Solana Beach, California.
Typical home $2,209,319 (+7.5% in a year), asking rent $5,784 (+10.0%). San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$6,996 (+152%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $154,297 +8%
- $2,055,022$2,209,319 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $581,042 +36%
- $1,628,277$2,209,319 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.
- Solana Beach$11,596
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Solana Beach, CA rose 7.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Solana Beach, CA rose 10.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Solana Beach runs $9,421/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $9,577 in Jan 2025.
That is $15,205 a month against $5,784 rent: a $11,596 mortgage payment, plus $1,244 property tax and $2,365 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Solana Beach
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$15,205
- Renting$5,784
- Mortgage only$11,596
Property tax · $1,244/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 · $2,365/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 Solana Beach, San Diego County, California
Solana Beach is a city of 12,941 people in San Diego County. Half its households earn more than $152,167 a year and half less, against $106,268 across San Diego County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. Unemployment in San Diego County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% 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. Solana Beach is a small coastal city in San Diego County, home to an older population than most of the country. Incomes run well above the county's, and the typical home costs a great deal to buy or rent. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and a large majority of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild and summers are only moderately warm, with little rain through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in banks, insurance and property. A good share work from home, and the typical commute is fairly short. Among the largest workplaces in town are Solana Beach Elementary Schools, AEVEX Aerospace and Senior Resource Group. Across San Diego County, unemployment is a little lower than a year ago, while the number of jobs has slipped slightly.
Things to do. San Elijo Lagoon, a protected area, lies in or beside town and is the nearest place for a walk among open water and wildlife. A short drive away are Black's Beach and Legoland California, an amusement park. For a longer outing, the San Diego Zoo is a longer drive away.
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- 5,682households
- 72%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 31%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 February, with highs near 64° and lows near 48°; warmest in August, with highs near 76° and lows near 65°. About 11 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Carlsbad Palomar Airport weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Solana Beach
- Solana Beach Elementary SchoolsSchool district281FTE
- AEVEX AerospaceEngineering services263
- Greystar121
- Senior Resource GroupSenior citizens' homes without nursing care100
- Senior Resource GroupRetirement communities, continuing care99
- C2 Building GroupCommercial building construction general contractors98
- VonsSupermarkets and other grocery stores95
- GS Construction CaliforniaApartment building construction general contractors76
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 12 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,043 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
- EarthquakesRelatively 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 Solana Beach’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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.
Solana Beach home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Solana Beach$2,209,319
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Solana Beach listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Solana Beach24.60%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Solana Beach52
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Solana Beach13
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Solana Beach address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Solana Beach — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.