Talk to just about any realtor in town and they’ll likely tell you that the housing market in Fountain Hills is pretty tight. Whether you’re looking to rent or buy, there aren’t a heck of a lot of options out there.

The result of that can be seen in the figures recently released for the 2020 census. As noted in our 1A reporting, the town has only grown by about 4,000 people in the past 20 years, only about 1,331 of those arriving since 2010.

“Slow growth” is one of those terms that traditionally carries a negative connotation when applied to a community. Questions start to pop up about the general perception of a town, its local government, schools and business community. Sometimes, though, slow growth just means there aren’t a lot of places to put any new residents. As noted above, it isn’t like we have dozens upon dozens of homes and apartments on the market, just sitting empty.

If you look at residential growth in the community since 2000, the curve isn’t exactly skyrocketing. We’ve had a couple of apartment complexes and a peppering of new homes pop up over the years, but not much that would give the population a place to really stretch its legs. In short, Fountain Hills is nearing build-out, which means our growth is just about at its limit.

That could change in the coming years, especially as more people flood into Arizona and developers start looking for more ways (and communities) to give them a place to live. For now, though, Fountain Hills seems to be rolling with the punches and continuing to grow at the expected rate.