San Marcos, California.
Typical home $953,656 (+0.8% in a year), asking rent $3,311 (+2.8%). San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,755 (+122%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,663 +1%
- $945,993$953,656 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $167,896 +21%
- $785,760$953,656 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.
- San Marcos$5,006
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in San Marcos, CA rose 0.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in San Marcos, CA rose 2.8% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Owning the typical home in San Marcos runs $3,253/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $3,630 in May 2024.
That is $6,563 a month against $3,311 rent: a $5,006 mortgage payment, plus $537 property tax and $1,021 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — San Marcos
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$6,563
- Renting$3,311
- Mortgage only$5,006
Property tax · $537/mo 0.68% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for San Diego County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,021/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 San Marcos, San Diego County, California
San Marcos is a city of 94,833 people in San Diego County. Half its households earn more than $109,377 a year and half less, against $106,268 across San Diego County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 64% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 36% are rented. Unemployment in San Marcos was 4.5% in August 2026, and San Diego County had 0.1% 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 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. San Marcos is a city in San Diego County where incomes run a little above the county's and most homes are lived in by their owners. Adults here are more likely than not to hold a four-year degree, and the population skews younger than in many older suburbs. Winters are mild, summers are warm, snow is rare, and the year is fairly dry.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in manufacturing, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Some of the biggest workplaces in town are California State University-San Marcos, San Marcos Unified and Palomar College. Unemployment is a little lower than a year ago, though across San Diego County the number of jobs has been roughly flat.
Things to do. Within a short drive are San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a large wildlife park, and Legoland California, an amusement park. A longer drive brings you to Balboa Park, a big city park with museums and gardens, and to Black's Beach on the coast.
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- 31,350households
- 44%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 20%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 December, with highs near 68° and lows near 44°; warmest in August, with highs near 89° and lows near 65°. About 15 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Escondido #2 weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in San Marcos
- California State University-San MarcosUniversity or college1,769
- San Marcos UnifiedSchool district1,607FTE
- Palomar CollegeTwo-year college1,317
- University of St. Augustine for Health SciencesUniversity or college1,051
- Hunter IndustriesBalloons, plastics, manufacturing1,024
- San Marcos Medical CenterGeneral medical and surgical hospitals1,012
- UPSCouriers and express delivery services433
- San Marcos Medical CenterGeneral medical and surgical hospitals428
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 67 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 9,351 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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 floodingRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively 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 San Marcos’ 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 Diego County and the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro.
San Marcos home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- San Marcos$953,656
- 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 3 San Marcos listings, and the typical home goes pending in 24 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.
- San Marcos33.57%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- San Marcos24
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- San Marcos200
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- San Marcos68
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- San Marcos$965,104
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- San Marcos99.02%
Zip codes with a San Marcos address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls San Marcos — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in San Marcos
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92078 | San Marcos | 53,605 | $3,520 | $1,040,245 |
| 92069 | San Marcos | 47,335 | $3,066 | $892,568 |