Where the buying is: twelve months of Maricopa County, from the public record.
Every real-estate sale in Arizona records an Affidavit of Property Value — buyer, price, property type, and intent — as a public document. We read all of them. This first briefing maps where development-purpose buying concentrated, who the biggest buyers were, and what Mesa's building permits say about who is actually building.
Updated 19 August 2026
We corrected this briefing after finding a counting flaw in our first pass. Large apartment complexes and bulk lot purchases record a single deed against hundreds of separate parcels, so counting parcels overstated how often companies were buying. Every figure here now counts transactions, not parcels. The countywide company-buyer share moves from 17.7% to 11.4%, and three areas leave the top of the table. The central finding held: South Phoenix 85040 still shows roughly three times the company buying of 85041 next door.
57,521
recorded transactions, Sep 2025 – Aug 2026
$495K
median single-family sale price
11.4%
of transactions by companies & investment entities
10.8%
of buyers declared rental intent on the affidavit
The big buyers
Builders, build-to-rent capital, and one iBuyer.
The largest buyers fall into three distinct patterns. Production builders assemble land in bulk deals. Build-to-rent and apartment capital arrives in single enormous purchases. And Opendoor buys ordinary houses one at a time, in more ZIP codes than anyone else.
| Buyer | Parcels | Deals | Dollars | ZIPs | Pattern |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lennar Arizona LLC | 593 | 79 | $111M | 12 | Production builder assembling land across the Valley |
| Civic Square Build to Rent I LLC | 290 | 1 | $124M | 2 | One purchase: an entire build-to-rent community |
| Opendoor Property Trust I | 191 | 191 | $89M | 77 | iBuyer: single homes, one at a time, everywhere |
| Arrowhead Residences LLC | 361 | 1 | $82M | 1 | One purchase: an apartment complex |
| Weekley Homes LLC | 172 | 39 | $59M | 6 | Production builder, staged land takedowns |
| KL LB Buy 7 LLC | 254 | 4 | $50M | 5 | Bulk lot acquisition pool |
| Meritage Homes of Arizona Inc | 211 | 1 | $17M | 2 | Single large land takedown |
Dollar totals are de-duplicated by deed, so a single deal covering many parcels is counted once.
Where it concentrates
The ZIP codes where companies are buying hardest.
Share of transactions made by companies and investment entities, and share that were development-type property — land, commercial or multifamily. Minimum 100 recorded transactions; each deed counts once, however many parcels it covered.
| ZIP | Area | Entity buyers | Dev-type purchases | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85009 | Phoenix (West / Estrella) | 35% | 26% | Cheapest close-in ZIP; small local companies buying houses and small industrial alike |
| 85007 | Phoenix (Capitol / Grant Park) | 33% | 30% | State-capitol edge; land and commercial dominate the company purchases |
| 85040 | Phoenix (South Mtn / Riverpoint) | 32% | 27% | Legacy South Phoenix — the development wave has clearly arrived |
| 85281 | Tempe (downtown / ASU) | 29% | 13% | Student-adjacent rentals; the highest rental-intent share in the metro |
| 85017 | Phoenix (Alhambra) | 27% | 10% | Working-class rental accumulation along the Grand Ave corridor |
| 85008 | Phoenix (East / Sky Harbor N) | 27% | 13% | Airport-adjacent mix of rentals and small commercial |
| 85006 | Phoenix (Garfield / Coronado) | 26% | 15% | Historic-district infill and small multifamily |
| 85031 | Phoenix (Maryvale) | 24% | 5% | Almost entirely houses — landlord accumulation, not development |
Five areas, up close
Pilot profiles: South Phoenix, West Phoenix, Maryvale, West Mesa.
263 sales$365K median32% entity buyers13% rental intent
Development-type property — land, commercial, multifamily — made up 27% of transactions, the second-highest share we measured. This is the most institutionally-bought legacy neighborhood in the county.
479 sales$375K median10% entity buyers10% rental intent
The contrast that matters: one ZIP south of 85040, company buying drops by two thirds and nearly every purchase is a family buying a house. The wave has a front line, and it runs between these two ZIP codes.
258 sales$310K median35% entity buyers21% rental intent
The highest company-buyer share in the metro and the lowest median price of any area we profiled. Notably, 89 of its 91 company purchases came from operators buying five parcels or fewer all year — small local businesses, not institutions.
128 sales$330K median24% entity buyers23% rental intent
Nearly a quarter of all buyers told the county they intend to rent the property out — landlord accumulation in the cheapest houses inside city limits, with almost no development-type purchases.
299 sales$353K median17% entity buyers16% rental intent
The busiest attached-housing market among our pilot areas — condos and townhomes were roughly a third of sales — with mobile-home community buyers active as well.
The building ledger
Mesa issued 5,177 permits worth $2.1 billion.
Mesa publishes every building permit through an open API — contractor names and valuations included. Twelve months of it shows commercial construction (1,396 permits, $1.8B) towering over residential (3,334 permits, $319M) in dollar terms, and it names who is doing the work.
| Contractor | Permits | Valuation | Work |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCL Builders Arizona LLC | 4 | $290M | Industrial |
| Marco Contractors Inc | 1 | $157M | Commercial |
| Wes Pac Construction | 2 | $80M | Commercial |
| Ryan Companies | 6 | $62M | Commercial |
| Big D Construction | 3 | $58M | Commercial |
| Shea Homes | 170 | $55M | Residential — highest permit count in the city |
| MT Builders LLC | 11 | $51M | Multifamily |
What this means
Three takeaways for the people who build.
For investors
The institutional wave has a visible front line — 32% company buying in 85040 against 10% next door in 85041. Areas just behind the line still trade at neighborhood prices while the wave approaches.
For contractors
Mesa's permit ledger names every active builder and what their projects are worth. Where company buying concentrates today, renovation and construction contracts follow within months — 85009 and 85040 are where to be known.
For developers
Build-to-rent capital is paying nine figures for finished communities. Small developers who can deliver attached housing — West Mesa's condo/townhome market being the busiest we measured — are building what that capital buys.
Method & sources
Built from the Maricopa County Assessor's public sales-affidavit file (recorded sales, September 2025 – August 2026, prices over $10,000) and the City of Mesa's open building-permit data, pulled August 18, 2026. The 57,521 transactions here cover 61,957 parcels; every share and count is de-duplicated by deed, so a single purchase covering many parcels counts once. Entity buyers are identified by name pattern (LLC, LP, Inc, and similar); family trusts are not counted as entities. Public records carry recording lags and omit prices on exempt transfers such as foreclosures and family transfers, so figures are close, not exact — and this briefing is information, not investment advice. Sources: Maricopa County Assessor data downloads · City of Mesa Data Hub · Arizona Corporation Commission.
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