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Carbone for AZ

Arizona Needs More Homes. So Why Are We Tying Up the Land?

Published 3 days ago • 1 min read

Dear LD25 Friends,

Last week, I wrote about housing affordability after our Legislative Town Hall at Arizona Western College.

One of the points I made was simple: Arizona has a housing supply problem, and access to land is a big part of it.

Now, new information from the Legislature's Joint Ad Hoc Committee on State Land Oversight shows why this conversation truly matters.

BUCKLE UP!

Arizona is currently short approximately 56,000 homes, while about 276,000 acres of potentially developable State Trust land sit within 10 miles of existing urban areas.

Yet in Fiscal Year 2026, the State Land Department auctioned:

6,704 acres for utility-scale solar.​
​307 acres for residential housing.

That's nearly 22 times more land for solar than housing during a housing shortage.

It's About Balance.

To be clear, this isn't about being against solar. Arizona needs reliable energy, and I've spent considerable time working on our state's long-term energy needs.

But we also need homes.

The committee found that residential auctions generated an average of approximately $356,646 per acre, compared with just $8,124 per acre for solar.

One of my House colleagues estimated that if the 6,704 acres had instead been available for housing at five homes per acre, they could potentially have accommodated about 33,500 homes.

That doesn't mean every acre should have become housing. But with tens of thousands of homes needed across Arizona, we should certainly be asking whether we're striking the right balance.

Housing Affordability Starts With Supply

Young families and first-time buyers are struggling to find starter homes they can afford.

Government can't simply declare that housing should cost less. But we can examine policies that restrict supply, drive up the cost of land, and make it harder to build.

That's why House members are asking tough questions about how State Trust land is being used and whether we're making the best long-term decisions for Arizona families.

We need energy. We need responsible growth. And we need homes.

I'll keep you updated as we learn more.

Sincerely,

Michael Carbone​
Majority Leader
Arizona House of Representatives

Carbone for AZ | LD25 | 600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
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