Sausalito, California.
Typical home $1,589,416 (+3.9% in a year), asking rent $3,984 (+6.9%). San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$3,156 (+61%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $59,549 +4%
- $1,529,867$1,589,416 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $42,515 -3%
- $1,631,930$1,589,416 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.
- Sausalito$8,342
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Sausalito, CA rose 3.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Sausalito, CA rose 6.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Sausalito runs $6,939/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $8,406 in Oct 2022.
That is $10,923 a month against $3,984 rent: a $8,342 mortgage payment, plus $879 property tax and $1,702 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Sausalito
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$10,923
- Renting$3,984
- Mortgage only$8,342
Property tax · $879/mo 0.66% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Marin County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,702/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 Sausalito, Marin County, California
Sausalito is a city of 7,269 people in Marin County. Half its households earn more than $182,357 a year and half less, against $149,091 across Marin County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 60% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 40% are rented. Unemployment in Marin County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then schools and health care.
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. Sausalito is a small city in Marin County, home to an older population than most places, with a median age well above the national norm. Household incomes run higher than across the county, and most homes are lived in by their owners, though renters make up a real part of the town too. Typical home values and rents are high, and most adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Residents work mainly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in banks, insurance and property. Among the largest workplaces in Sausalito are Mollie Stone's Markets, the law office of Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo, and Golden Gate Builders. Commutes are fairly long, and a large share of residents work from home. Across Marin County, jobs dipped slightly last year, and unemployment is a little lower than a year ago.
Things to do. Muir Woods National Monument, a protected area, is a short drive away, as is Golden Gate Park, a large garden in San Francisco. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is also a short drive away for an afternoon indoors. Winters here are mild, with cool days and rain, and summers stay gentle, with September the warmest month.
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- 3,976households
- 76%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 46%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Marin County had 110,071 jobs in 2025, 0.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 58° and lows near 47°; warmest in September, with highs near 70° and lows near 56°. About 23 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the San Francisco Dwtn weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sausalito
- Mollie Stone's MarketsGrocery stores52
- Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo - MarinLaw office29
- Golden Gate BuildersHousing, single-family, construction general contractors27
- SausalitoMail and parcel delivery21
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 129 people in all. 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
- Coastal floodingrelatively high in parts of SausalitoRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sausalito’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 Marin County and the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
Sausalito home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sausalito$1,589,416
- 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 6 Sausalito listings — 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.
- Sausalito15.65%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Sausalito29
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Sausalito9
Zip codes with a Sausalito address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sausalito — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.