Malibu, California.
Typical home $3,171,350 (+2.6% in a year), asking rent $13,161 (+4.2%). Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$8,114 (+95%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $79,387 +3%
- $3,091,963$3,171,350 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $205,081 +7%
- $2,966,269$3,171,350 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.
- Malibu$16,646
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 52 years.
Typical home values in Malibu, CA rose 2.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Malibu, CA rose 4.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Malibu runs $8,678/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $11,367 in Nov 2023.
That is $21,839 a month against $13,161 rent: a $16,646 mortgage payment, plus $1,798 property tax and $3,395 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Malibu
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$21,839
- Renting$13,161
- Mortgage only$16,646
Property tax · $1,798/mo 0.68% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Los Angeles County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $3,395/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 Malibu, Los Angeles County, California
Malibu is a city of 10,654 people in Los Angeles County. Half its households earn more than $194,421 a year and half less, against $90,112 across Los Angeles County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 75% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 25% are rented. Unemployment in Los Angeles County was 4.5% in September 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then schools and health care.
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. Malibu is a coastal city in Los Angeles County where residents are older than in most of the country, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run far above the county's, and homes and rents are among the most expensive anywhere, though a share of residents still live below the poverty line. Most adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Residents work mainly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in banks, insurance and property, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the largest workplaces in Malibu are the Passages Group, a residential mental health and substance abuse facility, and the Vons and Ralphs grocery stores. Commutes are on the long side, and many people work from home.
Things to do. Winters are mild and the summers are warm without being hot, with little or no snow and not much rain over the year. For a day out, the Getty Villa and the Getty Center are both museums, and the Hollywood Sign is a well-known tourist attraction, each a longer drive away. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is another museum, also a longer drive away.
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- 4,399households
- 69%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 32 mintypical commute
- 40%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Los Angeles County had 4,525,460 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in March, with highs near 62° and lows near 52°; warmest in September, with highs near 70° and lows near 61°. About 12 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Santa Monica Pier weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Malibu
- Malibu90
- Passages Group623220 residential mental health and substance abuse facilities86
- VonsSupermarkets and other grocery stores74
- Ralphs Grocery CompanySupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores59
- Mani MBI (DE)Hotels43
- Anawalt Lumber-MalibuHome centers, building materials40
- Point DumeMail and parcel delivery28
- Discovery Behavioral Health - 5703 CM 29 Rockcroft MalibuBehavioral health24
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 444 people in all. 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
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Coastal floodingrelatively high in parts of MalibuRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Malibu’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 Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metro.
Malibu home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Malibu$3,171,350
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Malibu listings, and the typical home goes pending in 79 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.
- Malibu15.75%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Malibu274
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Malibu37
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Malibu$2,617,605
- United States$370,717
Zip codes with a Malibu address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Malibu — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.