Needles, California.
Typical home $184,233 (-2.2% in a year). Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$498 (+106%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $4,095 -2%
- $188,328$184,233 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $8,905 -5%
- $193,139$184,233 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.
- Needles$967
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Needles, CA fell 2.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Needles, San Bernardino County, California
Needles is a city of 4,931 people in San Bernardino County. 52% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 48% are rented. Unemployment in San Bernardino County was 5.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in restaurants and hotels, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Needles is a small city on the Colorado River in the far eastern Mojave Desert, one of the more remote towns in San Bernardino County. Far more residents live below the poverty line than is typical, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than across the country as a whole. Owners and renters share the town's homes about evenly, and typical home values are modest. Winters are mild, with chilly nights, while summers are among the hottest anywhere, rain is scarce, and snow is rare.
Work. Residents work mostly in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in schools, hospitals and social care, in transport, warehouses and utilities, and in government. Few people work from home. Across San Bernardino County, unemployment is a little lower than a year ago, and the number of jobs has edged up slightly. The largest workplaces across the county include Yaamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel, San Bernardino City Unified and Loma Linda University Medical Center.
Things to do. Topock Maze, an archaeological site, and Piute Wash, a desert river course, are both a short drive away. Farther afield, Lake Havasu is a reservoir that makes a longer drive, and the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area along the river, also a longer drive away. With summers this hot, the cooler months suit time outdoors best.
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- 2,218households
- 10%of adults have a degree
- 30%below the poverty line
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. San Bernardino County had 848,961 jobs in 2025, 0.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 64° and lows near 45°; warmest in July, with highs near 110° and lows near 87°. About 4 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Needles Airport weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in San Bernardino County
- Yaamava Resort and Casino at San ManuelResort hotels with casinos7,449
- San Bernardino City UnifiedSchool district5,915FTE
- Loma Linda University Medical CenterGeneral hospital5,689FTE
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services4,060
- Empire Workforce SolutionsEmployment agencies3,850
- Fontana UnifiedSchool district3,692FTE
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage3,599
- AmazonGeneral warehousing and storage3,541
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1,624 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 285,165 people in all across the county; Needles has two 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 floodingVery high
- Landslidesrelatively high in parts of NeedlesRelatively moderate
- WildfireRelatively 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 Needles’ 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 Bernardino County and the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA metro.
Needles home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Needles$184,233
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Needles listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Needles20.30%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Needles41
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Needles6
Zip codes with a Needles address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Needles — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.