Alpine County, California Housing Market

Median Sale Price

$482,000

low-volume — YoY suppressed

Active Inventory

Days on Market

4 days

Price Drops

15.6%

Single-Family vs. Condo

Source: Redfin (property-type breakdown)

Single-Family Median

$482,000

Condo / Co-op Median

$275,000

SFR vs. Condo YoY Gap

+71.8%

SFR outperforming condos

DOM: SFR vs. Condo

4d / 206d

SFR / Condo

Buyer vs. Seller Market Indicators

Latest month — Redfin

Months of Supply

32.0 mo

Buyer market

Inventory ÷ monthly sales. Below 3 = strong seller market; 3-6 balanced; above 6 = buyer market.

Sale-to-List Ratio

96.6%

Below asking

Median closing price ÷ original list price. Above 100% = homes routinely closing above asking.

% Sold Above List

Buyer-favorable

Share of closed sales priced above asking. The single cleanest read on bidder competition.

What does your sqft target cost in Alpine County, California?

$231/sqft median (Redfin)

Square footage 2,000 sqft

Bedrooms +$0 adj

Bathrooms +$0 adj

Lot size optional

Estimated price

$461,686

Near median (-4% vs median)

Region median

$482,000

all homes

Price-tier reverse lookup — what sqft does each price band buy?

$600,000

≈ 2,599 sqft

$1,200,000

≈ 5,198 sqft

$2,000,000

≈ 8,664 sqft

$5,000,000

≈ 21,660 sqft

Estimate = (median $/sqft × your sqft) + bed/bath/lot adjustments. Bed and bath adjustments use Appraisal Institute / Fannie Mae standard rules of thumb (~$15K/extra bedroom, ~$20K/extra bathroom vs. a 3bd/2ba baseline; half-bath = half adj). Lot premium is a $1.50/sqft heuristic beyond a 6,000 sqft baseline — accuracy varies sharply by urban infill vs. acreage market. Quality, condition, year built, and HOA are not modeled here. For a deeper county-level hedonic AVM, see AVM Lite.

Rent + invest vs. buy + own — backtested

15-yr rolling history · S&P 500

Property type:

Home price

Monthly rent

Down %

Rate %

Property tax %

Insurance / yr

Maintenance %

HOA / mo

Home appreciation %

Rent inflation %

Horizon (yrs)

Invest in

After-tax mode (MID, SALT, LTCG, Sec 121) Show inflation-adjusted (real) side-by-side VA loan (0% down, no PMI, funding fee)

BUY + OWN

Median ending wealth $423K $258K real

Net gain on $111K upfront: $312K

Range: $423K → $423K

Wealth = home value (appreciated at 3%/yr) − remaining mortgage − 6% selling cost. Gain = wealth − upfront. Leveraged appreciation on full $482K asset comes from the 20% down.

RENT + INVEST

Median ending portfolio $1.18M $747K real

Net gain on $430K contributed: $754K

Range: $556K → $2.99M

Same upfront cash + each year's (own − rent) surplus invested in S&P 500 at actual annual returns. Median renter contributed $430K total.

Median wealth delta: $761K in favor of RENT + INVEST

What if you'd started in a recent year? (most-recent 15yr window: 2011–2025)

Window	Buy wealth	Buy gain	Rent wealth	Rent gain	Wealth delta
2011–2025	$423K	$312K	$1.72M	$1.29M	$1.30M rent
2010–2024	$423K	$312K	$1.76M	$1.33M	$1.33M rent
2009–2023	$423K	$312K	$1.67M	$1.24M	$1.25M rent
2008–2022	$423K	$312K	$1.20M	$771K	$777K rent
2007–2021	$423K	$312K	$1.56M	$1.13M	$1.13M rent
2006–2020	$423K	$312K	$1.33M	$900K	$906K rent
2005–2019	$423K	$312K	$1.20M	$767K	$774K rent
2004–2018	$423K	$312K	$986K	$556K	$563K rent

Educational tool, not investment or real-estate advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Backtests use actual annual total returns including dividends from S&P 500 (Damodaran (NYU Stern) annual total return (with dividends), 1957-present.).

