While prices remain much higher in most of California’s major cities than they did before the pandemic, they’ve dipped over the past year.
What do laid-back San Luis Obispo and agricultural Madera have in common? They’re the only two kinds of cities whose homes are reaching record prices.
California’s housing market is in something of a rut. Unfavorable interest rates, a softening job market and general economic anxiety are driving many buyers away, forcing some sellers to cut prices.
It’s a far cry not just from before the pandemic, when prices in white-collar urban centers like San Francisco climbed quickly, but even from a few years ago, when pandemic-era migration into the suburbs of those cities sparked bidding wars across the country.
And while prices remain much higher in most of California’s major cities than they did before the pandemic — most dramatically on the Peninsula and in the South Bay — Zillow data shows the state’s typical home value dipped 2% from September 2024 to September 2025.
But then there’s idyllic San Luis Obispo, where the typical value of a mid-priced home grew by about 3% to $1.1 million last month — its highest-ever level — according to Zillow’s data. (Zillow’s estimates do not adjust for inflation, which would set most cities’ records back a year or two).
Some of the other towns that hit record highs are also laid-back coastal communities, like Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County and Carlsbad in San Diego County. But others are decidedly not: Madera, Hanford and other small cities in the San Joaquin Valley have also kept climbing. Even more dramatically, all but one of the incorporated cities in low-income Imperial County, on the Mexican border, also hit record highs.
California cities whose home values hit record highs in September 2025
Sorted by population, with counties in parentheses. Values are not inflation-adjusted.
Carlsbad in San Diego saw an 87% rise from 2019, followed by Newport Beach at 77%, Madera at 56%, Hanford at 51% and SLO at 46%.
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| City | Value | From 2024 | From 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlsbad (San Diego) | $1.2M | +4% | +87% |
| Newport Beach (Orange) | $3.4M | +4% | +77% |
| Madera (Madera) | $418K | +2% | +56% |
| Hanford (Kings) | $373K | +2% | +51% |
| San Luis Obispo (San Luis Obispo) | $1.1M | +3% | +46% |
| El Centro (Imperial) | $375K | +7% | +54% |
| San Gabriel (Los Angeles) | $1.1M | +2% | +42% |
| Calexico (Imperial) | $381K | +7% | +53% |
| Atascadero (San Luis Obispo) | $767K | +2% | +45% |
| Brawley (Imperial) | $350K | +4% | +47% |
| Sanger (Fresno) | $410K | +2% | +52% |
| Selma (Fresno) | $356K | +2% | +52% |
| Imperial (Imperial) | $426K | +7% | +68% |
| Nipomo (San Luis Obispo) | $927K | +4% | +52% |
| Carpinteria (Santa Barbara) | $1.5M | +5% | +63% |
Data for smaller cities may be based on only a few sales and have wide margins of error.
Table: Christian Leonard/S.F. ChronicleSource: Zillow
What these areas have in common is that they’re hours away from massive employers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, reflecting an extended shift for the California housing market. The pandemic led to a surge in home purchases near — but not in — urban cores as remote workers sought more space and middle-income families moved inland for lower expenses. As businesses called workers back to the office and interest rates spiked, those moves slowed to a trickle.
The home prices in my very Orange County middle-class neighborhood are ridiculous. It is impossible to believe that a couple with children can earn the money necessary for the mortgage (even if they sold a home to upgrade to my tract), for the property taxes, for car payment(s), for food, clothing and other necessities. My guess is that many people look middle-class and appear to be living middle-class but are actually in great debt.
Gee think Slick and the Radical Socialists in Sacramento have put pressure on homes? Wait until the RHNA HIGH DENSITY hits big time. The costs will go even higher.
Just look at the insurance costs that are demanded by banks to cover fire, etc.
The RSP LED BY SCOTTY & SLICK are driving the State into bankruptcy.
Where are the people coming from to live here as the Boomers pass and the replacement births are not there?
Remember you voted for them….