What are Fountain Hills property tax records, and how do you look them up?

A property in Fountain Hills has two separate public records, kept by two different county offices, not the town. The Maricopa County Assessor keeps the record of the property itself: who owns it, its legal description, its lot size, and its last recorded sale. The Maricopa County Treasurer keeps the record of the tax bill itself: what's owed, what's been paid, and the tax area the parcel sits in. Both are free to search, and both cover every address in Fountain Hills.

I'm Jen Keene, a REALTOR® with eXp Luxury in Scottsdale, AZ, and I'm the agent people call at every stage of their life. Fountain Hills is its own town, separate from Scottsdale, and it has no primary property tax of its own. That doesn't mean there's no record on a Fountain Hills address. It means the record lives with the county instead of the town, the same as it does everywhere else in Maricopa County.

1. Go to mcassessor.maricopa.gov. The search box is on the home page and covers every parcel in the county, Fountain Hills included.
2. Search by address, owner name, or parcel number. If you have the parcel number, enter the first eight digits, followed by the letter if there is one.
3. Open the parcel from the results. The record for that address comes up with the ownership, legal description, lot size, and sale information described below.

Pull up an address in Fountain Hills on the Assessor's site and the record shows the current owner's name, the property address, and the legal description, usually a subdivision name and lot number rather than a street-by-street description. It lists the lot size in square feet and marks the property's use, for example as a residential parcel. For a house, a separate section of the page carries the building details: living area, year built, and similar features.

The record also keeps the last recorded sale: the sale date and the sale price, plus the deed date and the deed number from that sale. And it shows which school districts the parcel sits in. For a Fountain Hills address, that's Fountain Hills Unified School District #98 for both the elementary and the high school level, not Scottsdale Unified.

What the record does not give you is the home's current market value. The Assessor sets two numbers for tax purposes, Full Cash Value and Limited Property Value, and Full Cash Value is meant to reflect what the home would sell for, but it's set once a year, so it isn't a current number. Limited Property Value is the number that gets taxed, and under Arizona's Proposition 117 it can rise by no more than 5% a year and can never be higher than Full Cash Value (A.R.S. 42-13301). Here's the full breakdown of what sets your tax bill and when it's due.

Go to treasurer.maricopa.gov. According to the Treasurer's own site, you can enter a parcel or account number, a name, a business name, an address, or a VIN to find the record. That's a different record from the Assessor's: it shows what's currently owed, your payment history, and lets you pay online. It doesn't carry the ownership and legal-description information the Assessor's record does, and it isn't where you go to appeal a value.

Fountain Hills has no primary property tax of its own, so the town's own line on that bill reads zero. The rest of the bill is built from the county, your school district, the state, and any special district on your parcel, such as the Fountain Hills Sanitary District. Here's the full rate, the due dates, and the senior relief program.

The Assessor's record keeps a deed number and a deed date for the last sale, and that number points to the actual recorded deed, filed with the Maricopa County Recorder. The Assessor's office sets the value and keeps the property record, and the Recorder's office is where the deed document itself and other recorded documents live. If you need the deed document rather than the Assessor's summary of it, the Recorder's office is where to ask.

Assuming no town tax means no record. Fountain Hills charges no primary property tax of its own, but the Assessor's and Treasurer's records on every address here are exactly as complete as they are anywhere else in the county.

Using a third-party site instead of the county's own. A number of sites repackage county property data and charge for a report the county gives away for free at mcassessor.maricopa.gov and treasurer.maricopa.gov, and a repackaged version can be out of date.

Treating Full Cash Value as today's market value. It's meant to reflect what the home would sell for, but it's set once a year, so it isn't a current number.

Reading last year's record as this year's answer. Limited Property Value can move by up to 5% a year, and a sale that closed since the last update won't show up until the Assessor's office processes it.

An old mailing address on file. If the county has an outdated address, the Assessor's Notice of Value and the Treasurer's bill can both go to the wrong place, which matters if you're relying on the mail to catch an appeal window.

If you need the ownership, legal description, lot size, or sale history on a specific Fountain Hills address, go to mcassessor.maricopa.gov and search by address, owner name, or parcel number. If you need the tax bill itself, what's owed and what's been paid, go to treasurer.maricopa.gov. Both are free, and neither one requires an account.

If you're buying in Fountain Hills and want help reading a specific record before you write an offer, or you're selling a Fountain Hills home and want your current value looked at alongside the Assessor's numbers, get in touch or call me at (480) 203-6605, and bring the address or the parcel number. Here's how closing costs work in Arizona once you're under contract, and here's how buying works in Arizona, step by step.