El Centro, California.
Typical home $391,767 (+5.6% in a year), asking rent $1,573 . El Centro, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,149 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $20,914 +6%
- $370,853$391,767 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $100,706 +35%
- $291,061$391,767 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.
- El Centro$2,056
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in El Centro, CA rose 5.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in El Centro, Imperial County, California
El Centro is a city of 44,322 people in Imperial County. Half its households earn more than $53,082 a year and half less, against $57,681 across Imperial County; 22% of its people live below the poverty line. 50% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 50% are rented. Unemployment in El Centro was 16.7% in August 2026, and Imperial County had 1.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. El Centro is a small city and the largest in Imperial County, with a young population compared with most of the country. Household incomes are below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than in many places, though about as many own their homes as rent. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than across much of the country, and most people have a fairly short drive to work.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, or in government. Among the largest workplaces in El Centro are the County of Imperial, El Centro Regional Medical Center and El Centro Elementary Schools. Unemployment is high and has eased a little over the past year, while the county has added a few more jobs than it had the year before.
Things to do. Stark Field, a stadium, sits in or beside town. A longer drive away are the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, and the Fish Creek Mountains Wilderness, another protected area. Summers are extremely hot, winters are mild, and there is little or no snow and very little rain, so outdoor outings suit the cooler months best.
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- 12,890households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 22%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Imperial County had 67,955 jobs in 2025, 1.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 70° and lows near 43°; warmest in July, with highs near 107° and lows near 78°. About 3 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the El Centro Ssw weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in El Centro
- County of ImperialGeneral services departments, government4,731
- El Centro Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital766FTE
- El Centro Elementary SchoolsSchool district667FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters458
- Central Union High SchoolsSchool district373FTE
- City of El CentroMunicipality344
- Costco WholesaleWholesale grocer278
- ARC Imperial ValleyCleaning driveways and parking lots241
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 32 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 7,736 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- EarthquakesVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in El Centro’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 Imperial County and the El Centro, CA metro.
El Centro home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- El Centro$391,767
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 El Centro listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- El Centro22.64%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- El Centro57
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- El Centro20
Zip codes with a El Centro address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls El Centro — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.