Pacifica, California.
Typical home $1,253,521 (+2.4% in a year), asking rent $3,594 (+9.3%). San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,667 (+68%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $29,069 +2%
- $1,224,452$1,253,521 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $21,898 +2%
- $1,231,622$1,253,521 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.
- Pacifica$6,579
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Pacifica, CA rose 2.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Pacifica, CA rose 9.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Pacifica runs $4,965/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $5,698 in Oct 2023.
That is $8,559 a month against $3,594 rent: a $6,579 mortgage payment, plus $638 property tax and $1,342 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Pacifica
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$8,559
- Renting$3,594
- Mortgage only$6,579
Property tax · $638/mo 0.61% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for San Mateo County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,342/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 Pacifica, San Mateo County, California
Pacifica is a city of 38,640 people in San Mateo County. Half its households earn more than $160,523 a year and half less, against $158,855 across San Mateo County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. Unemployment in Pacifica was 4.0% in August 2026, and San Mateo County had 1.2% 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 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. Pacifica is a coastal city in San Mateo County where households earn a little more than the county's typical household, and fewer people live below the poverty line than in many places. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and the people who live here are somewhat older than in many American towns. Winters are mild and rarely see snow, and summers stay cool, with the warmest weather arriving in September and a fair amount of rain through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, or in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Pacifica Schools and Pacifica Nursing and Rehabilitation Center are among the largest workplaces in town, along with several Safeway stores. Plenty of people work from home, and the typical commute is a fairly long one.
Things to do. San Francisco Zoo and Candlestick Park, a stadium, are each a short drive away. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Golden Gate Park, a large garden and park, and to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Report a mistake
- 13,915households
- 49%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 24%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. San Mateo County had 411,346 jobs in 2025, 1.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 58° and lows near 45°; warmest in September, with highs near 72° and lows near 53°. About 32 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Pacifica Sse weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Pacifica
- Pacifica SchoolsSchool district239FTE
- Pacifica Nursing and Rehabilitation CenterSkilled nursing facilities171
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores101
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores69
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores56
- PacificaMail and parcel delivery51
- Chu ManagementGrocery stores42
- Recology of the CoastSolid waste collection40
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 553 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
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Pacifica’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 Mateo County and the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
Pacifica home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Pacifica$1,253,521
- 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 7 Pacifica listings, and the typical home goes pending in 19 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.
- Pacifica14.96%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Pacifica19
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Pacifica71
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Pacifica30
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Pacifica$1,280,539
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Pacifica106.05%
Zip codes with a Pacifica address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Pacifica — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.