Big Sur, California.
Typical home $1,688,743 (-0.8% in a year). Salinas, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$3,339 (+60%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $12,797 -1%
- $1,701,540$1,688,743 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $119,745 -7%
- $1,808,487$1,688,743 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.
- Big Sur$8,864
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Big Sur, CA fell 0.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Big Sur, Monterey County, California
The Census does not count Big Sur on its own, so the figures here are Monterey County's. Half the county's households earn more than $97,230 a year and half less; 13% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 52% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 48% are rented. Unemployment in Monterey County was 5.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Monterey County work in schools and health care, then farming.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Big Sur is a stretch of rugged Pacific coast in Monterey County, where steep hills meet the ocean and homes are spread out along the road. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and the houses carry some of the highest prices in the country. Winters are mild compared with most of the country, with little or no snow, though a fair amount of rain falls over the year, and summers are warm and dry.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, or in farming, forestry and mining. Restaurants, hotels and entertainment, along with professional and business services, also employ many people. Unemployment in the county has eased slightly over the past year, while the number of jobs dipped a little over the same period. Relatively few residents work from home.
Things to do. Limekiln State Park is a protected area in or beside town, so it is an easy place to start. Sand Dollar Beach, a short drive away, is a beach on the coast. McWay Falls, a longer drive away, is one of the best known waterfalls in the area, and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, also a longer drive away, is another protected area with trails to explore.
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- 132,489households
- 35.5median age
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What people in Monterey County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Monterey County had 198,525 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 59° and lows near 42°; warmest in August, with highs near 77° and lows near 50°. About 45 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Big Sur Station weather station, 21 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Monterey County
- Foothill PackingAgriculture production or harvesting crews3,128
- Premier Packing of CaliforniaFarm labor contractors2,754
- PRO AG HarvestingFarm labor contractors2,687
- Taylor Fresh FoodsPacking fruits and vegetables2,619
- Community Hosp. Monterey PeninsulaGeneral hospital2,046FTE
- Dominguez FarmsFarm labor contractors2,042
- Camarillo Harvesting, LLC SalinasStrawberry farming2,000
- Tanimura & AntleVegetable and potato farming, vegetable dominant crops, field, bedding plants and seed production1,889
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 371 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 79,481 people in all. Hospitals come 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
- DroughtVery high
- LandslidesRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Monterey County, 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 Monterey County and the Salinas, CA metro.
Big Sur home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Big Sur$1,688,743
- 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.
- Big Sur9
Zip codes with a Big Sur address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Big Sur — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.