Sierra Vista, AZ · Updated Oct 2026

What a Sierra Vista home costs each year

Property tax, water, trash and energy from public rates. Look up your address to make it yours, and see how to pay less.

Suggestions as you type come from Google; the lookup uses free public map services to find who serves it. Not stored unless you save your house.

Example · a Sierra Vista house

$5,749a year · $479 a month

Starts at $196,395 of value before exemptions. Typical use.

A typical Sierra Vista house costs about $5,800 a year: $1,540 property tax and charges, $740 water and sewer, $330 trash, $2,130 electricity and gas, $1,020 home insurance. Estimated from public rates, not anyone's actual bill.

Rates checked Oct 21, 2026. Insurance: what you enter, or a typical premium until you do. Sources are listed at the bottom.

Ways to pay less

Nothing here applies to every house automatically. These are worth checking:

Switch to the 65-gallon cartUp to $41 a year
Your cart costs $27 a month; the smallest costs $24. Worth it if you rarely fill it.
How: Use the city's trash and sewer service forms to change or cancel your existing service, or stop by City Hall, 1011 N. Coronado Drive; Public Works answers trash questions at (520) 458-5775.
Pay trash and sewer for a year in advance and save 10%10% off trash and sewer
The city takes 10% off when you pay for a year of trash and sewer service in advance. The annual period is July 1 through June 30, and accounts on yearly billing cannot be placed on hold.
How: After service is set up, complete the Update My Trash/Sewer Account form and select the Billing Cycle option.
WaterSense toilet rebate from the city$50 to $100 per toilet
Replacing an older toilet with an EPA WaterSense model that uses 1.28 gallons or less per flush earns a rebate of $50 to $100, up to 2 per household. Applicants must be active City of Sierra Vista residential sewer customers.
How: Apply online or with the WaterSense Toilet Rebate Application on the city's rebate page.
Widowed, totally disabled or disabled veterans: property tax exemptionUp to $4,873 off assessed value
Arizona allows a $4,873 assessed value exemption for 2026 to qualifying widows and widowers, totally and permanently disabled owners and disabled veterans (multiplied by the VA disability percentage; 100% service-connected veterans are fully exempt). Household income cannot exceed $39,865, or $47,826 with dependents under 18, and total assessed value cannot exceed $36,865.
How: File the Affidavit of Individual Tax Exemption (Form 82514) with the Cochise County Assessor between January 2 and March 1, every year.
Seniors 65+: Senior Property Valuation Freeze
Owners 65 or older who have lived in the home at least 2 years, with average income under $47,712 (one owner) or $59,640 (two or more), can freeze the home's full cash value for three years. It does not freeze the tax bill, the Limited Property Value or the tax rate.
How: Apply to the Cochise County Assessor by September 1.

Money dates

Nov 2, 2026in 9 daysUnpaid first-half 2026 property taxes become delinquent after 5 pm (November 1 is a Sunday, so it moves to the next business day), and interest of 16% a year applies from then.
Dec 31, 2026in 68 daysPay the full year by December 31 and any interest accrued after November 1 no longer applies.
Mar 1Last day of the January 2 to March 1 filing period for the widow/widower, disability and disabled veteran exemption with the Cochise County Assessor.
May 3, 2027Unpaid second-half 2026 taxes become delinquent after 5 pm (May 1 is a Saturday, so it moves to the next business day).

Who serves this house

Water: Liberty Utilities (Bella Vista Water); Liberty Utilities (Bella Vista Water) rates effective July 1, 2025: monthly charge for a 5/8 x 3/4-inch meter ($21.97 plus surcharges); the per-1,000-gallon tiers are the same for 5/8 x 3/4-inch and 3/4-inch meters
Property tax: 0.78% of value; 2026 tax year, Cochise County (City of Sierra Vista, Buena/SV elementary and Buena high school districts)
Garbage: City of Sierra Vista Public Works; Trash pickup twice a week (Monday and Thursday, or Tuesday and Friday), billed with sewer every two months
Sewer: City of Sierra Vista; $42.84 per two-month billing cycle, billed with trash
Electricity: Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative (SSVEC); Residential Schedule R: $30.00 a month plus 12.63 cents per kWh from January 1, 2026, plus a power cost adjuster
Gas: Southwest Gas; G-5 single-family residential service: $10.70 a month plus a charge per therm
Schools: Buena/SV elementary and Buena high school districts; 2026 rates per $100 of assessed value: 1.6454 primary and 0.2783 secondary (Buena/SV); 1.6373 primary and 0.1098 secondary (Buena)

