California mortgage calculator

Property tax in California

The median California homeowner pays $5,124 a year in property tax on a home valued at $734,700, an effective rate of 0.6974% in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 5-year 2020-2024). That ranks the 17th lowest of the 50 states and DC, at or below the middle state's 0.8003%. At that rate each $100,000 of home value carries about $697 a year of tax, or $58.12 a month in the payment, and that rate is what the calculator above starts from.

California's counties sit fairly close together, so the state figure is a reasonable starting point. Among counties whose survey figures pass both quality checks, the effective rate runs from 0.5795% in Trinity County to 0.8821% in Kern County. On a $734,700 home that gap is worth about $2,223 a year. Pick a county in the calculator to use its rate, or type the rate from a listing or a current tax bill.

California property tax rates by county

All 58 counties, sorted from the highest effective rate to the lowest. The rate is the median tax paid divided by the median home value, from the ACS 5-year 2020-2024 survey (figures to December 31, 2024). Of these, two carry a flag: where the survey's margin of error is wide or home values hit the survey's top code, the calculator uses the California median instead of that county's figure.

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Worked example: the median California home

The median owner-occupied home in California is valued at $734,700 (ACS 5-year 2020-2024). Put $146,940 down, enough to keep the loan at 80% of the price so no PMI is charged, and borrow the rest over 30 years at 7.4%, the Freddie Mac average for the week of October 15, 2026. Insurance is the calculator's default of $1,500 a year, the same figure on every state page and 2.7% of this payment; real premiums vary widely from state to state and with a home's exposure to wind, flood and wildfire, so replace it with a premium for the California home you are pricing.

Principal and interest dominate the bill; tax and insurance, usually collected through escrow, add $551.98 a month, 11.9% of the total. Over the full term the $587,760 loan costs $877,273 in interest.

With $73,470 down instead, the loan grows to $661,230 and PMI of $275.51 a month is added, for a first payment of $5,405.71. On the regular schedule the PMI stops after 10 years, with the payment in October 2036. A 15-year loan at the 6.71% average, with the larger down payment, raises the monthly figure to $5,740.10 but cuts the interest to $346,101.

What the median California wage can buy

The median annual wage in California is $58,240 (BLS wage survey, May 2025). Paid every two weeks as a single filer, that leaves about $3,863 a month after federal and California paycheck deductions. With $60,000 saved for a down payment and $400 a month of other debts, the home affordability calculator's default 28/36 rule gives this range at 7.4% and the California property tax rate:

Here the limit is total debt: the housing payment plus the other $400 a month reaches 36% of gross pay first. The target falls $516,493 short of the $734,700 median home value: the median home costs 12.6 times the median wage, so a typical California purchase usually needs a second income, a larger down payment or a cheaper area.

Living costs add to the squeeze: everyday prices in California, rent included, run 10.7% above the national average, by the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parities for 2024 (figures to December 31, 2024). That shrinks the median wage to about $52,601 in national dollars.