Alta, California.
Typical home $449,025 (+0.8% in a year). Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,033 (+78%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,448 +1%
- $445,577$449,025 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $7,590 +2%
- $441,436$449,025 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.
- Alta$2,357
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Alta, CA rose 0.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Alta, Placer County, California
Alta, in Placer County, had 615 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $96,792 a year and half less, against $115,998 across Placer County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 92% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 8% are rented. Unemployment in Placer County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Placer County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Alta is a small community in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Placer County. Almost all homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run below the county's. Winters are cold, with the coldest weather in December, while summers are warm. Rain and melted snow add up to a good deal over the year, more than in much of the country.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in shops, and in banks, insurance and property. Across Placer County, Sutter Roseville Medical Center is among the largest workplaces, along with California Department of Transportation facilities. Unemployment in the county is a little lower than it was a year ago, and the number of jobs has edged up.
Things to do. Sugar Pine Reservoir and Scotts Flat Reservoir are both a short drive away, and are the closest places for time by the water. Farther afield, Palisades Tahoe is one of the best known ski areas in the region, and Tahoe National Forest offers protected woodland to explore, each a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 7%below the poverty line
What people in Placer County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Placer County had 188,212 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 45° and lows near 34°; warmest in July, with highs near 78° and lows near 63°. About 62 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Blue Canyon Airport weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Placer County
- Sutter Roseville Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,633FTE
- Thunder Valley Casino ResortHotels, resort, with casinos2,232
- KFH - RosevilleGeneral hospital2,038FTE
- 24 Hour Home CareSenior citizens centers1,385
- City of Roseville Main OfficesPersonnel offices, government1,300
- Penumbra, Inc. - Roseville CampusCatheters manufacturing1,258
- Roseville City Elementary SchoolsSchool district1,143FTE
- Sierra CollegeTwo-year college1,122
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 362 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 57,395 people in all across the county; Alta has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24); 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
- WildfireVery high
- AvalanchesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Alta’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very high. 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 Placer County and the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA metro.
Alta home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Alta$449,025
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Alta6
Zip codes with a Alta address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Alta — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.