Del Monte Forest, California.
Typical home $3,002,019 (+6.5% in a year). Salinas, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$9,216 (+141%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $183,871 +7%
- $2,818,148$3,002,019 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $644,762 +27%
- $2,357,257$3,002,019 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.
- Del Monte Forest$15,757
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Del Monte Forest, CA rose 6.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Del Monte Forest, Monterey County, California
Del Monte Forest, in Monterey County, had 4,204 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $142,763 a year and half less, against $97,230 across Monterey County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 87% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 13% are rented. Unemployment in Monterey County was 5.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 26 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Del Monte Forest is a residential community on the Monterey Peninsula, home to a small population that skews older than most of the country. Incomes run well above the county's, and very few households fall below the poverty line. Nearly everyone owns the home they live in, and homes here are valued far above what is typical across the country. Winters are mild, with the coldest days in December still cool rather than freezing, and the warmest month, September, is only pleasantly warm. Snow is rare, and rain is modest.
Work. Most adults here hold a four-year degree, a good deal more than across the county, and many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, or in professional and business services. Restaurants, hotels and entertainment, along with media and telecoms, employ others. A sizable group works from home, and the usual commute is moderate. Across Monterey County, the largest workplaces include Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and Taylor Fresh Foods, and the county had slightly fewer jobs last year than the year before.
Things to do. 17-Mile Drive, a well-known scenic route, runs in or beside town, and Asilomar State Beach is close by on the same stretch of coast. A short drive away is the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Carmel River State Beach offers another place to walk by the water. For something different, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, a race track, is a longer drive away.
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- 1,672households
- 72%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 31%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Monterey County had 198,525 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 59° and lows near 44°; warmest in September, with highs near 71° and lows near 53°. About 20 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Monterey weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Monterey County
- Foothill PackingAgriculture production or harvesting crews3,128
- Premier Packing of CaliforniaFarm labor contractors2,754
- PRO AG HarvestingFarm labor contractors2,687
- Taylor Fresh FoodsPacking fruits and vegetables2,619
- Community Hosp. Monterey PeninsulaGeneral hospital2,046FTE
- Dominguez FarmsFarm labor contractors2,042
- Camarillo Harvesting, LLC SalinasStrawberry farming2,000
- Tanimura & AntleVegetable and potato farming, vegetable dominant crops, field, bedding plants and seed production1,889
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 371 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 79,481 people in all across the county; Del Monte Forest has two of its own. Hospitals come 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 high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Del Monte Forest’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 Monterey County and the Salinas, CA metro.
Del Monte Forest home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Del Monte Forest$3,002,019
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Del Monte Forest 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.
- Del Monte Forest17.22%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Del Monte Forest33
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Del Monte Forest9
Zip codes with a Del Monte Forest address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Del Monte Forest — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.