Buttonwillow, California.
Typical home $231,477 (-0.7% in a year). Bakersfield, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$638 (+111%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $1,584 -1%
- $233,061$231,477 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $31,449 +16%
- $200,028$231,477 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.
- Buttonwillow$1,215
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 24 years.
Typical home values in Buttonwillow, CA fell 0.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Buttonwillow, Kern County, California
Buttonwillow, in Kern County, had 1,337 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $35,086 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Buttonwillow is a small community in the southern San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County. Incomes here run well below the county's, and very few adults hold a four-year degree. Homes are priced modestly, and the typical commute is a fairly long one. Winters are mild and cool rather than cold, with little or no snow, while summers are hot and the year is dry.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by farming, forestry and mining, then shops and professional and business services. Across Kern County, some of the largest workplaces are Sycamore Labor, which supplies agricultural harvesting crews, Kern High Schools and Bakersfield City Schools. Unemployment across the county is a little lower than a year ago, though the number of jobs has slipped slightly.
Things to do. The nearest outing is Tule Elk State Natural Reserve, a protected area a short drive away. Farther afield, a longer drive reaches Carrizo Plain National Monument, a protected area, and Kern National Wildlife Refuge, another protected area. The Kern River and several lakes, including Buena Vista Lake, are also a longer drive away.
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- 362households
- 2%of adults have a degree
- 33 mintypical commute
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 January, with highs near 58° and lows near 38°; warmest in July, with highs near 98° and lows near 68°. About 6 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Buttonwillow weather station, 2 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; Buttonwillow 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
- Heat wavesVery high
- EarthquakesVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Buttonwillow’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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.
Buttonwillow home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Buttonwillow$231,477
- 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 Buttonwillow address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Buttonwillow — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.