Kern County · California
Bakersfield, CA housing costs
What a home costs to buy and to rent here, how old the housing stock is, and how much of a paycheck rent takes — all from Census ACS 5-year estimates.
Quick answer
The median home in Bakersfield, CA is worth $347,300 and median gross rent is $1,371 a month. That is 14% above the national median home value of $303,400. 60.1% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, against 65% nationally.
- Median home value
- $347,300#42 of 94 metros
- Median gross rent
- $1,371/mo#47 of 94 metros
- Owner-occupied
- 60.1%US average 65%
- Median year built
- 1989Half the homes here are older than this
Can a median household here buy a median home?
Price-to-income is the plainest affordability yardstick there is.
Bakersfield's median household earns $73,813 a year while the median home is worth $347,300. That is a price-to-income ratio of 4.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally. Lenders have historically treated anything above 4× as stretched. Renters at the median put 32.3% of household income into gross rent; 30% is the federal threshold for “cost-burdened”.
Related data for Bakersfield
The same household, seen from three angles.
Tables B25077, B25064, B25003, B25035 and B25071, 2019-2023 ACS 5-year, Census place 603,526. Values are place-level, not metro-area-wide.