Nevada City, CA population, income and ZIP codes

Nevada City city is a small town in California, with 3,168 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #783 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 51% of them. The median age here is 49.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Nevada City city earn a median of $69,552 a year, 11.4% below the national figure of $78,538 and 24% below 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 8.6% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Nevada City city is valued at $607,300, 100.2% above the national figure and 3% above the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,756 a month, 24.9% above the national figure, or roughly $21,072 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 30.3% 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 8.7×, 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. 44.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. 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 8.7× 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.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. 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.