Atascadero, California.
Typical home $782,615 (+2.2% in a year), asking rent $2,445 (+5.8%). San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,129 (+108%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $16,662 +2%
- $765,954$782,615 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $141,034 +22%
- $641,581$782,615 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.
- Atascadero$4,108
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Atascadero, CA rose 2.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Atascadero, CA rose 5.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Atascadero runs $2,946/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $3,127 in Nov 2023.
That is $5,391 a month against $2,445 rent: a $4,108 mortgage payment, plus $446 property tax and $838 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Atascadero
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$5,391
- Renting$2,445
- Mortgage only$4,108
Property tax · $446/mo 0.68% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for San Luis Obispo County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $838/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 Atascadero, San Luis Obispo County, California
Atascadero is a city of 29,773 people in San Luis Obispo County. Half its households earn more than $91,429 a year and half less, against $97,446 across San Luis Obispo County; 11% of its people live below the poverty line. 65% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 35% are rented. Unemployment in Atascadero was 3.9% in August 2026, and San Luis Obispo County had 0.3% fewer 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. Atascadero is a city in San Luis Obispo County whose residents are, on the whole, in their middle years. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values and rents run high. Household incomes sit a little below the county's, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild and cool, with lows that can dip toward freezing, and summers are hot; snow is rare and the rainfall is modest.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, professional and business services, and the building trades also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in town are DSH-Atascadero, the state psychiatric hospital, and Atascadero Unified, the school district, along with the Vons grocery store. The county has lost a few jobs over the past year, and unemployment in town has eased a little over the same stretch. Commutes are of middling length, and a fair number of people work from home.
Things to do. In or beside town, Charles Paddock Zoo is a small zoo, and Atascadero Lake is a reservoir with a shoreline to stroll. A longer drive away, Cayucos State Beach offers the Pacific coast, and Morro Bay State Park is a protected area of shoreline and estuary. The San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden is another longer trip for those who enjoy a quiet garden walk.
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- 11,579households
- 32%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 14%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. San Luis Obispo County had 121,634 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 61° and lows near 33°; warmest in August, with highs near 92° and lows near 53°. About 15 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Paso Robles weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Atascadero
- DSH-AtascaderoHospitals, psychiatric1,828
- Atascadero UnifiedSchool district505FTE
- VonsSupermarkets and other grocery stores126
- Kellie Avila Construction ServicesFlagging services70
- Atascadero Pet CenterVeterinary services, pets and other animal specialties58
- Springhill Suites Paso RoblesResort hotels without casinos48
- AtascaderoMail and parcel delivery46
- Smart & FinalSupermarkets and other grocery retailers44
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,508 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (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
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Wildfirerelatively high in parts of AtascaderoRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Atascadero’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 San Luis Obispo County and the San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA metro.
Atascadero home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Atascadero$782,615
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Atascadero listings, and the typical home goes pending in 28 days — 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.
- Atascadero29.96%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Atascadero28
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Atascadero77
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Atascadero24
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Atascadero$804,315
- United States$371,553
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Atascadero99.43%
Zip codes with a Atascadero address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Atascadero — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.