Pay or manage your bills

Your water

Source: Groundwater from 18 wells, 100 to 1,000 feet deep, in the Sierra Vista Sub-Basin of the Upper San Pedro Basin; the City system serves about 21,398 people.
Standards: Liberty reports no contaminants detected above any federal or state drinking water standard.
Nitrate: Average 2.9 ppm in 2025 sampling (range 0.42 to 3.4); the limit is 10 ppm.
Arsenic: Average 0.81 ppb in 2019 sampling (range 0.52 to 1.1); the limit is 10 ppb.

Other AZ cities

Flagstaff home costs Peoria home costs Phoenix home costs Lake Havasu City home costs Maricopa home costs Scottsdale home costs Bullhead City home costs Mesa home costs

How these numbers are made

Property tax: Arizona taxes an owner-occupied home (Class 3) on an assessed value of 10% of its Limited Property Value (LPV), at rates per $100 of that assessed value, so each rate here is Cochise County's 2026 rate divided by 1,000 and applied to LPV. We use the common city tax area: City of Sierra Vista, Sierra Vista Unified #68 (which Cochise County lists as the Buena/SV elementary and Buena high school districts) and the countywide districts. Primary: county 2.6283, Cochise College 2.4020, city 0.0993 and schools 1.6454 + 1.6373, less the state homeowner rebate of 1.5128 (half of the FY 2027 qualifying tax rate of $1.5128 for each of the two school districts, per A.R.S. 15-972); secondary: schools 0.2783 + 0.1098, Cochise Joint Technical District 0.0500, library 0.1427, flood control 0.2436 and fire district assistance 0.1000. Total 7.8239 per $100 of assessed value, or 0.78239% of LPV.
The starting value is the average 2026 Limited Property Value of Class 3 (primary residential) parcels in the City of Sierra Vista from the Arizona Department of Revenue abstract: $2,132,453,095 over 10,858 parcels = $196,395 (an average, not a median). Their full cash value averages $231,982, so LPV runs about 85% of full cash value here. At $196,395 the tax is about $1,537 a year. The state rebate is capped at $600 a parcel, which only matters above about $397,000 of LPV. Parcels outside the city or in a fire district, light district or other special district pay different rates.
Water: Sierra Vista has no city water; private companies serve it. We use Liberty Utilities (Bella Vista Water), whose Bella Vista City system (AZ0402010, about 21,400 people) is the largest in the city; Pueblo del Sol Water Company and Arizona Water Company serve other neighborhoods at their own rates. Liberty rates effective July 1, 2025: $21.97 a month for a 5/8 x 3/4-inch meter plus the $0.49 rate case expense surcharge and the $0.07 Customer Assistance Tariff surcharge = $22.53, then $2.83 per 1,000 gallons up to 4,000 gallons, $4.83 to 10,000 and $6.55 above. Typical use is Liberty's average residential customer, 5,274 gallons a month (7.05 units of 748 gallons).
City trash and sewer are billed together every two months (rates effective July 1, 2026), so we halve them: 95-gallon trash bin $54.76 / 2 = $27.38 a month, 65-gallon $47.96 / 2 = $23.98, and flat sewer $42.84 / 2 = $21.42 regardless of water use. The city has no curbside recycling charge on this bill.
Electricity: SSVEC Residential Schedule R from January 1, 2026: $30.00 a month and 12.63 cents per kWh (8.13 power supply + 4.50 access), plus the 0.01-cent rate case surcharge = 12.64 cents per kWh, at 752 kWh a month, SSVEC's average residential member. The monthly Wholesale Power and Fuel Cost Adjuster is NOT included: SSVEC publishes no fixed figure for it, it changes month to month, and it can add a cent or more per kWh, so your bill may be higher. The REST surcharge was eliminated in 2026. The same rate applies all year.
Gas: Southwest Gas G-5 single-family residential, $10.70 a month plus $1.59037 per therm (statement effective September 1, 2026; the gas cost part changes monthly), at 24 therms a month, Southwest Gas's average residential customer. Sierra Vista's 2.00% city transaction privilege tax on utilities is added to electricity and gas; state and county taxes on utility bills and the city tax on the private water bill are not included. Insurance: Arizona's 2022 statewide average HO-3 premium (NAIC via Triple-I), not a Sierra Vista-specific figure.
Nothing here is legal, tax or insurance advice.

