Atwater, California.
Typical home $418,754 (+1.1% in a year), asking rent $1,853 . Merced, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,142 (+108%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,381 +1%
- $414,373$418,754 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $48,633 +13%
- $370,120$418,754 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.
- Atwater$2,198
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 28 years.
Typical home values in Atwater, CA rose 1.1% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Atwater, Merced County, California
Atwater is a city of 31,970 people in Merced County. Half its households earn more than $64,472 a year and half less, against $65,510 across Merced County; 21% of its people live below the poverty line. 52% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 48% are rented. Unemployment in Atwater was 8.8% in August 2026, and Merced 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Atwater is a city in Merced County with a younger population than much of the country, and slightly more homes are lived in by their owners than rented. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and more residents live below the poverty line than is typical nationally. Few adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in the building trades and in manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in Atwater are Atwater Elementary Schools, Walmart and Teasdale Latin Foods-Atwater. Unemployment is a little lower than a year ago, and most people travel a fair way to work, with very few working from home.
Things to do. The Castle Air Museum is in or beside town, and Lake Yosemite and McConnell State Recreation Area are each a short drive away for time by the water. The Merced Theatre, also a short drive away, offers live performances downtown. Winters are mild and rarely snowy, summers are hot, and rainfall is light, so outdoor outings are possible through much of the year.
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- 9,872households
- 13%of adults have a degree
- 21%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Merced County had 85,663 jobs in 2025, 0.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 54° and lows near 37°; warmest in July, with highs near 95° and lows near 62°. About 13 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Merced weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Atwater
- Atwater Elementary SchoolsSchool district517FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters282
- TargetDiscount department stores245
- Teasdale Latin Foods-AtwaterBeans, baked, canning196
- Bureau of Prisons/federal Prison SystemFederal government · Department of Justice161
- Cornerstone Building Brands - Metal SolutionSteel manufacturing96
- Redstone ConstructionArtesian well construction67
- M-Mig ConstructionCommercial building construction general contractors55
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,044 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
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Atwater’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Merced County and the Merced, CA metro.
Atwater home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Atwater$418,754
- 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 4 Atwater listings, and the typical home goes pending in 20 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.
- Atwater22.27%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Atwater66
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Atwater23
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Atwater$421,813
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Atwater address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Atwater — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.