8 Best Places To Call Home In Arizona In 2026

In Jerome you can sip wine in a 1900s saloon perched halfway up a mountainside. In Cottonwood you can spend a Saturday tasting your way along a high-desert wine trail. In Tombstone you can wake up on the same streets Wyatt Earp once walked. Each of these eight towns offers its own slice of Arizona character. Better yet, they come with home prices that still fit a normal budget. That rare mix of story and affordability is what makes them worth calling home.

Jerome

Jerome is the smallest of the towns on our list, with 464 residents counted at the 2020 census. Built on the steep slope of Cleopatra Hill, this former copper-mining town reinvented itself as a ghost town and artist colony after the mines closed in the 1950s. Its haunted reputation, anchored by the Jerome Grand Hotel in its former hospital building, draws visitors who like a good ghost story. For those who would rather hold a glass than a flashlight, Caduceus Cellars runs a tasting room on Main Street, and the town's galleries and boutiques fill the old storefronts that miners once crowded.

Cottonwood

Wine lovers should put Cottonwood near the top of their Arizona list. This old Verde Valley town has turned its history into a draw, with both indoor and outdoor activities for every age. The Verde Valley Wine Trail threads through its vineyards, wineries, and tasting rooms, the densest concentration of them in the state. Historic Old Town and the river-and-trail recreation along the Verde keep the appeal going long after the last pour.

Globe

Globe sits in the mountains of east-central Arizona, ringed by lakes and hiking trails that make a Saturday morning hike or a weekend camping trip easy to plan. Its history runs deeper than the scenery, too. Besh Ba Gowah Archaeological Park preserves a 700-year-old Salado pueblo, while the Gila County Historical Museum and the Cobre Valley Center for the Arts fill out a downtown that still does its own shopping. With home prices well below the state median, Globe is one of Arizona's better-kept secrets for buyers priced out elsewhere.

Bisbee

If you want Arizona without the worst of the heat, Bisbee makes a strong case. This former copper boomtown sits about a mile high in the Mule Mountains, and that elevation keeps average summer highs well below Phoenix and Tucson, though triple-digit afternoons are still possible. Affordable Victorian houses climb the canyon walls, an attraction in their own right. Pair them with the mining history at the Queen Mine Tour and the open-air art along the town's painted walls, and Bisbee earns its devoted following.

Eloy

For an affordable home base within reach of the big cities, Eloy delivers. This growing Pinal County city runs a cost of living about 10% below the national average and sits roughly halfway between Tucson and Phoenix on I-10. Skydivers already know the name: Eloy is home to Skydive Arizona, the largest skydiving center in the world.

Even if jumping out of planes is not your idea of a weekend, Eloy has more to offer. Nearby Picacho Peak rises about 1,500 feet above the Sonoran Desert and marks the site of the 1862 Battle of Picacho Pass, often described as the westernmost Civil War engagement with fatalities. The surrounding state park draws hikers and picnickers most of the year. Casa Grande and its East Florence Boulevard shopping and dining strip are a short drive away.

Winslow

Anyone who has dreamed of an address on Route 66 can afford one in Winslow, where typical home values and median sale prices sit around the low $200,000s. The low cost of living and the steady stream of things to see make it an easy place to settle. Meteor Crater, one of the best-preserved impact sites on Earth, lies about 20 miles west of town. Closer in, Winslow's downtown keeps its Route 66 character alive with local shops and diners, and the corner immortalized in song still draws a daily crowd of photographers.

Kingman

Kingman puts the lights of Las Vegas under two hours up US-93 without the Nevada price tag on a house. It is also the largest town on this list, with a population near 36,000, and its home values still run below Arizona's statewide norms. Winters are mild, and the high-desert scenery is a draw in its own right. The Arizona Route 66 Museum, housed in the historic Powerhouse downtown, is the signature stop, but hiking trails fan out into the surrounding mountains. When the appetite hits, Mr. D'z Route 66 Diner has been the local pick for decades.

Tombstone

If the Old West runs in your blood, Tombstone is the town. Home prices fall below the state median, and you can walk the same streets Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp once did. The reenacted gunfights, the famous Boot Hill Graveyard, and a stroll down Allen Street keep the 1880s within arm's reach. There is no shortage of ways to fill a day here.

Settling In, Arizona Style

What ties these eight towns together is the math: lower home prices than the coasts or the state's big metros, attached to places with real character rather than cul-de-sac sameness. A mining slope in Jerome, a wine trail in Cottonwood, a Route 66 diner in Kingman, a gunfight reenactment in Tombstone. Each makes a different argument for the same idea, that an affordable Arizona address can still come with a story worth telling your neighbors.