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San Luis Obispo County, California

Single-family vs. condo trends, market pressure signals, and 5-year price history. Source: Redfin.

Median Sale Price
$915,000
+22.0% YoY
Active Inventory
774
Days on Market
35 days
Price Drops
29.2%

Single-Family vs. Condo

Source: Redfin (property-type breakdown)
Single-Family Median
$997,500
+4.9% YoY
Condo / Co-op Median
$615,000
-1.9% YoY
SFR vs. Condo YoY Gap
+6.8%
SFR outperforming condos
DOM: SFR vs. Condo
35d / 32d
SFR / Condo

Buyer vs. Seller Market Indicators

Latest month — Redfin
Months of Supply
3.1 mo
Balanced

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

Sale-to-List Ratio
99.2%
At asking

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

% Sold Above List
32%
Mixed

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

What does your sqft target cost in San Luis Obispo County, California?

$562/sqft median (Redfin)
+$0 adj
+$0 adj
optional
Estimated price
$1,123,603
Above median (+23% vs median)
Region median
$915,000
all homes
Price-tier reverse lookup — what sqft does each price band buy?
$600,000
≈ 1,068 sqft
$1,200,000
≈ 2,136 sqft
$2,000,000
≈ 3,560 sqft
$5,000,000
≈ 8,900 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:
Upfront capital committed (both paths): $210K = 20% down + 3% closing on a $915K home
BUY + OWN
Median ending wealth $803K $491K real
Net gain on $210K upfront: $593K
Range: $803K → $803K
Wealth = home value (appreciated at 3%/yr) − remaining mortgage − 6% selling cost. Gain = wealth − upfront. Leveraged appreciation on full $915K asset comes from the 20% down.
RENT + INVEST
Median ending portfolio $2.27M $1.43M real
Net gain on $828K contributed: $1.44M
Range: $1.07M → $5.73M
Same upfront cash + each year's (own − rent) surplus invested in S&P 500 at actual annual returns. Median renter contributed $828K total.
Median wealth delta: $1.47M in favor of RENT + INVEST
What if you'd started in a recent year? (most-recent 15yr window: 2011–2025)
WindowBuy wealthBuy gainRent wealthRent gainWealth delta
2011–2025$803K$593K$3.30M$2.47M$2.50M rent
2010–2024$803K$593K$3.37M$2.54M$2.56M rent
2009–2023$803K$593K$3.21M$2.38M$2.41M rent
2008–2022$803K$593K$2.31M$1.48M$1.51M rent
2007–2021$803K$593K$3.00M$2.17M$2.19M rent
2006–2020$803K$593K$2.56M$1.73M$1.75M rent
2005–2019$803K$593K$2.30M$1.47M$1.50M rent
2004–2018$803K$593K$1.90M$1.07M$1.09M 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
+37.4%
surplus — buyer leverage
DOM vs. 24-Mo Avg
-19.9%
currently 35 days
Long-Term Avg Inventory
563
Long-Term Avg DOM
44 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
Applications Denied
21.5%
2.2 pts easier than California
Loans Actually Made
4,840
1,329 turned down
Average Loan Made
$520,829
what lenders here actually wrote
National Denial Rate
23.4%
benchmark — all 51 states

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. Compare every state and county →

Value Ratios

Median home price ÷ county median income
Value / Income
9.8×
severely overvalued
Median Household Income
$93,398
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
281,486
total residents
Total Housing Units
124,871
all units, occupied + vacant
Vacancy Rate
12.8%
elevated
Homeownership Rate
61.9%
of occupied units owner-occupied
Boomer Owners (65+)
28.3%
of homeowner households
Millennial / Gen-X Owners (35-54)
3.4%
of homeowner households
Pre-1949 Housing Stock
8.8%
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.

Net Migration (IRS Tax Returns)

IRS Statistics of Income — Migration Data
Net Migration
+1,104
gaining people (2022–2023)
Inbound Returns
4,820
7,509 people moved in
Outbound Returns
4,354
6,405 people moved out
Net Returns
+466
household-filer basis

Top 5 Origins (where movers came from)

  1. Santa Barbara, California — 840 returns
  2. Los Angeles, California — 627 returns
  3. Kern, California — 267 returns
  4. Santa Clara, California — 266 returns
  5. San Diego, California — 256 returns

Top 5 Destinations (where movers went)

  1. Santa Barbara, California — 722 returns
  2. Los Angeles, California — 399 returns
  3. San Diego, California — 348 returns
  4. Orange, California — 227 returns
  5. Fresno, California — 187 returns

IRS Statistics of Income tracks county-to-county migration via tax-return change-of-address. Net migration uses the exemption count (a proxy for people, including dependents). True net flow can lag by 1–2 years vs. real-time movements.

Who's Moving In (Census ACS)

Source: Census ACS B07001 (5-year)
Inbound Movers (1 yr)
22,540
8.08% of pop. — moved here from outside the county
From Other States
4,270
1.53% of pop. — interstate inbound
From Abroad
699
moved into the county from outside the U.S.
Same House 1 Year Ago
82%
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 →