Pala, California.
Typical home $868,511 (+5.3% in a year). San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,733 (+150%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $43,612 +5%
- $824,899$868,511 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $178,470 +26%
- $690,040$868,511 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.
- Pala$4,559
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Pala, CA rose 5.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Pala, San Diego County, California
Pala, in San Diego County, had 1,490 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $106,250 a year and half less, against $106,268 across San Diego County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 62% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 38% are rented. Unemployment in San Diego County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in restaurants and hotels, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Pala is a small community in San Diego County, home to a young population with a median age well below what is common in much of the country. Household incomes sit about level with the county's, and most homes are lived in by their owners, though typical home values are high. Few adults here hold a four-year degree.
Work. Many residents work in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in the building trades, in schools, hospitals and social care, or in professional and business services. Across San Diego County, some of the largest workplaces are the University of California-San Diego, the County of San Diego and San Diego Unified. The commute is moderate, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. Murrieta Creek is a short drive away, and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and Legoland California are each a longer drive away. Winters are mild, with the coldest days in February still comfortable, and summers turn hot by August. Rain and melted snow add up to a fairly dry year.
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- 7%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. San Diego County had 1,535,067 jobs in 2025, 0.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in February, with highs near 67° and lows near 46°; warmest in August, with highs near 89° and lows near 62°. About 15 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fallbrook Northeast weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in San Diego County
- University of California-San DiegoUniversity or college18,717
- County of San DiegoSocial service agency18,392
- San Diego UnifiedSchool district11,195FTE
- Ucsd Medical CenterGeneral hospital10,244FTE
- National UniversityUniversity or college5,052
- illuminaBiotechnology research and development laboratories or services in the medical sciences4,687
- National UniversityColleges, universities, and professional schools4,649
- San Diego State UniversityUniversity or college4,229
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2,263 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 408,395 people in all across the county; Pala has none of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- WildfireVery high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively 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 Pala’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 San Diego County and the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro.
Pala home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Pala$868,511
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
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.
Zip codes with a Pala address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Pala — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.