Mojave, California.
Typical home $236,430 (-0.6% in a year). Bakersfield, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$684 (+123%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $1,528 -1%
- $237,958$236,430 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $37,838 +19%
- $198,592$236,430 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.
- Mojave$1,241
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 20 years.
Typical home values in Mojave, CA fell 0.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Mojave, Kern County, California
Mojave, in Kern County, had 4,699 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $55,660 a year and half less, against $70,210 across Kern County. 38% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 62% are rented. Unemployment in Kern County was 8.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Mojave is a small desert community with a young population, where the typical resident is younger than in most American towns. Most homes are rented rather than lived in by their owners, and household incomes run below the county's. Winters are cold for the desert and summers get very hot, with little rain and only a dusting of snow in most years.
Work. People who live here work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, manufacturing, professional and business services, and shops. Among the largest workplaces in Mojave are Scaled Composites, an aircraft manufacturer, PPG Industries, which makes paint and coatings, and Mojave Unified, the school district. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and the typical commute is a long one, so many residents spend a good part of the day getting to work. Across Kern County, unemployment has eased a little over the past year, while the number of jobs has slipped slightly.
Things to do. Willow Springs International Motorsports Park, a race track, is a longer drive away, as is Red Rock Canyon State Park, a protected area of desert cliffs and canyons. Rogers Dry Lake, a wide lake bed, is also a longer drive away. These are places for a day out rather than an errand around the corner.
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- 1,733households
- 9%of adults have a degree
- 32 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kern County had 347,044 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 56° and lows near 32°; warmest in July, with highs near 97° and lows near 69°. About 1 inches of snow and 6 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mojave weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Mojave
- Scaled CompositesAircraft manufacturing640
- PPG IndustriesPaint and coating manufacturing435
- Mojave UnifiedSchool district364FTE
- Virgin GalacticTesting services, aircraft107
- Innovative Coatings Technology (Incotec)Carbon specialties for aerospace use manufacturing83
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services64
- PepsiCoOther grocery and related products merchant wholesalers42
- Progress RailRailroad rolling stock manufacturing41
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,513 people in all. School districts come 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
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Mojave’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 Kern County and the Bakersfield, CA metro.
Mojave home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Mojave$236,430
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Mojave 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.
- Mojave21.40%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Mojave24
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Mojave8
Zip codes with a Mojave address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Mojave — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.