Forest Ranch, California.
Typical home $359,367 (-1.7% in a year). Chico, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$650 (+53%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $6,199 -2%
- $365,566$359,367 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $36,111 -9%
- $395,477$359,367 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.
- Forest Ranch$1,886
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Forest Ranch, CA fell 1.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Forest Ranch, Butte County, California
Forest Ranch, in Butte County, had 1,304 people in the 2020 census. 97% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 3% are rented. Unemployment in Butte County was 6.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Butte County work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Forest Ranch is a small community in the foothills of Butte County, where nearly everyone owns the home they live in and very few households live below the poverty line. The population is somewhat older than in many places, and the community is small enough that neighbors tend to know one another. Winters are cool and wet with little or no snow, and summers turn hot, with July the warmest month.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, shops, and professional and business services. Across Butte County, some of the largest workplaces are Enloe Medical Center, California State University-Chico and Chico Unified. Most people travel a fair way to work, and only a small share work from home.
Things to do. Big Kimshew Creek, a river, is a short drive away. Farther afield, Bidwell Park is a large park, Lake Oroville is a reservoir, and Feather Falls is a waterfall, each a longer drive away. The Museum of Northern California Art is also a longer drive, for a day with indoor stops.
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- 2%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What people in Butte County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Butte County had 78,544 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 51° and lows near 34°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 58°. About 66 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the De Sabla weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Butte County
- Enloe Medical CenterGeneral hospital3,095FTE
- California State University-ChicoUniversity or college1,858
- Chico UnifiedSchool district1,354FTE
- Oroville HospitalGeneral hospital1,327FTE
- Butte CollegeTwo-year college1,054
- CAL FireCal fire507
- Sierra Nevada Brewing CompanyBreweries459
- Lundberg Family FarmsRice farming, field and seed production384
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 131 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 18,366 people in all across the county; Forest Ranch has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- WildfireVery high
- LandslidesRelatively 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 Forest Ranch’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 Butte County and the Chico, CA metro.
Forest Ranch home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Forest Ranch$359,367
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Forest Ranch 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.
- Forest Ranch23.29%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Forest Ranch22
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Forest Ranch6
Zip codes with a Forest Ranch address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Forest Ranch — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.