Vista, California.
Typical home $869,576 (+1.3% in a year), asking rent $2,726 (+1.0%). San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,564 (+128%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,176 +1%
- $858,400$869,576 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $178,343 +26%
- $691,233$869,576 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.
- Vista$4,564
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Vista, CA rose 1.3% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Asking rents in Vista, CA rose 1.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Vista runs $3,259/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $3,459 in Jan 2025.
That is $5,985 a month against $2,726 rent: a $4,564 mortgage payment, plus $490 property tax and $931 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Vista
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$5,985
- Renting$2,726
- Mortgage only$4,564
Property tax · $490/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 · $931/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 Vista, San Diego County, California
Vista is a city of 98,381 people in San Diego County. Half its households earn more than $94,975 a year and half less, against $106,268 across San Diego County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 52% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 48% are rented. Unemployment in Vista was 4.8% 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. Vista is a city in San Diego County with a fairly young population compared with many places older homeowners might know. Incomes run below the county's, and renting is common, with about as many households renting as owning. Homes and rents are both costly, and winters are mild, with summers that stay warm but not extreme and little rain or snow through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by professional and business services, manufacturing and retail. Vista Unified, the school district, is among the largest workplaces in town, along with Costco Wholesale and Watkins Wellness, a hot tub maker. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than you might expect for the region, and a fair number work from home, while the typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. In or beside town are Alta Vista Gardens, a botanical garden, and the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum. A short drive away are Legoland California, an amusement park, and the Museum of Making Music. The San Luis Rey River is also a short drive away, and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is a longer drive.
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- 32,323households
- 29%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 16%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 65° and lows near 45°; warmest in August, with highs near 81° and lows near 63°. About 13 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Vista weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Vista
- Vista UnifiedSchool district1,936FTE
- Watkins WellnessHot tubs, plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing618
- All One God FaithShampoos and conditioners, hair, manufacturing366
- Costco WholesaleWholesale grocer358
- Captek Softgel International - VistaPharmaceutical preparations manufacturing311
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters288
- Western Concrete PumpingConcrete pouring286
- AmazonCouriers and express delivery services254
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 82 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,430 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 high in parts of VistaRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Vista’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.
Vista home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Vista$869,576
- 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 Vista listings, and the typical home goes pending in 27 days — 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.
- Vista31.32%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Vista27
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Vista217
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Vista68
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Vista$878,888
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Vista99.57%
Zip codes with a Vista address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Vista — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Vista
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92084 | Vista | 49,727 | $2,745 | $903,268 |
| 92083 | Vista | 38,375 | $2,680 | $785,424 |
| 92081 | Vista | 29,002 | $2,801 | $910,690 |