Red Bluff, California.
Typical home $309,686 (+3.1% in a year), asking rent $1,542 (+4.6%). Red Bluff, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$767 (+89%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,330 +3%
- $300,356$309,686 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $18,986 +7%
- $290,700$309,686 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.
- Red Bluff$1,625
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 55 years.
Typical home values in Red Bluff, CA rose 3.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Red Bluff, CA rose 4.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Red Bluff runs $576/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $695 in Dec 2024.
That is $2,118 a month against $1,542 rent: a $1,625 mortgage payment, plus $161 property tax and $332 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Red Bluff
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$2,118
- Renting$1,542
- Mortgage only$1,625
Property tax · $161/mo 0.62% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Tehama County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $332/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 Red Bluff, Tehama County, California
Red Bluff is a city of 14,710 people in Tehama County. Half its households earn more than $51,529 a year and half less, against $63,784 across Tehama County; 19% of its people live below the poverty line. 43% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 57% are rented. Unemployment in Tehama County was 6.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% 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. Red Bluff is a small city in Tehama County, and its residents are younger than in many American towns. Most households here rent rather than own, and incomes run well below the county's, with a larger share of people living in poverty than you might expect. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and the typical commute is short.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and government. Among the largest workplaces in Red Bluff are the County of Tehama, St. Elizabeth Community Hospital and Walmart. Across the county, unemployment is a little lower than a year ago, though the number of jobs has slipped slightly.
Things to do. Within town you can visit the William B. Ide Adobe State Historic Park, a protected historic site, or catch a show at the State Theatre. Dibble Creek runs through town, and Black Butte Lake, a reservoir, is a longer drive away. Winters are mild and wet by inland standards, while summers turn very hot, so outings are easiest outside the warmest months.
Report a mistake
- 5,878households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Tehama County had 19,664 jobs in 2025, 0.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 56° and lows near 38°; warmest in July, with highs near 98° and lows near 66°. About 23 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Red Bluff Municipal Airport weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Red Bluff
- County of TehamaBoards of supervisors, county and local713
- St Elizabeth Community HosptialGeneral hospital415FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters319
- PJ HelicoptersAircraft charter services297
- Red Bluff Union Elementary SchoolsSchool district225FTE
- Red Bluff Joint Union High SchoolsSchool district211FTE
- Tehama County Department of Education SchoolsSchool district185FTE
- Restpadd HealthPsychiatric hospitals79
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 15 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,346 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- Inland floodingVery high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Red Bluff’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 Tehama County and the Red Bluff, CA metro.
Red Bluff home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Red Bluff$309,686
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Red Bluff listings, and the typical home goes pending in 24 days — 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.
- Red Bluff24.88%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Red Bluff24
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Red Bluff141
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Red Bluff27
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Red Bluff$300,290
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Red Bluff address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Red Bluff — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Red Bluff
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 96080 | Red Bluff | 31,554 | $1,542 | $311,637 |
| 96075 | Paynes Creek | 221 | — | $153,356 |