Sources

How Sierra Vista compares

A typical Sierra Vista house against the 9 Arizona cities we cover, using the same default numbers as the total above.

Per year	Sierra Vista	Median	Where it falls
Property tax rate	0.78%	0.78%	in the middle of 8 other Arizona cities we cover
Water	$480	$480	in the middle of 8 other Arizona cities we cover
Sewer and utility-bill fees	$257	$435	lower than 8 of the other 8 Arizona cities we cover
Trash	$329	$336	lower than 4 of the other 6 Arizona cities we cover
Electricity and gas	$2,129	$2,648	lower than 6 of the other 8 Arizona cities we cover
Home insurance	$1,018	$1,018	in the middle of 8 other Arizona cities we cover
Total	$5,749	$6,992	lower than 7 of the other 8 Arizona cities we cover

Cities bill differently (some put trash on the tax bill, some cover more services), so a higher number isn't necessarily worse. The property tax rate is compared instead of dollars because house values differ.

Questions to ask your candidates

Each one starts from a number above. Any candidate can answer them.

1. Sewer and utility-bill fees

The fact: Sewer and flat utility-bill charges here come to about $257 a year, lower than 8 of the other 8 Arizona cities we cover. Some cities bill sewer on the property tax bill instead, which is not counted here.

Ask: "Sewer and flat utility-bill charges here cost about $257 a year, lower than 8 of the other 8 Arizona cities we cover. What drives that cost, and would you change anything?"

2. Electricity and gas

The fact: Electricity and gas for a typical house here cost about $2,129 a year, lower than 6 of the other 8 Arizona cities we cover. Rates are set mostly by the utility and the state.

Ask: "Electricity and gas here cost about $2,129 a year for a typical house, lower than 6 of the other 8 Arizona cities we cover. Which parts of that can the city influence, and what would you do about them?"

See who is running in your city →

Common questions about Sierra Vista house costs

What is the property tax rate in Sierra Vista?

About 0.78% of the value before exemptions a year (2026 tax year, Cochise County (City of Sierra Vista, Buena/SV elementary and Buena high school districts)), plus flat charges on the same bill.

How much is property tax on a $500,000 house in Sierra Vista?

About $3,912 a year on $500,000 of the value before exemptions.

How much is the water bill in Sierra Vista?

About $61 a month for water and sewer at typical use (5,000 gallons a month) on Liberty Utilities (Bella Vista Water).

How much does trash pickup cost in Sierra Vista?

$24 to $27 a month, depending on the trash cart size (65-gallon, 95-gallon).

When is property tax due in Sierra Vista?

Nov 2, 2026: Unpaid first-half 2026 property taxes become delinquent after 5 pm (November 1 is a Sunday, so it moves to the next business day), and interest of 16% a year applies from then.

Can seniors lower their property tax or bills in Sierra Vista?

Yes. Switch to the 65-gallon cart (up to $41 a year): Your cart costs $27 a month; the smallest costs $24. Worth it if you rarely fill it.

How much does a house in Sierra Vista cost to run each year?

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