Half Moon Bay, CA population, income and ZIP codes

Half Moon Bay city is a mid-size town in California, with 11,454 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #461 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 71% of them. The median age here is 46.5 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 Half Moon Bay city earn a median of $153,199 a year, 95.1% above the national figure of $78,538 and 68% above the $91,111 median for the 1,050 California cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 6.2% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Half Moon Bay city is valued at $1,467,000, 383.5% above the national figure and 149% above the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $2,299 a month, 63.5% above the national figure, or roughly $27,588 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 18% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 9.6×, 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. 72.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Home values sit at 9.6× 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.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. 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.