Buyer model: 30-yr fixed mortgage, P&I + property tax + insurance + maintenance (1% of value/yr) + HOA. Selling cost = 6%. Investor model: down payment + annual cashflow surplus invested in the chosen index at that calendar year's actual return.

Tax model: pre-tax comparison. Toggle "after-tax mode" to apply MID, SALT, LTCG, and the Sec 121 capital-gains exclusion.

This calculator does not adjust for: PMI (assumed 20%+ down), differential transaction costs by state, lifestyle factors (commute, schools, kids), illiquidity / forced-sale risk, or insurance availability constraints (e.g., FL/CA wildfire). Consult a fiduciary advisor and tax professional before acting on any of this.

Market Pressure Signals

Derived from Redfin trend

Inventory vs. Long-Term Avg

+12.9%

surplus — buyer leverage

DOM vs. 24-Mo Avg

-97.9%

currently 4 days

Long-Term Avg Inventory

Long-Term Avg DOM

190 days

Mortgage & Price Stress

State HPI + national delinquency

State HPI YoY

+0.9%

flat — pressure building

State HPI vs. Peak

-0.0%

at or near peak peak 2026-01-01

National Mortgage Delinquency

1.86%

benchmark — 2026-04-01 county-grain delinquency requires paid data

State-grain HPI YoY + drawdown from peak is the cleanest free price-stress proxy. The national delinquency rate gives the macro mortgage-stress backdrop. True county-level mortgage delinquency lives in paid datasets (MBA NDS, CoreLogic LP).

Getting a Mortgage Here

CFPB HMDA 2025

Loans Actually Made

too few rulings to publish a rate

Every lender above a size threshold has to report each application and what they did with it. The denial rate here counts only applications a lender actually ruled on — approved or denied. Files the applicant withdrew, and files closed as incomplete, are left out of both halves, so this runs higher than tables that bury them in the denominator. This county had fewer than 50 ruled-on applications, where a handful of files swing the rate several points, so no rate is shown. Compare every state and county →

Value Ratios

Median home price ÷ county median income

Value / Income

4.3×

stretched

Median Household Income

$110,781

Census ACS B19013

Historically affordable markets sit at 3–4× income; over 5× is stretched, over 6× is severely overvalued. Lower ratios point to bargain opportunities.

Housing Stock & Owners

Census ACS 5-year (B19013, B01003, B25002, B25003, B25034, B25007)

Population

1,695

total residents

Total Housing Units

1,587

all units, occupied + vacant

Vacancy Rate

70.2%

high vacancy

Homeownership Rate

81.0%

of occupied units owner-occupied

Boomer Owners (65+)

40.2%

of homeowner households

Millennial / Gen-X Owners (35-54)

4.0%

of homeowner households

Pre-1949 Housing Stock

8.7%

structures built before 1949

When boomer-owner share is high, expect more inventory hitting the market over the next decade as homes transition. High vacancy + high old-stock often signals deferred-maintenance markets where buyers can negotiate.

Who's Moving In (Census ACS)

Source: Census ACS B07001 (5-year)

Inbound Movers (1 yr)

176

10.78% of pop. — moved here from outside the county

From Other States

3.25% of pop. — interstate inbound

From Abroad

—

moved into the county from outside the U.S.

Same House 1 Year Ago

86%

stable residents

Census ACS asks where people lived 1 year ago, so this counts inbound movers but does not show outbound — true net migration would require IRS SOI parsing.

Trends

Up to 5 years of monthly data

Median Sale Price

Trailing 12 months

Active Inventory

Trailing 12 months

Days on Market

Trailing 12 months

Looking for state-level data? See California statewide stats →

Verify any number on this page: data sources, formulas, and cross-references →