Elgin, Arizona.
Typical home $544,567 (+3.1% in a year). Nogales, AZ metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,569 (+122%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $16,523 +3%
- $528,043$544,567 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $84,429 +18%
- $460,137$544,567 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Elgin$2,858
- Arizona$2,187
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 21 years.
Typical home values in Elgin, AZ rose 3.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Elgin, Santa Cruz County, Arizona
Elgin, in Santa Cruz County, had 162 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Santa Cruz County was 9.0% in August 2026, and the county had 3.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Santa Cruz County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Elgin is a very small community in Santa Cruz County, home to only a few people, with a quiet, rural feel. Homes here are valued well above what the county's incomes might suggest, and very few residents live below the poverty line. Winters are cool and summers are hot, and the year brings only modest rain and melted snow.
Work. People in Elgin work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in government, and in transport, warehouses and utilities. Across Santa Cruz County, the largest workplaces include the Nogales Unified school district, the Santa Cruz Valley Unified school district and Walmart. The county has added jobs over the past year, though unemployment there remains close to where it stood a year ago.
Things to do. Las Cienegas National Conservation Area and Canelo Hills Cienega Reserve are both protected areas a short drive away, good for time outdoors. A longer drive reaches Coronado National Forest, a large protected area, and Parker Canyon Lake, a reservoir. Kartchner Caverns State Park is another protected area within a longer drive.
Report a mistake
- 1%below the poverty line
What people in Santa Cruz County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Santa Cruz County had 14,194 jobs in 2025, 3.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 59° and lows near 29°; warmest in June, with highs near 92° and lows near 57°. About 15 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Elgin South weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Santa Cruz County
- Nogales Unified District (4457)School district533FTE
- Santa Cruz Valley Unified District (4458)School district397FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters379
- Spectrum Plastics GroupPlastics manufacturing179
- Wholesum Farms ArizonaTomato farming, grown under cover130
- Carondelet Holy Cross HospitalCritical access hospital118FTE
- CSL BehringBlood and organ banks98
- Amphenol WSHE ApachePrivate warehousing and storage, refrigerated96
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 22 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,799 people in all across the county; Elgin has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- WildfireVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- Heat wavesVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Elgin’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Santa Cruz County and the Nogales, AZ metro.
Elgin home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Elgin$544,567
- Arizona$416,733
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Elgin17
Zip codes with a Elgin address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Elgin — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.