Arizona and Maricopa County rules that meet an appraisal
Full cash value and limited property value
The Maricopa County Assessor puts two values on a house. Full cash value is the Assessor's estimate of market value, made by mass appraisal, and A.R.S. 42-11001 says it may not be greater than market value. Limited property value is the figure property taxes are calculated on. Under Article IX, section 18 of the Arizona Constitution, for taxes levied since tax year 2015 it is the lesser of full cash value or five percent more than the prior year's value, and A.R.S. 42-13301 states the same rule. So the two figures can move in opposite directions. In the Assessor's own Tax Year 2027 example, a parcel's full cash value fell from $496,200 to $485,600 while its limited value rose five percent, from $337,800 to $354,690. The limit is on the value; tax rates are then applied to it, so it is not a cap on the tax bill. A.R.S. 42-13302 sets a different rule in listed cases, among them construction or demolition worth fifteen percent or more of full cash value and a parcel that is split or consolidated. Both figures also carry a date. For real property the valuation date is January 1 of the year before the taxes are levied, and the Assessor mailed its 2027 notices on February 20, 2026. Neither figure is a value on the day a Phoenix homeowner died or on the date a divorce court chooses.
An estate in the Superior Court
When a Maricopa County resident dies, A.R.S. 14-3201 puts venue for the estate in the county of domicile, so the case goes to the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County. Its Probate and Mental Health Department oversees decedents' estates. Papers are filed with the Clerk of the Superior Court at any of the court's filing counters, three of them in Phoenix and one each in Surprise and Mesa. A.R.S. 14-3706 gives a personal representative ninety days after appointment to prepare an inventory. It lists each item with its fair market value as of the date of the decedent's death and says whether the item is community or separate property. Section 14-3707 says the personal representative may employ a qualified and disinterested appraiser for any asset whose value may be subject to reasonable doubt. Section 14-3708 calls for a supplementary inventory if a value in the first one proves erroneous or misleading. Two other sections matter for an Arizona house. Under A.R.S. 33-405 a beneficiary deed, recorded before the owner dies, transfers the property to the named beneficiary at death. And under A.R.S. 14-3971 a successor may claim real property by affidavit, no sooner than six months after the death, if among other conditions all the Arizona real property in the estate, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $300,000. For that test the section takes the full cash value on the assessment rolls for the year of death, which is the Assessor's figure, not an appraisal.
A divorce and the date of value
Arizona is a community property state. A.R.S. 25-211 makes property acquired by either spouse during the marriage community property, except property acquired by gift, devise or descent, or after service of a petition that results in a decree. A.R.S. 25-213 keeps as separate property what a spouse owned before the marriage. In a dissolution, A.R.S. 25-318 has the court assign each spouse that spouse's separate property and divide the community property equitably, though not necessarily in kind. None of those three sections names the date on which a house is to be valued. In Meister v. Meister, a 2021 opinion in an appeal from the Superior Court in Maricopa County over the value of a community business, the Arizona Court of Appeals noted the absence of a specific standard, or even a presumption, in Arizona. It repeated that the selection of a valuation date rests within the wide discretion of the trial court and is tested on review by the fairness of the result. Dissolutions in this county are heard by the Superior Court's Family Department, which sits in Phoenix, Surprise and Mesa. None of the statutes above, by itself, says that a Maricopa County estate or divorce must have a professional appraisal; whether yours needs one is a question for your Arizona attorney. Each kind of assignment has its own page on this site: valuations for probate in Maricopa County, an appraisal for a divorce and a date-of-death appraisal for the IRS step-up.
Inherited property and federal tax basis
Federal income tax asks a separate question, with its own date: IRS Publication 551 says the basis of inherited property is generally its fair market value at the date of the individual's death, or on the alternate valuation date if the personal representative chooses it. The publication names Arizona among the community property states. There, when either spouse dies, the total value of the community property, even the part belonging to the surviving spouse, generally becomes the basis of the entire property, provided at least half its value is includible in the decedent's gross estate. Publication 555, written for couples in Arizona and the eight other community property states, states the same rule. For a married couple's Phoenix house that can mean a new basis for the whole property, not for half of it, though how the rule applies to one return is a question for a tax adviser.
