Fortuna, California.
Typical home $407,483 (-3.5% in a year), asking rent $1,577 . Eureka-Arcata, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$691 (+48%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $14,688 -3%
- $422,171$407,483 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $39,939 -9%
- $447,422$407,483 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.
- Fortuna$2,139
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Fortuna, CA fell 3.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fortuna, Humboldt County, California
Fortuna is a city of 12,516 people in Humboldt County. Half its households earn more than $62,289 a year and half less, against $61,160 across Humboldt County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 56% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 44% are rented. Unemployment in Humboldt County was 5.6% in August 2026, and the 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Fortuna is a small city in Humboldt County, with a population that skews younger than many American towns of its size. Incomes run a little above the county's, and most homes are lived in by their owners, though a good number of households rent. Winters are mild and wet, with the coldest days in December still staying above freezing, and summers stay cool, peaking in September.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and the building trades. Among the biggest workplaces in Fortuna are Redwood Memorial Hospital, Fortuna Elementary Schools and CAL Fire. A typical commute is moderate, and a modest group works from home.
Things to do. The Van Duzen River runs in or beside town, and Headwaters Forest Reserve, a protected area, is a short drive away. Humboldt Botanical Gardens is also a short drive away, for a quieter afternoon among planted beds. For a longer outing, Humboldt Redwoods State Park is a longer drive away.
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- 4,925households
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 11%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 42°; warmest in September, with highs near 72° and lows near 52°. About 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Scotia weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fortuna
- CAL FireCal fire420
- Fortuna Rehabilitation and Wellness CenterSkilled nursing facilities205
- Fortuna Elementary SchoolsSchool district164FTE
- Redwood Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital155FTE
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores111
- Fortuna Union High SchoolsSchool district85FTE
- Recology Eel RiverSolid waste collection63
- McGrath FiveGrocery stores38
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,066 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals 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
- EarthquakesVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- TsunamisRelatively moderate
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Fortuna’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 Humboldt County and the Eureka-Arcata, CA metro.
Fortuna home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fortuna$407,483
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Fortuna 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.
- Fortuna25.36%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Fortuna60
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Fortuna11
Zip codes with a Fortuna address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fortuna — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.