Fountain Valley, California.
Typical home $1,377,121 (+6.0% in a year), asking rent $2,998 (+6.0%). Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$4,382 (+154%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $78,083 +6%
- $1,299,038$1,377,121 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $445,705 +48%
- $931,416$1,377,121 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.
- Fountain Valley$7,228
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Fountain Valley, CA rose 6.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Fountain Valley, CA rose 6.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Fountain Valley runs $6,459/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $9,457 a month against $2,998 rent: a $7,228 mortgage payment, plus $755 property tax and $1,474 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Fountain Valley
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$9,457
- Renting$2,998
- Mortgage only$7,228
Property tax · $755/mo 0.66% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Orange County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,474/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 Fountain Valley, Orange County, California
Fountain Valley is a city of 57,047 people in Orange County. Half its households earn more than $115,237 a year and half less, against $116,289 across Orange County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 65% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 35% are rented. Unemployment in Fountain Valley was 4.7% in August 2026, and Orange County had 0.1% more 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 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. Fountain Valley is a suburban city in Orange County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and the people who live there are somewhat older than in many American towns. Household incomes are close to the county's, and a large share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild and summers warm but not extreme, with little rain through the year.
Work. Hospitals are the largest workplaces in town, among them MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center and Fountain Valley Regional Medical Center, and Hyundai Motor America has its national headquarters here as well. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in manufacturing, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Commutes are a little longer than a quick hop across town, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are a short drive away, as is Knott's Berry Farm, another amusement park. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, where baseball is played, is also a short drive. For time outdoors, the Santa Ana River is close by.
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- 18,778households
- 46%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 17%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Orange County had 1,663,220 jobs in 2025, 0.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 66° and lows near 48°; warmest in August, with highs near 80° and lows near 67°. About 11 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Santa Ana John Wayne Airport weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fountain Valley
- MMF00 Memorialcare MED FoundationGeneral medical and surgical hospitals1,445
- Memorialcare Orange Coast MED CTRGeneral hospital1,439FTE
- MHS00 Memorialcare Health ServicesGeneral medical and surgical hospitals1,147
- Fountain Valley REG Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,005FTE
- Hyundai Motor America - NHQAutomobile merchant wholesalers898
- Fountain Valley Elementary SchoolsSchool district573FTE
- Orange County Sanitation DistrictSewage treatment plants or facilities501
- Coastline Community CollegeTwo-year college408
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 44 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 9,868 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of Fountain ValleyRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Fountain Valley’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 Orange County and the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metro.
Fountain Valley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fountain Valley$1,377,121
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Fountain Valley listings, and the typical home goes pending in 13 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.
- Fountain Valley24.28%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Fountain Valley13
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Fountain Valley84
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Fountain Valley34
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Fountain Valley$1,389,209
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Fountain Valley102.76%
Zip codes with a Fountain Valley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fountain Valley — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.