Ballico, California.
Typical home $777,271 (-4.4% in a year). Merced, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,814 (+80%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $35,683 -4%
- $812,954$777,271 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $41,302 -5%
- $818,574$777,271 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.
- Ballico$4,080
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Ballico, CA fell 4.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ballico, Merced County, California
Ballico, in Merced County, had 347 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Merced County was 8.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Merced County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ballico is a very small farming community in Merced County, with a population among the smallest of California towns. Winters are mild and cool, with little or no snow, and summers get hot, while rain falls mostly in the cooler months and the year stays fairly dry. Typical homes here are worth a good deal more than the county's incomes would suggest, and few adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in farming, and in manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in Ballico are the Ballico-Cressey Elementary Schools, Northern Merced Hulling Assn, which hulls and shells almonds, and JR Simplot Co. Unemployment across Merced County is lower than a year ago but still sits above what many parts of the country see, and the county has added a few more jobs than the year before.
Things to do. McConnell State Recreation Area is a protected riverside area in or beside town, close enough for a short outing. Castle Air Museum is a museum a short drive away. For a longer trip, the Tuolumne River is a longer drive away and offers time by the water.
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- 6%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 29 mintypical commute
What people in Merced County 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 55° and lows near 42°; warmest in July, with highs near 93° and lows near 66°. About 12 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Turlock #2 weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ballico
- Ballico-Cressey Elementary SchoolsSchool district44FTE
- AltaSupport activities for animal production27
- Northern Merced Hulling AssnAlmond hulling and shelling26
- JR Simplot CoMisc. nondurable goods merchant wholesalers23
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 76 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
- DroughtVery high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively 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 Ballico’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 Merced County and the Merced, CA metro.
Ballico home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ballico$777,271
- 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.
Zip codes with a Ballico address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ballico — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.