Bodfish, California.
Typical home $189,397 (+2.0% in a year). Bakersfield, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$518 (+109%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,745 +2%
- $185,653$189,397 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $29,806 +19%
- $159,591$189,397 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.
- Bodfish$994
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 20 years.
Typical home values in Bodfish, CA rose 2.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bodfish, Kern County, California
Bodfish, in Kern County, had 2,008 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $39,863 a year and half less, against $70,210 across Kern County. Unemployment in Kern County was 8.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Kern County work in schools and health care, then farming.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Bodfish is a small community in Kern County, home to about as many people as a modest town square could hold on a market day, though the count itself belongs to the figures beside this text. Household incomes here are well below the county's, and homes are priced modestly for California. Winters are cold by the standards of the region, with chilly lows in December, while July brings hot days.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by farming, forestry and mining, then shops and professional and business services. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many places, and few people work from home. Unemployment across Kern County is a little lower than a year ago, though the county has slightly fewer jobs than before. Some of the county's largest workplaces are Kern High Schools, Bakersfield City Schools and Amazon.
Things to do. Water is the main draw close to home. Lake Isabella, a reservoir, is a short drive away, as are the South Fork Kern River and Tillie Creek, both rivers. For a longer drive, the Kern River Preserve is a protected area, and Lake Ming offers a lake to spend a day beside.
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- 15%of adults have a degree
- 5%work from home
What people in Kern County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kern County had 347,044 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 58° and lows near 30°; warmest in July, with highs near 98° and lows near 65°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the South Lake Fs weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Kern County
- Sycamore LaborAgriculture production or harvesting crews6,012
- Kern High SchoolsSchool district3,770FTE
- Bakersfield City SchoolsSchool district3,617FTE
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage3,321
- King Grafting Ag serviceFarm labor contractors2,500
- Panama-Buena Vista Union SchoolsSchool district2,490FTE
- Esparza EnterprisesFarm labor contractors2,356
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage2,318
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 631 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 114,076 people in all across the county; Bodfish has none of its own. 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
- WildfireVery high
- LandslidesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively 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 Bodfish’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 Kern County and the Bakersfield, CA metro.
Bodfish home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bodfish$189,397
- 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.
- Bodfish5
Zip codes with a Bodfish address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bodfish — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.