If Marana is the Tucson metro's fastest-growing town on the northwest side, Sahuarita is the south-side counterpart that quietly keeps adding rooftops without making national headlines. The town sits about 15 miles south of downtown Tucson along Interstate 19, framed by the Santa Rita Mountains to the east and the Sierrita Mountains to the west. As of the most recent estimates, Sahuarita's population is approximately 38,994 — up roughly 13.5 percent from the 2020 census count of 34,356, with an annualized growth rate near 2.0 percent. Heading into summer 2026, three threads are worth paying attention to at once: a unanimously approved 10-year General Plan that goes to voters on July 21, an 111-lot Quail Creek expansion working through administrative review, and the new Club Del Toro recreation center inside Rancho Sahuarita scheduled to open this spring. Here is a fully sourced walk-through for buyers, sellers, and relocators evaluating the town right now. ~38,994 — Estimated 2026 population (World Population Review). ~13.5% — Population growth since the 2020 census. 111 lots — Quail Creek II Unit 38 plat under review (40.27 acres). Jul 21, 2026 — Ballot date for the 10-year General Plan Where Sahuarita Sits in the Tucson Metro Sahuarita is part of Pima County, incorporated in 1994, and is the south-side complement to the Tucson metro alongside neighboring Green Valley to the south. Drivers reach downtown Tucson in roughly 20 to 25 minutes via I-19, and Tucson International Airport is about 15 to 20 minutes north of central Sahuarita. The town is sandwiched between two mountain ranges — the Santa Ritas to the east, home to Madera Canyon and the highly birded Mount Wrightson area, and the Sierritas to the west — which gives the daily backdrop a different character than the more enclosed feel of central Tucson or Oro Valley's Catalina-foothills frame. The Santa Cruz River runs through the town and is a defining piece of the local trail network and open-space planning. The Housing Market: What the Numbers Show This Spring Sahuarita's housing market has cooled modestly year-over-year, in line with the broader Tucson metro shift toward balanced-to-slight-buyer territory. Per Zillow's Sahuarita home values data, the typical home value in the town is approximately $357,544, down about 0.2 percent over the trailing year, with town-wide average sale prices closer to $360,000 in early 2026. Homes are typically going under contract in roughly 19 days. At the neighborhood level, Redfin's Rancho Sahuarita market data shows the average sale price at about $324,000, down approximately 8.1 percent year over year — a reminder that headline town-wide numbers can mask meaningful differences between subdivisions. Mortgage rates have averaged in the low-to-mid 6 percent range so far in 2026, per Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, which is the same financing backdrop shaping the rest of the metro. Three Communities, Three Different Profiles Sahuarita's housing stock is dominated by master-planned communities, and the three most prominent each serve different households at different price points. The differences are worth understanding before narrowing a home search. Rancho Sahuarita (Master-Planned, Lake & Splash Parks, Multiple Builders): The largest active master plan in town, Rancho Sahuarita is built around a community lake, splash parks, a clubhouse, and an extensive paseo and park network. Production builders currently active inside the master plan include D.R. Horton, KB Home, and Century Communities, with new-construction price points typically ranging from the upper $200,000s into the $500,000s. Schools in the Sahuarita Unified district serve the community, and the new Entrada del Toro neighborhood sits between Sahuarita Road and El Toro Road just off I-19. Quail Creek (55+ Active Adult, Robson Communities, Resort Golf): Quail Creek is a Robson Resort Communities 55-and-older master plan built around a 27-hole championship golf course, resort-style pools, fitness centers, pickleball, and a long list of clubs and activities. Resale and new-construction homes have generally listed in the mid-$300,000s up into the $900,000s. A new 111-lot expansion on roughly 40 acres — Quail Creek II Unit 38 — is currently working through Sahuarita's administrative tentative-plat review process. Madera Highlands (Established, Mountain Views, Single-Family): Madera Highlands is the more established master plan on the east side of I-19, with a longer-tenured single-family housing stock, parks, and trail connections oriented toward the Santa Rita Mountains. The community typically appeals to buyers prioritizing established landscaping and resale inventory over brand-new construction, and it offers some of Sahuarita's stronger eastward mountain views. The General Plan: What the Council Approved and What Voters Decide in July Arizona requires every incorporated municipality to update its General Plan at least every 10 years and submit the document to voter ratification. Sahuarita's last General Plan was ratified by voters in 2015. On February 23, 2026, the Sahuarita Town Council unanimously approved the final draft of the 2025 General Plan and sent it to the July 21, 2026 ballot. According to the Town's General Plan