Boron, California.
Typical home $163,927 (-3.7% in a year). Bakersfield, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$479 (+126%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $6,267 -4%
- $170,194$163,927 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $33,156 +25%
- $130,771$163,927 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.
- Boron$860
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Boron, CA fell 3.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Boron, Kern County, California
Boron, in Kern County, had 2,086 people in the 2020 census. 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Boron is a small desert community in Kern County, with a younger population than most places and homes that cost well below what is typical across the county's price range for a house. Winters are cool, with the coldest weather in December, and summers are very hot, especially in July. Rain and snow are both rare here, and what falls is little compared with most of the country.
Work. Residents most often work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by farming, forestry and mining, shops, and professional and business services. A small share of people work from home. Across Kern County, the largest workplaces include Kern High Schools, Bakersfield City Schools and Amazon, and the county's job market has been about level, with unemployment running a little lower than it was a year ago.
Things to do. Boron sits in open desert country, and the nearest places worth a trip are all a longer drive away. Rogers Dry Lake and El Mirage Lake are lakes, while the Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Historic Park is a museum set in the high desert. Saddleback Butte State Park is a protected area for those who want to get out on foot.
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- 869households
- 8%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 57° and lows near 34°; warmest in July, with highs near 101° and lows near 68°. About 2 inches of snow and 7 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Randsburg weather station, 24 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; Boron 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
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Boron’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 Kern County and the Bakersfield, CA metro.
Boron home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Boron$163,927
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Boron listings — 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.
- Boron29.97%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Boron22
Zip codes with a Boron address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Boron — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.