Albany, California.
Typical home $1,237,577 (+6.2% in a year), asking rent $2,694 (+5.8%). San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,859 (+79%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $72,350 +6%
- $1,165,227$1,237,577 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $51,405 +4%
- $1,186,172$1,237,577 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Albany$6,496
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 82 years.
Typical home values in Albany, CA rose 6.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Albany, CA rose 5.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Albany runs $5,928/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $6,077 in May 2024.
That is $8,622 a month against $2,694 rent: a $6,496 mortgage payment, plus $802 property tax and $1,325 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Albany
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$8,622
- Renting$2,694
- Mortgage only$6,496
Property tax · $802/mo 0.78% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Alameda County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,325/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Albany, Alameda County, California
Albany is a city of 20,271 people in Alameda County. Half its households earn more than $144,107 a year and half less, against $129,367 across Alameda County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 53% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 47% are rented. Unemployment in Alameda County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Albany is a small city in Alameda County, and its incomes are above the county's. Residents are more likely than not to rent rather than own, though the typical home is expensive to buy and the typical rent is high too. Adults here are very often college graduates. Winters are mild, with December the coldest month, summers are cool to warm, snow is rare, and rain is moderate across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with many others in professional and business services, manufacturing, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. In Albany itself, the largest workplaces include the Albany City Unified school district, Target and Belmont Village Albany. Many people work from home, and the typical commute is a fairly long one for those who travel to a job.
Things to do. San Francisco is a short drive away, and several of its best-known places are close by: the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, which is now a museum, and Lombard Street, a well-known tourist attraction. A longer drive brings you to Golden Gate Park, a large garden and park.
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- 7,631households
- 78%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 31 mintypical commute
- 38%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Alameda County had 783,094 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 59° and lows near 43°; warmest in September, with highs near 76° and lows near 54°. About 26 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Berkeley weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Albany
- Albany City UnifiedSchool district325FTE
- TargetDiscount department stores224
- Belmont Village AlbanyAssisted-living facilities with on-site nursing facilities164
- Agricultural Research ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture131
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores72
- Food Safety and Inspection ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture58
- Sutter Bay Medical FoundationHealthcare53
- Sutter East Bay Medical GroupHealthcare25
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 584 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- EarthquakesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Albany’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Alameda County and the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
Albany home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Albany$1,237,577
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Albany listings — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Albany17.53%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Albany30
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Albany10
Zip codes with a Albany address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Albany — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.