Oro Valley residents spent $1.18 billion elsewhere in 2024, study shows

A new report by the town of Oro Valley shows just how much money is slipping through Oro Valleys fingers.

In 2024, residents living in three Oro Valley ZIP codes spent more than $1.18 billion at restaurants and retailers outside of town. That figure comes from a first-of-its-kind leakage study conducted by the Town of Oro Valley using Placer.ai data analytics software.

The study found residents made 13.4 million shopping and dining trips outside the town last year, with purchases ranging from food and gas to cars and appliances. Most notably, Oro Valley has no car dealerships, resulting in 100% of vehicle sales leaking to other communitiesa total of $195.85 million in lost auto sales alone.

"We knew that was going to be a 100 percent source of leakage," said Paul Melcher, the towns Comm