Arcata, California.
Typical home $468,443 (-3.7% in a year), asking rent $1,582 (+2.0%). Eureka-Arcata, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$737 (+43%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $18,079 -4%
- $486,522$468,443 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $48,525 -9%
- $516,968$468,443 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.
- Arcata$2,459
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Arcata, CA fell 3.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Arcata, CA rose 2.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Arcata runs $1,628/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,906 in May 2025.
That is $3,210 a month against $1,582 rent: a $2,459 mortgage payment, plus $250 property tax and $502 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Arcata
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$3,210
- Renting$1,582
- Mortgage only$2,459
Property tax · $250/mo 0.64% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Humboldt County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $502/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 Arcata, Humboldt County, California
Arcata is a city of 18,857 people in Humboldt County. Half its households earn more than $46,713 a year and half less, against $61,160 across Humboldt County; 27% of its people live below the poverty line. 36% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 64% are rented. Unemployment in Humboldt County was 5.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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. Arcata is a small city with a young population, noticeably younger than most places, and most homes are rented rather than lived in by their owners. Incomes run below the county's, and a larger share of people live in poverty than you might expect, which fits a town with many students. Winters are cool and summers stay mild, with little or no snow and a good deal of rain across the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and professional and business services. The biggest workplaces in town are California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt, MAD River Community Hospital and Danco Builders. Commutes are short, a fair number of people work from home, and a four-year degree is common among adults.
Things to do. The Arcata Community Forest is a protected area in or beside town, good for walking among the trees. The Arcata Wastewater Treatment Plant and Wildlife Sanctuary, also in or beside town, is listed as a museum and draws people who like to watch birds. A short drive away, the Mad River offers a place to be by the water, and the Arcata Theatre Lounge in town is a theatre for an evening out.
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- 7,884households
- 46%of adults have a degree
- 27%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 15%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Humboldt County had 52,251 jobs in 2025, 0.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 55° and lows near 40°; warmest in August, with highs near 64° and lows near 53°. About 40 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Eureka Weather Office Woodley Island weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Arcata
- California State Polytechnic University-HumboldtUniversity or college1,189
- MAD River Community HospitalGeneral hospital415FTE
- Danco BuildersMultifamily building construction general contractors301
- City of ArcataCity and town managers' offices190
- Wing InflatableInflatable rubber boats, heavy-duty, manufacturing185
- O&M IndustriesStructural steel erecting or iron work contractors137
- KokatatPants, waterproof outerwear, cut and sewn from purchased fabric105
- North Coast Co-op ArcataGrocery stores104
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,618 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- EarthquakesVery high
- Coastal floodingRelatively high
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of ArcataRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Arcata’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Humboldt County and the Eureka-Arcata, CA metro.
Arcata home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Arcata$468,443
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Arcata listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Arcata33.17%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Arcata52
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Arcata16
Zip codes with a Arcata address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Arcata — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.