Carlsbad, California.
Typical home $1,564,213 (-18.6% in a year), asking rent $3,531 (+4.4%). San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$4,437 (+118%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $358,541 -19%
- $1,922,753$1,564,213 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $192,364 +14%
- $1,371,849$1,564,213 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.
- Carlsbad$8,210
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 26 years.
Typical home values in Carlsbad, CA fell 18.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Carlsbad, CA rose 4.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Carlsbad runs $7,234/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $9,642 in May 2024.
That is $10,765 a month against $3,531 rent: a $8,210 mortgage payment, plus $881 property tax and $1,675 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Carlsbad
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$10,765
- Renting$3,531
- Mortgage only$8,210
Property tax · $881/mo 0.68% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for San Diego County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,675/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Carlsbad, San Diego County, California
Carlsbad is a city of 114,746 people in San Diego County. Half its households earn more than $142,748 a year and half less, against $106,268 across San Diego County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 63% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 37% are rented. Unemployment in Carlsbad was 4.5% in August 2026, and San Diego County had 0.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then schools and health care.
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. Carlsbad is a city in San Diego County where residents are older than the typical American and incomes run well above the county's. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though rents are high and typical home values are among the steeper ones you will find. Most adults have a four-year degree, and relatively few households live below the poverty line.
Work. Residents work mainly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the largest workplaces in Carlsbad are Viasat, Merlin Entertainments and the California Department of Transportation. Many people work from home, and the usual commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. Legoland California, an amusement park, sits in or beside town, as does the Museum of Making Music. A longer drive away are San Diego's Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Winters are mild and cool rather than cold, summers stay warm without turning hot, and rain is light through the year.
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- 44,038households
- 62%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 32%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. San Diego County had 1,535,067 jobs in 2025, 0.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in February, with highs near 64° and lows near 48°; warmest in August, with highs near 76° and lows near 65°. About 11 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Carlsbad Palomar Airport weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Carlsbad
- ViasatAntennas, satellite, manufacturing2,756
- Merlin Entertainments (LLC)Amusement parks1,366
- City of Carlsbad1,178
- BergelectricElectrical contractors1,120
- GenMark DiagnosticsInstruments, mechanical microsurgical, manufacturing1,092
- Omni Hotels Management Corp - Omni La Costa Resort and SpaHotels, resort, without casinos1,036
- Carlsbad UnifiedSchool district959FTE
- RQ ConstructionCommercial building construction general contractors865
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 121 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 24,412 people in all. 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Earthquakesrelatively high in parts of CarlsbadRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Carlsbad’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 San Diego County and the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro.
Carlsbad home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Carlsbad$1,564,213
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Carlsbad listings, and the typical home goes pending in 18 days — 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.
- Carlsbad26.51%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Carlsbad18
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Carlsbad297
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Carlsbad95
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Carlsbad$1,529,301
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Carlsbad98.97%
Zip codes with a Carlsbad address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Carlsbad — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Carlsbad
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92009 | Carlsbad | 44,739 | $3,662 | $1,561,674 |
| 92008 | Carlsbad | 27,955 | $3,155 | $1,730,376 |
| 92011 | Carlsbad | 23,190 | $3,991 | $1,588,325 |
| 92010 | Carlsbad | 18,489 | $3,533 | $1,276,771 |