Hercules, California.
Typical home $735,539 (-0.7% in a year), asking rent $3,209 (+7.3%). San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,727 (+81%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $4,839 -1%
- $740,378$735,539 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $6,798 -1%
- $742,337$735,539 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.
- Hercules$3,861
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Hercules, CA fell 0.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Hercules, CA rose 7.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Hercules runs $1,945/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $2,886 in Oct 2023.
That is $5,154 a month against $3,209 rent: a $3,861 mortgage payment, plus $506 property tax and $787 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Hercules
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$5,154
- Renting$3,209
- Mortgage only$3,861
Property tax · $506/mo 0.83% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Contra Costa County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $787/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 Hercules, Contra Costa County, California
Hercules is a city of 26,016 people in Contra Costa County. Half its households earn more than $129,397 a year and half less, against $127,229 across Contra Costa County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 79% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 21% are rented. Unemployment in Hercules was 4.7% in August 2026, and Contra Costa 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 24 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. Hercules is a city in Contra Costa County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and where residents are somewhat older than in many places. Household incomes run a little above the county's, and a high share of adults hold a four-year degree. Homes and rents here are on the expensive side. Winters are mild and cool rather than harsh, summers are warm, and most of the year's rain falls in the cooler months.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, and in government, with others in transport, warehouses and utilities. Across Contra Costa County, some of the largest workplaces are West Contra Costa Unified, Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and San Ramon Valley Unified. Commutes tend to be long, and a good number of residents work from home.
Things to do. A longer drive away, the Sacramento River offers time by the water. Farther out in San Francisco, Golden Gate Park is a large garden and park, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a museum worth a day. Each of these is a longer drive away.
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- 9,355households
- 46%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 38 mintypical commute
- 19%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Contra Costa County had 374,448 jobs in 2025, 0.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 57° and lows near 42°; warmest in September, with highs near 86° and lows near 56°. About 21 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Vallejo weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Contra Costa County
- West Contra Costa UnifiedSchool district2,751FTE
- Contra Costa Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,584FTE
- San Ramon Valley UnifiedSchool district2,519FTE
- 24 Hour Home CareSenior citizens centers2,496
- Mt. Diablo UnifiedSchool district2,466FTE
- John Muir Medical Center - WCGeneral hospital2,143FTE
- Antioch UnifiedSchool district1,552FTE
- JT Thorpe and SonRefractory fireproofing1,523
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 573 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 81,677 people in all across the county; Hercules has one of its own. 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Earthquakesrelatively high in parts of HerculesRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Hercules’ 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 Contra Costa County and the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
Hercules home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Hercules$735,539
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Hercules listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Hercules23.60%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Hercules46
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Hercules14
Zip codes with a Hercules address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Hercules — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.