Shafter, California.
Typical home $385,304 (+0.6% in a year), asking rent $2,344 . Bakersfield, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,087 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,465 +1%
- $382,839$385,304 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $69,748 +22%
- $315,556$385,304 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.
- Shafter$2,022
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Shafter, CA rose 0.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Shafter, Kern County, California
Shafter is a city of 19,953 people in Kern County. Half its households earn more than $71,215 a year and half less, against $70,210 across Kern County; 21% of its people live below the poverty line. 65% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 35% are rented. Unemployment in Kern County was 8.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then farming.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Shafter is a small city in Kern County, home to a young community whose residents are younger than in most of the country. Household incomes run a little above the county's, and most homes are lived in by their owners. A four-year degree is held by fewer adults here than across much of the country, and a sizable part of the population lives below the poverty line. Winters are cool and summers are hot, with August the warmest month, and the year brings little rain.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and in farming, with others in shops and in transport and warehouses. Among the largest workplaces in Shafter are Target, Richland Union Elementary Schools and Dagos Contracting. Commutes are fairly short, and few people work from home. Unemployment across Kern County is slightly lower than a year ago, though the county has a few fewer jobs than the year before.
Things to do. Minter Field Air Museum is in or beside town and is a good place to learn about aviation. A longer drive brings you to the Kern River, a favorite for time by the water, and to Kern County Museum, which gives a look at the region's past. Other parks and venues are spread around the Bakersfield area, all a longer drive away.
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- 5,677households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 21%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kern County had 347,044 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 58° and lows near 36°; warmest in August, with highs near 97° and lows near 62°. About 8 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Shafter 6E weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Shafter
- TargetDiscount department stores1,286
- Richland Union Elementary SchoolsSchool district385FTE
- National278
- Dagos ContractingLabor contractors, farm207
- Gonzalez Brothers Farm ServicesFarm labor contractors207
- GAFAsphalt shingles made from purchased asphaltic materials168
- Golden State Farm Labor ContractingLabor contractors, farm165
- Wonderful Orchards-EastsideTree nut farming108
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 24 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,285 people in all. School districts come 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
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Shafter’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 Kern County and the Bakersfield, CA metro.
Shafter home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Shafter$385,304
- 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 5 Shafter 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.
- Shafter20.52%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Shafter78
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Shafter25
Zip codes with a Shafter address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Shafter — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.