Desert Palms, CA population, income and ZIP codes

Desert Palms CDP is a mid-size town in California, with 6,522 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #596 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 63% of them. The median age here is 76.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Desert Palms CDP earn a median of $81,954 a year, 4.3% above the national figure of $78,538 and 10% below the $91,111 median for the 1,050 California cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 9.4% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Desert Palms CDP is valued at $526,500, 73.5% above the national figure and 11% below the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $2,175 a month, 54.7% above the national figure, or roughly $26,100 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 31.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is a stretch on median earnings. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 6.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 83.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

Home values sit at 6.4× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere. A median age of 76.2 puts Desert Palms CDP well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.