Blythe, California.
Typical home $212,762 (-5.2% in a year), asking rent $1,595 . Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$489 (+78%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $11,593 -5%
- $224,355$212,762 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $2,433 +1%
- $210,329$212,762 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.
- Blythe$1,117
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Blythe, CA fell 5.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Blythe, Riverside County, California
Blythe is a city of 18,317 people in Riverside County. Half its households earn more than $56,625 a year and half less, against $93,074 across Riverside County; 19% of its people live below the poverty line. 57% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 43% are rented. Unemployment in Riverside County was 6.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then government.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Blythe is a small city in the desert of eastern Riverside County, close to the Colorado River. Incomes here run well below the county's, and more households live below the poverty line than is typical, though most homes are lived in by their owners. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and the typical commute is a short one.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, in shops, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the largest workplaces in Blythe are Palo Verde Hospital, Palo Verde Unified and Ironwood State Prison. Unemployment across Riverside County is about where it was a year ago, and the county has added only a few more jobs.
Things to do. The Blythe Intaglios, an archaeological site, and Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, are both a longer drive away. The Riverside Mountains, also protected land, lie a longer drive off as well. Winters are mild and almost snow-free, while summers are among the hottest in the country, and very little rain falls through the year.
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- 4,137households
- 8%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Riverside County had 846,070 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 66° and lows near 38°; warmest in July, with highs near 110° and lows near 78°. About 4 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Blythe weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Blythe
- Ironwood State PrisonCorrectional institutions1,113
- Palo Verde UnifiedSchool district317FTE
- AlbertsonsSupermarkets and other grocery stores95
- Palo Verde HospitalCritical access hospital87FTE
- Palo Verde HospitalGeneral hospital80FTE
- Inland Builders SupplyHome centers, building materials47
- Smart & FinalSupermarkets and other grocery retailers43
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services30
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,402 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (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
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Blythe’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Riverside County and the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA metro.
Blythe home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Blythe$212,762
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 7 Blythe listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Blythe13.45%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Blythe70
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Blythe11
Zip codes with a Blythe address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Blythe — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.