Monterey, California.
Typical home $1,153,012 (+1.4% in a year), asking rent $2,696 (+2.0%). Salinas, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$3,053 (+102%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $16,056 +1%
- $1,136,955$1,153,012 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $124,378 +12%
- $1,028,633$1,153,012 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.
- Monterey$6,052
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 30 years.
Typical home values in Monterey, CA rose 1.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Monterey, CA rose 2.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Monterey runs $5,195/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $5,894 in Oct 2023.
That is $7,890 a month against $2,696 rent: a $6,052 mortgage payment, plus $604 property tax and $1,234 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Monterey
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$7,890
- Renting$2,696
- Mortgage only$6,052
Property tax · $604/mo 0.63% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Monterey County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,234/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 Monterey, Monterey County, California
Monterey is a city of 30,218 people in Monterey County. Half its households earn more than $102,846 a year and half less, against $97,230 across Monterey County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 36% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 64% are rented. Unemployment in Monterey was 4.6% in August 2026, and Monterey County had 0.9% fewer 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. Monterey is a coastal city where homes cost a great deal, and most households rent rather than own. Incomes run a little above the county's, and a large share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild and cool rather than cold, summers stay gentle, snow is rare, and the rainfall is modest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in government. Among the largest workplaces in Monterey are Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Naval Postgraduate School. Jobs across the county dipped slightly last year, and unemployment in town is a touch lower than it was a year earlier. Commutes are fairly short, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. The Monterey Bay Aquarium sits in or beside town, as does Monterey State Beach, which is handy for a walk by the water. A short drive away, 17-Mile Drive is a well-known scenic route along the coast, and Asilomar State Beach offers another stretch of shoreline.
Report a mistake
- 12,534households
- 53%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 23%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Monterey County had 198,525 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 59° and lows near 44°; warmest in September, with highs near 71° and lows near 53°. About 20 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Monterey weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Monterey
- Community Hosp. Monterey PeninsulaGeneral hospital2,046FTE
- Monterey Bay AquariumZoos1,793
- Naval Postgraduate SchoolUniversity or college815
- Monterey Peninsula CollegeTwo-year college510
- City of MontereyLegislative bodies427
- CAL FireCal fire384
- Portola Hotel & SpaTourist lodges289
- ConstructionWarehouse, commercial and institutional, construction271
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 29 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,825 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Monterey’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 Monterey County and the Salinas, CA metro.
Monterey home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Monterey$1,153,012
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Monterey listings, and the typical home goes pending in 21 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.
- Monterey28.29%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Monterey21
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Monterey87
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Monterey22
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Monterey$1,133,386
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Monterey98.42%
Zip codes with a Monterey address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Monterey — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.