Update page and the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, the draft includes updated land-use guidance, conservation provisions tied to a Pima County, Tucson, and Oro Valley collaborative planning effort, and the Town's formal opposition to any 'West Option' alignment for the proposed Interstate 11 project. For buyers and sellers, the General Plan does not directly change zoning on a specific parcel — but it sets the policy framework that future zoning, infrastructure, and conservation decisions in Sahuarita will be measured against for the next decade. Quail Creek II Unit 38: 111 Lots Under Administrative Review Per the Town's planning project listings and the March 2026 Community Development Project Activity Highlights, the Quail Creek II Unit 38 tentative plat proposes 111 new single-family lots on approximately 40.27 acres south of Quail Crossing Boulevard and east of Campbell Avenue. The applicant is B&R Engineering, the first review was logged on October 30, 2025, and the second review was logged on December 5, 2025. Tentative plats in Sahuarita are approved administratively rather than by Council vote — meaning the project does not require a public hearing for plat approval if it conforms to the underlying zoning and the General Plan. For buyers actively shopping Quail Creek, the practical implication is that the master plan's runway of new-construction inventory is being extended; for sellers in the existing Quail Creek units, it is a forward-looking supply consideration worth being aware of when sequencing a listing. Club Del Toro: A New 9,039-Square-Foot Recreation Center This Spring Inside Rancho Sahuarita, the Entrada del Toro neighborhood — built jointly by D.R. Horton, KB Home, and Century Communities — is anchored by a new private recreation facility scheduled to open in spring 2026. Per the Town's project tracking and Rancho Sahuarita's own announcements, Club Del Toro is approximately 9,039 square feet and sits near El Toro Road and Rancho Sahuarita Boulevard. The facility is planned to include a community park, fitness center, swimming pool, splash pad, and basketball and pickleball courts, and is designed to complement the existing Rancho Sahuarita amenity package rather than replace it. New residents and existing Rancho Sahuarita homeowners alike will see the rec center come online in the same spring window that the General Plan campaign and the Quail Creek expansion are progressing. Quick orientation: roughly 39,000 residents, 15 miles south of downtown Tucson, three master-planned communities at three different price and lifestyle profiles, a 10-year General Plan headed to the July 21 ballot, an 111-lot Quail Creek expansion under administrative review, and a new 9,039-square-foot recreation center scheduled to open this spring inside Rancho Sahuarita. Schools: Sahuarita Unified School District Most Sahuarita addresses fall within Sahuarita Unified School District (SUSD30), which serves roughly 6,431 students from preschool through 12th grade with a student-teacher ratio of approximately 17 to 1, per district and Niche data. Sahuarita High School is rated 'B+' on Niche's 2026 rankings and is also profiled by U.S. News on its Best High Schools list; Walden Grove High School also serves the district. As with any school search, Arizona allows open enrollment and charter alternatives, and the district's specific attendance boundaries can change over time — buyers prioritizing a particular school assignment should verify the boundary against the home's exact address with the district directly rather than relying on aggregator pages. What It Means for Buyers For active buyers, Sahuarita in spring 2026 looks like a market with reasonable choice and modestly softer pricing than a year ago. The Zillow town-wide value reading is essentially flat year over year, while the Redfin neighborhood data points to selectively larger price corrections in specific subdivisions. Homes that are well-presented and accurately priced are still going under contract inside about three weeks at the local level. The new-construction pipeline — Entrada del Toro inside Rancho Sahuarita, Quail Creek II Unit 38 once approved, plus continuing builder activity — means buyers can comparison-shop production builders against resale inventory in the same drive. As elsewhere in the Tucson metro, the buyers having the strongest experience this spring are the ones fully underwritten before writing offers and clear on which trade-offs (newer construction vs. mountain views vs. age-restricted amenities) actually matter most to them. What It Means for Sellers For sellers, the south-side market mirrors the metro-wide pattern: well-priced listings sell on a roughly three-week clock, while listings priced ahead of the most recent comparable sales risk multiple price reductions before they close. The active-listing share with at least one price reduction across the broader Tucson metro was roughly 48 percent as of the March MLSSAZ release, and the Sahuarita-specific data points published by Redfin and Zillow are consistent with that pattern. Seller success this spring is largely a pricing and presentation discipline question: pricing to recent closed comps rather than the most optimistic active listing, presenting