METRO AREA · 17TH LARGEST

Cost of living in San Diego, CA

Rent, home values, family budgets, pay and taxes for the San Diego metro area.

The short answer: Typical rent in the San Diego metro area is $3,008 a month, +1.8% on a year earlier. A typical home in the metro is worth $934,169. A modest budget for two adults and two children runs $162,121 a year.
Housing

What a home costs in the San Diego area.

Zillow's typical home value here is $934,169. Values changed 0.0% over the past year and +22.9% over five years. A typical home costs 7.91 years of median family income.

With 10% down at 7.03%, the average 30-year rate on September 24, 2026, that home costs about $7,134 a month with tax, insurance and mortgage insurance, which takes $305,741 a year of income under the usual 28% guideline. The median family's income falls short of that. Try it with your own income.

What a household needs

A modest budget in the San Diego area.

The Economic Policy Institute prices what a modest but adequate standard of living costs in every county. Here, that comes to $77,560 a year for one adult and $162,121 for two adults and two children, of which $28,078 is childcare, against national averages of $47,367 and $101,771. Median family income is $118,115.

Prices, pay and taxes

The state picture.

Prices across California as a whole run 10.7% above the national average and rents 54.3% above the national average, by the Bureau of Economic Analysis's state measure. Median pay across all jobs in the state is $58,240 a year. California's top income tax rate on wages is 13.3%. These are statewide figures, not measured for the metro itself. The metro lies within California. Compare a salary with another state or work out take-home pay.

Every county in the metro

The county in one table.

San Diego County$934,1690.0%$3,008$118,115$162,121

A dash means the source publishes no figure for that county. Metro membership follows Zillow's own county-to-metro assignment.

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See every state and metro side by side

More about California

Cost of living · Income tax · Child care costs

Metro areasLos Angeles, CA · San Francisco, CA · Riverside, CA · San Diego, CA · Sacramento, CA · San Jose, CA · Fresno, CA · Bakersfield, CA · Oxnard, CA · Stockton, CA

Run the numbersTake-home pay in California · What a salary is worth in California · How much rent you can afford · What a car costs in California

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Where this comes from
Rent and home values
Zillow Observed Rent Index for the metro and Zillow Home Value Index by county, July 2026; changes compare the same month one and five years earlier.
Budgets and family income
Economic Policy Institute, Family Budget Calculator, 2026 edition, by county.
State figures
BEA Regional Price Parities 2024; BLS OEWS May 2025; 2026 state income tax tables.
Mortgage assumptions
Freddie Mac 30-year average of 7.03% on September 24, 2026; 10% down, 1.1% property tax, $1,700 a year of insurance, 0.75% mortgage insurance.
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