Home construction hasn’t stopped in Pinal County, even if it is steadily depleting its stash of subdivisions with enough water to build.

In fact, the number of housing units in the county grew by an estimated 3.5% from 2021 to 2022, the fastest rate in Arizona and one of the fastest in the nation.

But industry advocates warn that strong demand could turn to economic calamity when developers burn through this already approved housing supply.

And some say it would be nearly impossible for homebuilders to add new projects to the pipeline, because the state now requires that they secure a renewable supply before getting the OK to build.

But what if finding those supplies isn’t nearly as impossible as some might think?

Homebuilder D.R. Horton recently finalized the largest private water deal with Gila River Water Storage (more commonly known as GRWS, pronounced “grows”).

GRWS is a partnership between the Gila River Indian Community and Salt River Project to help build........

© Arizona Republic