4 new Arizona housing bills were just signed into law. Leaders hope they'll help rising costs

Gov. Katie Hobbs this week signed four housing-related bills into Arizona law. She said she hopes the legislation will help rein in rising costs.

"It’s not just the dream of homeownership that’s out of reach for so many today, it’s even the goal of stable, affordable rental housing," Hobbs said during the signing event Wednesday. "Making sure that Arizonans are not priced out of housing has been a top priority of my administration."

The National Low Income Housing Coalition ranks Arizona’s housing shortage for extremely low income people second-worst in the nation. The organization estimates the state is 133,684 housing units short of demand for extremely low income renters.

The new laws aim to expand housing stock and streamline the process for new construction.

House Bill 2720 requires municipalities with more than 75,000 residents to adopt regulations to allow accessory dwelling units, or casitas, to be built on lots with single-family homes.

Similarly, House Bill 2721 requires those municipalities to allow development of duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes or townhomes on all lots zoned for single-family residential use.

The other two laws address zoning issues. House Bill 2297 requires some municipalities to allow multifamily residential development for up to 10% of the total existing commercial, office or mixed use buildings.

Senate Bill 1162 is intended to speed up the approval process for construction projects. It requires some municipalities to publish regular housing needs assessments and to establish set time frames to review zoning applications.