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Prices, inventory, and demand — distilled every month into one clear verdict: buyer’s market or seller’s. The investor’s read, before you make an offer.
The median asking price in San Diego is about $838,000 as of Oct 2026, down 8.4% from a year ago. The typical listing is 7% smaller than a year ago, and asking price per square foot is down 3.0%. So the size of homes on the market explains much of the drop. That is the asking price on listed homes, so sold-price and home-value sites show different numbers (why).
Only on the right house. Neither side has the upper hand in San Diego right now. The signals split. Compared with 2017–2019 at this time of year, there are 31 pending sales per 100 listings, against 26 then, but listings spend 37% more days on the market. The market will not hand you a discount. You have to find it in one specific listing.
The population in San Diego's ZIP codes fell 2.3% over five years. 6.4% of homes are vacant, lower than most tracked cities. Households still grew 4.6% while the housing stock grew 4.3%. Fewer people living in more households means rental demand has held up better than the population suggests. Check vacancy by ZIP before you buy.
HUD sets one fair market rent for San Diego County. For fiscal year 2026:
The figures include tenant-paid utilities and apply to all of San Diego County, so one home's rent can sit well above or below them. See fair market rent by city.
Most San Diego households rent. 53 out of every 100 households are renters. That share has held steady for five years. San Diego added about 9,400 renter households in five years. Renter households average 2.4 people. Two and three bedrooms fit the typical renter.
The median San Diego household earns $114,214 a year. Incomes here have grown 6.3% a year since 2019. Incomes are rising faster than home prices. Affordability is improving. A typical home costs 7.3 times the median income. Most locals cannot buy. That keeps rental demand deep. It also caps the rent they can pay. At 30% of income, a tenant on the median income can pay about $2,855 a month.
To see what one San Diego address would rent for and cash flow, run it through the app.
The median asking price is 25.8% below its May 2023 peak. Per square foot the gap is smaller: 13.3% below the Feb 2024 high. Part of the drop is smaller homes coming to market. Prices are still falling. Waiting has paid off so far. Let listings age, then come back lower. San Diego prices rose in only 78 of the last 112 months. This market goes up and down. Timing matters here. Growth will not rescue a bad price.
This market is turning. Which way is not settled yet. Check the monthly numbers above before you commit.
Ranked among the 141 California markets we track:
Read how population change affects rentals and how we read these numbers, then run the numbers on a deal.
The median asking price in San Diego is about $838,000 as of Oct 2026, down 8.4% from a year ago. The typical listing is 7% smaller than a year ago, and asking price per square foot is down 3.0%. So the size of homes on the market explains much of the drop. This is the asking price on homes listed for sale. Sites that report sold prices or estimated home values will show a different number. Our San Diego figures cover 50 of the 73 ZIP codes with a San Diego mailing address, so citywide counts such as homes for sale run low.
Neither side has the upper hand in San Diego right now. We compare San Diego with 2017–2019 at this time of year: listings spend 37% more days on the market; there are 31 pending sales per 100 listings, against 26 then; 20% of sellers have cut their price, against 22% then.
The median asking price is 25.8% below its May 2023 peak. Per square foot the gap is smaller: 13.3% below the Feb 2024 high. Part of the drop is smaller homes coming to market. Prices are still falling. Waiting has paid off so far. Let listings age, then come back lower.
92121. Only 18 homes under contract for every 100 still for sale. 50% of sellers there have cut their price, and listings there spend a median 54 days on the market.
Across 9 full years, San Diego asking prices ran lowest in January, about 5.0% below the year's average. They peaked in June. The most homes for sale show up in August, about 19% above the yearly average.
HUD's fiscal year 2026 fair market rent for San Diego County is $3,001 a month for 2 bedrooms and $3,998 for 3 bedrooms. The figures include tenant-paid utilities and cover the whole county.
ZIP 92116 is on both lists. That is rare. It is the one place in San Diego where leverage and growth overlap.
| ZIP | $/sqft, 2 yrs | $/sqft now | Buyers per home | For sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92139 | -0.4% | $509 | 0.40 | 47 |
| 92116 | -0.8% | $841 | 0.23 | 47 |
| 92120 | -0.9% | $619 | 0.28 | 76 |
| 92115 | -1.0% | $609 | 0.36 | 105 |
| 92102 | -1.8% | $691 | 0.43 | 44 |
Computed from each ZIP's own ten-year history. ZIPs with fewer than 10 homes for sale are excluded: a median across a handful of listings is noise, not a signal.
San Diego has 73 ZIP codes. Each links to its live market dashboard.
Closest matches on asking price, price per square foot, time on market, buyer demand, and price cuts.
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