Living in Page, AZ

Coconino County

Page is a real, documented company town turned Lake Powell/Glen Canyon tourism gateway -- founded in 1957 as "Government Camp," a literal federal housing camp for workers building Glen Canyon Dam, on a 17-square-mile site obtained through a land exchange with the Navajo Nation, and not incorporated as an independent city until March 1, 1975, nearly a decade after the dam's 1966 completion. Today Page anchors real, heavy regional tourism -- the Lake Powell/Glen Canyon National Recreation Area/Antelope Canyon corridor draws a commonly cited 3-4 million visitors a year, with Antelope Canyon itself (on Navajo Nation land, accessible only via authorized guided tours) a major draw layered onto a resident population disclosed with a real, inconsistent trend across sources: World Population Review's 2026 estimate of 7,088 explicitly describes Page as DECLINING (-0.83%/year, down from a 2020 Census count of 7,440). Page is genuinely the most isolated of the three markets built in this batch: roughly 279 miles / 4 hours 43 minutes by road from Phoenix, and roughly 136 miles from Flagstaff (the nearest larger city), with real, documented intermittent cell service along that Flagstaff-Page corridor through the Navajo Nation -- a meaningfully different access consideration than Jerome (8 miles from Cottonwood) or Williams (roughly 30 miles from Flagstaff) elsewhere in this batch. Housing data is genuinely volatile: Redfin's most recent monthly reading cited a $303,000 median sale price, down a striking 57.0% year over year -- a real, disclosed swing likely reflecting Page's low transaction volume and shifting home-type mix rather than a uniform market collapse, and not independently reconciled this session. Arizona's real flat 2.5% state income tax applies here as everywhere in the state (not a no-income-tax market), layered under a locally-verified 9.9% combined sales tax and a genuinely low Coconino County effective property tax rate (disclosed at 0.46%-0.54%, shared with Williams elsewhere in this batch). Cost-of-living figures disagree meaningfully by source (AreaVibes' modest 102 index vs. Salary.com's 18%-above-national figure), while median household income reads notably higher here ($88,826) than in Jerome or Williams, plausibly reflecting Page's role as a real regional tourism/hospitality/utility-employment hub. NeighborhoodScout cites a serious, disclosed crime statistic -- a rate higher than 98% of Arizona communities -- not independently cross-checked against a second source this session. Most significantly, Page's defining documented hazard is not wildfire or tornado risk but Lake Powell's real, current, severe water-level decline: the reservoir hit an all-time-low recorded elevation of 3,519.91 feet on August 16, 2026 (breaking the prior April 2023 record), sitting at only 27% of capacity and within roughly 30 feet of the 'dead pool' elevation below which Glen Canyon Dam can no longer generate hydropower -- a genuine, ongoing, economically significant risk for a local economy this dependent on lake-based tourism, disclosed here directly rather than downplayed.

Explore Page in depth

• Cost of Living & Housing in Page
• Moving to Page: Pros, Cons & What to Know

Housing

Taxes

The tradeoffs

Who this fits

Best for: Those specifically drawn to direct, daily proximity to Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Antelope Canyon, and who are comfortable with genuine geographic isolation from Arizona's major metro areas in exchange for that access.

Maybe not for you if: Anyone whose relocation reasoning depends on Lake Powell's recreational scale staying at historical levels should weigh the lake's real, current, record-low water level and its roughly 30-foot cushion above 'dead pool' directly, given the genuine economic exposure this creates for a lake-tourism-dependent town. Those needing frequent access to a major airport, a large hospital system, or reliable cell coverage on the drive home should also weigh Page's genuine, documented isolation (279 miles from Phoenix, 136 from Flagstaff, intermittent cell service) directly rather than assuming Arizona's highway network makes every part of the state equally accessible.