the home well in photos, and being prepared to respond to reasonable inspection items quickly. What It Means for Relocators and Second-Home Buyers For out-of-state buyers evaluating Sahuarita as a primary residence or seasonal home, the town offers a meaningfully different package than central Tucson, Marana, or Oro Valley. Households without a school-age commitment and shoppers focused on age-qualified active-adult living will find Quail Creek among the most amenity-dense 55-plus options in the Tucson metro. Households with children will find Sahuarita Unified to be a mid-sized district with multiple A- or B-rated schools per Niche's 2026 grading. And households prioritizing access to outdoor recreation will find Madera Canyon and the Santa Rita Mountains — one of the most heavily used birding and hiking destinations in southern Arizona — within a roughly 30-minute drive. As always, ZIP-code-by-ZIP-code differences in pricing, HOA structure, and commute math matter; the metro-wide average is a starting point, not a replacement for a focused look at the submarket and street where a specific buyer would actually live. What to Watch in the Coming Weeks Three data points are worth tracking through summer. First, any update to the Quail Creek II Unit 38 tentative plat status on Sahuarita's planning projects page — administratively approved plats are typically the first formal step before lot-level construction permits. Second, the Town's monthly Community Development Project Activity Highlights, which list every active subdivision, commercial, and infrastructure project in Sahuarita and are the single best source for forward-looking development. Third, the General Plan campaign in advance of the July 21 ballot — the Town has scheduled informational sessions and is publishing the draft document on its General Plan Update page. For ongoing market data, MLSSAZ publishes the prior month's full statistics in the second or third week of the following month, and Zillow and Redfin update their town-level dashboards more or less continuously. If you are weighing Sahuarita against another Tucson-area submarket — Marana, Oro Valley, Vail, the Catalina Foothills, or central Tucson — the right answer is rarely the metro-wide average; it is whichever submarket actually fits how you want to spend a typical week. Walking each of them at the street level, in the season you'll actually live in them, is almost always the deciding factor. Sources World Population Review — "Sahuarita, Arizona Population 2026," 38,994 estimate and 2.02% annual growth (worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/arizona/sahuarita). U.S. Census Bureau — Sahuarita town, Arizona, 2020 census count of 34,356 (data.census.gov; census.gov/quickfacts/sahuaritatownarizona). Town of Sahuarita — General Plan Update page, draft 2025 General Plan, and Town Council unanimous approval on February 23, 2026 (sahuaritaaz.gov/1260/General-Plan-Update). Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection — "Conservation wins in Sahuarita," February 26, 2026, on conservation provisions and I-11 'West Option' opposition (sonorandesert.org/2026/02/26/sahuarita-general-plan/). Town of Sahuarita — Voter Information 2026 page and July 21, 2026 ballot date (sahuaritaaz.gov/1275/Voter-Information---2026). Town of Sahuarita — Planning Projects and Community Development Project Activity Highlights, March 2026, including Quail Creek II Unit 38 (111 lots, 40.27 acres, applicant B&R Engineering, first review 10/30/2025, second review 12/05/2025) and Entrada del Toro Recreation Center (9,039 sq ft) (sahuaritaaz.gov/799/Planning-Projects). Rancho Sahuarita — "New Neighborhood by D.R. Horton Now Open in Entrada Del Toro" and Club Del Toro amenity description (ranchosahuarita.com). KB Home — "Grand Opening of Its Newest Community at Rancho Sahuarita," August 2025 (businesswire.com). Robson Resort Communities — Quail Creek master-plan amenities and 55+ designation (robson.com/communities/quail-creek/). Zillow — Sahuarita, AZ Housing Market: 2026 Home Prices & Trends, $357,544 typical home value (zillow.com/home-values/47502/sahuarita-az/). Redfin — Sahuarita Housing Market and Rancho Sahuarita Housing Market dashboards (redfin.com/city/15973/AZ/Sahuarita/housing-market; redfin.com/neighborhood/405818/AZ/Sahuarita/Rancho-Sahuarita/housing-market). MLSSAZ / MLS of Southern Arizona — March 2026 monthly market statistics for the Tucson metro context (mlssaz.com; tucsonrealtors.org/mlssaz-statistics/). Freddie Mac — Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 30-year fixed mortgage rate 2026 weekly averages (freddiemac.com/pmms). Sahuarita Unified School District (SUSD30) — district enrollment and schools (susd30.us). Niche — 2026 Sahuarita Unified School District Rankings (niche.com/k12/d/sahuarita-unified-school-district-az/). U.S. News & World Report — Best High Schools, Sahuarita Unified District (usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/arizona/districts/sahuarita-unified-district). All data current as of April 26, 2026. This post is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase real estate. Kyle Berglund and Tierra Antigua Realty fully support and comply with the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act.