Flood maps, flood irrigation and earth fissures
In Maricopa County the first mapped condition is flood. The Flood Control District of Maricopa County, created in 1959, is responsible for floodplain management in unincorporated areas and in 14 communities, Chandler and Mesa among them. Phoenix, Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, Tempe and Gilbert conduct their own. The District's online Floodplain Viewer shows current designated floodplains, and the District warns that flood hazards also exist in areas no study has documented. The National Weather Service dates the monsoon season from June 15 through September 30. On September 8, 2014, Phoenix Sky Harbor recorded 3.30 inches of rain in about seven hours, the most on a calendar day since Phoenix records began in 1895. On Phoenix's floodplain clearance form, improvements to a property not shown to meet current FEMA requirements are tracked over a rolling five years, and improvements above 50 percent of the structure's value count as substantial.
Flood irrigation is the second. City and National Register documents describe irrigated residential lots in Arcadia and along North Central Avenue, and Tempe runs its own irrigation service. Salt River Project delivers water to the highest point of a neighborhood; from there, SRP says, the ditches, channels or pipelines are owned, operated and maintained by the property owners and their neighbors. The water is tied to the land, and SRP says the allotment cannot be transferred, bought or sold. Residential subdivisions are scheduled about every 14 days from April to September and every 28 days from October to March, with none during the annual canal maintenance period. An appraisal of an irrigated Phoenix lot notes the delivery valve and the berms that hold the water.
Earth fissures are the third. The Arizona Geological Survey describes them as cracks on valley floors that result from subsidence tied to extensive groundwater withdrawal, and says they occur in Maricopa County. A.R.S. 27-106 has the Survey map known fissure areas and send the maps to the Department of Real Estate. The notice the statute prescribes under each map says the map supplements, and is not a substitute for, a professional inspection of property. The Survey's map titles for Maricopa County include the Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler Heights and Luke study areas. Its map records add that a blank area on a fissure map does not guarantee that no fissure is present.
Historic zoning and the city limit
Two lines on a map change which rules a Phoenix-area house answers to. One is historic zoning: Phoenix lists more than 35 residential historic districts. In each, the Historic Preservation Office reviews exterior work that needs a building permit: minor work may get a Certificate of No Effect over the counter, and other projects go to a public hearing for a Certificate of Appropriateness. The other line is the city limit: land on a county island answers to Maricopa County's zoning and permits, not the surrounding city's. Under A.R.S. 33-422, the seller of five or fewer parcels of land, other than subdivided land, in an unincorporated area gives the buyer an affidavit of disclosure at least seven days before the transfer and records it with the deed. The statutory form covers legal access, road maintenance, floodplain status, water and wastewater, and whether solar devices are leased or owned.
Pools, solar panels, associations and age limits
Four more things belong in the description of a Maricopa County house. A pool: the Assessor's glossary has a pool entry that says whether the parcel includes an in-ground swimming pool. A.R.S. 36-1681 calls for an enclosure at least five feet high around a swimming pool, with listed exceptions, and Phoenix says an approved pool barrier must remain in place for the life of the pool. Solar panels: for property tax, A.R.S. 42-11054 treats solar energy devices for on-site use as adding no value. That rule is for the Assessor's valuation; it does not speak to what a buyer pays. If the system is leased, A.R.S. 44-1763 requires the agreement to disclose any restriction it puts on transferring the house, including whether a third party must approve. An association: in a planned community of fifty or more properties, A.R.S. 33-1806 has the association deliver the resale documents within ten days after written notice of a pending sale; with fewer than fifty, the seller delivers them. An age limit: A.R.S. 41-1491.04 exempts housing for older persons from the state's familial status rules, and for housing meant for residents fifty-five or older it calls for rules requiring that at least eighty percent of the units have an occupant of that age. In unincorporated Maricopa County an age limit can also come from zoning, through the county's Senior Citizen overlay.
Before asking for a quote
Before asking for a quote on a Maricopa County home, find three things. The first is the Assessor's parcel number, which the Assessor's website finds from an owner name or an address. The second is the date of value: the date of death for an estate inventory, or the date the court or the attorneys settle on in a Maricopa County divorce; the third is the name of everyone who will rely on the report. This site's fee figures are in the 2026 post on the cost of a real estate appraisal in Phoenix.