Eureka, California.
Typical home $400,182 (-2.2% in a year), asking rent $1,612 (+1.5%). Eureka-Arcata, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$698 (+50%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $8,893 -2%
- $409,075$400,182 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $33,239 -8%
- $433,421$400,182 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.
- Eureka$2,100
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Eureka, CA fell 2.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Eureka, CA rose 1.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Eureka runs $1,130/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,622 in Oct 2023.
That is $2,742 a month against $1,612 rent: a $2,100 mortgage payment, plus $213 property tax and $428 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Eureka
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$2,742
- Renting$1,612
- Mortgage only$2,100
Property tax · $213/mo 0.64% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Humboldt County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $428/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 Eureka, Humboldt County, California
Eureka is a city of 26,512 people in Humboldt County. Half its households earn more than $57,662 a year and half less, against $61,160 across Humboldt County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 48% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 52% are rented. Unemployment in Eureka was 5.3% in August 2026, and Humboldt County had 0.8% 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. Eureka is a city on the coast where winters are mild and summers stay cool, with little or no snow and a good deal of rain through the year. Fewer households own their homes than rent them, and incomes run a little below the county's. Residents tend to be of middle age, and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, with government jobs also common. Among the largest workplaces in Eureka are St. Joseph Hospital, Eureka City Schools and Costco Wholesale. The trip to work is short, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. Sequoia Park Zoo and the Humboldt Bay Maritime Museum are both in or beside town, along with the Clarke Historical Museum, which suits a quiet afternoon indoors. Fort Humboldt State Historic Park, also in or beside town, is a protected area with history to explore on foot. A short drive away, the Arcata Community Forest offers a protected woodland to walk through.
Report a mistake
- 10,392households
- 29%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Humboldt County had 52,251 jobs in 2025, 0.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 55° and lows near 40°; warmest in August, with highs near 64° and lows near 53°. About 40 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Eureka Weather Office Woodley Island weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Eureka
- St. Joseph Hospital - EurekaGeneral hospital818FTE
- Eureka City SchoolsSchool district461FTE
- Costco WholesaleWholesale grocer264
- Humboldt County - SemprevirensPsychiatric hospital242FTE
- Humboldt County Office of Education SchoolsSchool district225FTE
- TargetDiscount department stores211
- Rockport Healthcare ServicesSkilled nursing facilities192
- Winco FoodsStore184
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 30 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,588 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
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- Tsunamisrelatively high in parts of EurekaRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Eureka’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 Humboldt County and the Eureka-Arcata, CA metro.
Eureka home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Eureka$400,182
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Eureka listings, and the typical home goes pending in 16 days — 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.
- Eureka33.77%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Eureka16
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Eureka163
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Eureka44
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Eureka$431,273
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Eureka97.95%
Zip codes with a Eureka address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Eureka — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Eureka
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 95503 | Eureka | 25,054 | $1,985 | $417,238 |
| 95501 | Eureka | 22,890 | $1,463 | $376,343 |
| 95551 | Loleta | 1,880 | — | $431,017 |