Sebastian, Florida.
Typical home $346,985 (+0.2% in a year), asking rent $2,262 (+6.0%). Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$978 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $530 +0%
- $346,455$346,985 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $51,847 +18%
- $295,138$346,985 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.
- Sebastian$1,821
- Florida$1,970
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 21 years.
Typical home values in Sebastian, FL rose 0.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Sebastian, FL rose 6.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Sebastian runs $131/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $491 in Apr 2024.
That is $2,393 a month against $2,262 rent: a $1,821 mortgage payment, plus $200 property tax and $371 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Sebastian
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$2,393
- Renting$2,262
- Mortgage only$1,821
Property tax · $200/mo 0.69% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Indian River County, FL
Insurance & upkeep · $371/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 Sebastian, Indian River County, Florida
Sebastian is a city of 25,054 people in Indian River County. Half its households earn more than $69,409 a year and half less, against $73,491 across Indian River County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% are rented. Unemployment in Sebastian was 6.1% in August 2026, and Indian River County had 0.1% more 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. Sebastian is a small Florida city on the Indian River, and its residents are older than in most American communities. Nearly everyone owns their home, far more than is typical, and household incomes run a little below the county's. Winters are mild and summers are hot, with plenty of rain through the year and almost no snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in shops, and in restaurants and hotels. Walmart, Publix Super Markets and Whelen Engineering Company are among the largest workplaces in town. The trip to work is on the long side, and unemployment has risen a little over the past year.
Things to do. Much of what draws people out is the water and the protected land close by. Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge and Sebastian Inlet State Park are both a short drive away, and so is the Sebastian Fishing Museum, which suits a quieter afternoon. For a longer outing, McKee Botanical Garden is a longer drive away.
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- 11,586households
- 27%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 31 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Indian River County had 57,576 jobs in 2025, 0.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 73° and lows near 54°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 75°. About 56 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Vero Beach 4SE weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest employers in Sebastian
- Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital2,112
- School District of Indian River County2,039
- Piper Aircraft Inc.1,500
- Indian River County1,455
- Publix Supermarket1,380
- Wal-Mart806
- Sebastian River Medical Center750
- Visiting Nurse Association500
From the City of Sebastian’s annual financial report for 2025, its schedule of principal employers (its source: “Principal employers in City of Sebastian were determined from listings provided by the Indian River Economic Development Commission”), as Florida’s Auditor General publishes it: the report. Employees as the report counts them.
Natural hazards
- HurricanesVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively 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 Sebastian’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 Indian River County and the Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL metro.
Sebastian home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sebastian$346,985
- Florida$375,361
- 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 4 Sebastian listings, and the typical home goes pending in 43 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.
- Sebastian26.82%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Sebastian43
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Sebastian222
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Sebastian57
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Sebastian$345,051
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Sebastian97.31%
Zip codes with a Sebastian address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sebastian — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.