Tonto Basin, Arizona.
Typical home $338,186 (-0.3% in a year). Payson, AZ metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — $177 (-9%) since Nov 2023.
- 1 year
- Down $926 -0%
- $339,112$338,186 since Sep 2025
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.
- Tonto Basin$1,775
- Arizona$2,187
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Tonto Basin, AZ fell 0.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Tonto Basin, Gila County, Arizona
Tonto Basin, in Gila County, had 1,444 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $50,762 a year and half less, against $61,986 across Gila County. 91% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 9% are rented. Unemployment in Gila County was 5.0% in August 2026, and the county had 4.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Gila County work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Tonto Basin is a small community in Gila County, and nearly everyone who lives here owns their home. Household incomes run below the county's, while the typical home is valued well above what those incomes might suggest. Winters are mild and cool rather than harsh, and summers are very hot, with modest rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Residents mostly work in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in shops, and in the building trades. Across Gila County, some of the biggest employers are Freeport McMoRan, which runs copper smelting and rod milling, Gila County Government, and Cobre Valley REG. Medical Center. Unemployment across the county is higher now than it was a year ago, and the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Tonto National Forest is in or beside town, and so is Sears-Kay Ruin, an archaeological site. A longer drive brings you to Theodore Roosevelt Lake, a reservoir, and to Tonto National Monument, another archaeological site. Together they offer time outdoors and a look at the area's older history.
Report a mistake
- 851households
What people in Gila County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Gila County had 15,339 jobs in 2025, 4.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 60° and lows near 32°; warmest in July, with highs near 103° and lows near 72°. About 16 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Punkin Ctr weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Gila County
- Freeport McMoRanCopper smelting and rod milling911
- Gila County GovernmentBoards of supervisors, county and local473
- Cobre Valley Reg. Medical CenterCritical access hospital343FTE
- Whiteriver Unified District (4394)School district304FTE
- Payson Unified District (4209)School district297FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters286
- Apache Gold CasinoCasino with hotel273
- San Carlos Unified District (4210)School district265FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 26 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,792 people in all across the county; Tonto Basin has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); 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
- Inland floodingVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Tonto Basin’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Gila County and the Payson, AZ metro.
Tonto Basin home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Tonto Basin$338,186
- 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.
- Tonto Basin15
Zip codes with a Tonto Basin address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Tonto Basin — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.