Morro Bay, California.
Typical home $935,118 (+1.4% in a year), asking rent $2,998 (+11.5%). San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,373 (+94%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,546 +1%
- $922,572$935,118 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $103,499 +12%
- $831,619$935,118 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.
- Morro Bay$4,908
- 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 Morro Bay, CA rose 1.4% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Asking rents in Morro Bay, CA rose 11.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Morro Bay runs $3,333/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $3,842 in Jan 2025.
That is $6,332 a month against $2,998 rent: a $4,801 mortgage payment, plus $531 property tax and $1,000 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Morro Bay
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$6,332
- Renting$2,998
- Mortgage only$4,801
Property tax · $531/mo 0.68% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for San Luis Obispo County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,000/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 Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo County, California
Morro Bay is a city of 10,757 people in San Luis Obispo County. Half its households earn more than $95,843 a year and half less, against $97,446 across San Luis Obispo 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 San Luis Obispo County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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. Morro Bay is a small coastal city whose residents are older than in most American towns, and most households own the home they live in. Incomes sit a little below the county's, while typical home values and rents are high, so living here is costly for those who rent or are buying now. Winters are mild, summers stay cool, and snow is rare. Rain is modest through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, or in government. Among the largest workplaces in town are Compass Health, a skilled nursing facility, Spencer's Fresh Markets, a grocery store, and Garden House Senior Care, an assisted-living home. A good share of residents work from home, and the typical commute is short.
Things to do. Morro Bay State Park and the Morro Bay Maritime Museum are both in or beside town, and Morro Strand State Beach runs along the shore there too. A short drive away, Cayucos State Beach is another stretch of coast, and Montaña de Oro State Park is a protected area for walking and looking out over the water. Hearst Castle is a longer drive, for a day out.
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- 5,110households
- 48%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 22%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. San Luis Obispo County had 121,634 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 65° and lows near 46°; warmest in October, with highs near 72° and lows near 54°. About 17 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Morro Bay Fire Dept weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Morro Bay
- Compass HealthSkilled nursing facilities189
- Spencer's Fresh MarketsGrocery stores51
- Mission Linen Supply Morro Bay CaliforniaLaundries, linen and uniform supply45
- AutoZoneAutomotive car parts retailer28
- Escape HospitalityAuto courts, lodging21
- Garden House Senior CareAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities21
- David Crye General Engineering ContractorGrading construction sites20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 375 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Earthquakesrelatively high in parts of Morro BayRelatively moderate
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Morro Bay’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 San Luis Obispo County and the San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA metro.
Morro Bay home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Morro Bay$935,118
- 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 Morro Bay 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.
- Morro Bay27.82%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Morro Bay41
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Morro Bay11
Zip codes with a Morro Bay address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Morro Bay — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.