of living index
92 cost of living index
94 cost of living index
88 cost of living index
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Arizona’s statewide median.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the cheapest Tucson hoods in 2026
To rank the cheapest places to live in Tucson, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.
Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- Overall Cost Of Living
- Rent To Income Ratio
- Median Home Value To Income Ratio
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 128 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Tucson.” We’re lookin’ at you, Fairgrounds.
We updated this article for 2026. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
The full plate
Detailed list of the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Tucson for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Cost Of Living Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fairgrounds | 92 |
| 2 | A Mountain | 94 |
| 3 | Mitman | 97 |
| 4 | Bravo Park Lane | 95 |
| 5 | Santa Cruz Southwest | 90 |
| 6 | Parkway Terrace | 96 |
| 6 | Barrio Centro | 96 |
| 8 | El Rio Acres | 92 |
| 9 | Las Vistas | 94 |
| 10 | San Ignacio Yaqui | 88 |
| 11 | Mortimore | 96 |
| 12 | Flowing Wells | 89 |
| 13 | Silvercroft | 94 |
| 14 | Westside Development | 101 |
| 15 | Rancho Buena | 90 |
| 16 | Harlan Heights | 98 |
| 17 | El Cortez | 96 |
| 18 | Broadway-Northeast | 107 |
| 19 | Country Glenn | 99 |
| 20 | Corbett | 97 |
| 21 | Cherry Avenue | 95 |
| 22 | Thunderbird Heights-Wilmot Desert | 97 |
| 23 | Ironwood Ridge | 109 |
| 23 | Doolen-Fruitvale | 96 |
| 25 | Elvira | 96 |
| 25 | Rose | 93 |
| 27 | La Madera | 100 |
| 28 | Sunnyside | 94 |
| 28 | Rillito | 113 |
| 30 | Dietz | 98 |
| 31 | Harrison East-South | 106 |
| 32 | Barrio Blue Moon | 94 |
| 33 | Naylor | 92 |
| 34 | Rita Ranch | 113 |
| 35 | Midtown | 94 |
| 36 | Julia Keen | 97 |
| 37 | Saint Cyrils | 91 |
| 38 | Myers | 96 |
| 39 | South Harrison | 104 |
| 39 | Wakefield | 92 |
| 41 | Wilshire Heights | 107 |
| 42 | Rosemont East | 110 |
| 42 | Highland Vista Cinco Via | 110 |
| 44 | Arroyo Chico | 105 |
| 45 | Colonia Del Valle | 104 |
| 46 | Rosemont West | 101 |
| 46 | Barrio Anita | 101 |
| 48 | Midvale Park | 101 |
| 49 | El Conquistador | 120 |
| 49 | Desert Palms Park | 113 |
| 49 | El Montevideo | 120 |
| 52 | Western Hills | 93 |
| 53 | Groves Lincoln Park | 103 |
| 54 | Miracle Manor | 91 |
| 55 | Sunset Villa | 96 |
| 56 | Toumey Park | 102 |
| 56 | Terra Del Sol | 100 |
| 58 | Stella Mann | 98 |
| 59 | Cabrini | 98 |
| 60 | Enchanted Hills | 97 |
| 61 | Mountain View | 97 |
| 62 | Lakeside Park | 101 |
| 63 | Eastside | 115 |
| 64 | Menlo Park | 105 |
| 65 | Mesquite Ranch | 118 |
| 66 | Drexel Park | 94 |
| 67 | Campbell-Grant | 109 |
| 68 | Keeling | 99 |
| 69 | Blenman-Elm | 113 |
| 70 | Richland Heights West | 101 |
| 71 | Poets Square | 113 |
| 72 | Civano | 120 |
| 73 | El Gheko | 105 |
| 74 | Dodge Flower | 95 |
| 75 | Barrio Santa Rosa | 102 |
| 76 | Broadmoor-Broadway | 121 |
| 77 | Hedrick Acres | 103 |
| 78 | Balboa Heights | 91 |
| 78 | Santa Rita Park | 99 |
| 80 | Barrio Hollywood | 97 |
| 80 | Peter Howell | 112 |
| 82 | South Park | 101 |
| 83 | El Presidio | 120 |
| 84 | Campus Farm | 101 |
| 85 | San Gabriel | 108 |
| 86 | Prince Tucson | 112 |
| 86 | Barrio Viejo | 116 |
| 88 | Armory Park | 106 |
| 88 | Northwest | 106 |
| 88 | Palo Verde | 107 |
| 91 | Bear Canyon | 131 |
| 92 | Limberlost | 98 |
| 92 | Amphi | 98 |
| 94 | Barrio San Antonio | 104 |
| 95 | Roberts | 100 |
| 96 | Starr Pass | 141 |
| 97 | Swan Way Park | 103 |
| 98 | Houghton | 130 |
| 99 | Udall Park | 107 |
| 100 | Ocotillo Oracle | 101 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 128 Tucson neighborhoods.
Summary
Summary: Lowest cost places to live in Tucson
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Tucson where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Tucson are Fairgrounds, A Mountain, Mitman, Bravo Park Lane, Santa Cruz Southwest, Parkway Terrace, Barrio Centro, El Rio Acres, Las Vistas, and San Ignacio Yaqui.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Tucson aren’t all cheap. Jefferson Park takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Tucson.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below. Not sold on Arizona? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Cheapest Neighborhoods In Tucson FAQs
What is the cheapest neighborhood in Tucson?
Fairgrounds is the cheapest neighborhood in Tucson for 2026. It posts the best combination of overall cost of living, rent against income, and home prices against income. A Mountain and Mitman are next.
What are the cheapest neighborhoods in Tucson?
The cheapest neighborhoods in Tucson are Fairgrounds, A Mountain, Mitman, Bravo Park Lane, Santa Cruz Southwest, Parkway Terrace, Barrio Centro, El Rio Acres, Las Vistas, and San Ignacio Yaqui. We ranked all 128 neighborhoods in the city.
How do you decide which neighborhoods are cheapest?
Three measures: an overall cost of living index, rent-to-income, and home-value-to-income, all from Census tract data. Scoring costs against local incomes keeps one luxury tower from skewing the math.
Is a cheap neighborhood a bad neighborhood?
Not necessarily — this ranking measures what things cost relative to income, nothing else. Check our safest neighborhoods in Tucson ranking before you sign a lease, because cheap and safe are separate questions.
What is the most expensive neighborhood in Tucson?
Jefferson Park lands at the expensive end of the 128 neighborhoods we scored. If your budget disagrees with it, the rest of the list runs cheaper.
