California City cost of living: homes, taxes and bills

01How much do homes cost and rent in California City?

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, averaged over 2020–2024, puts the median value of an owner-occupied home in the city at $278,000: about 38% of California’s $734,700, and below Kern County’s $338,300.¹ Of the 480 incorporated cities in California the survey gives a figure for, 33 have a lower median; allowing for the city’s margin of error, it sits somewhere between 25th and 44th cheapest, in the cheapest tenth either way.⁵⁶

Household incomes are lower too, though not by as much: a median of $60,113, against $70,210 in the county and $99,122 in the state.² Put the two together and the median home costs about 4.6 years of median household income here, against 4.8 in Kern County and 7.4 across California.

Rent is where the town is least unusual. The median gross rent, $1,300 a month, is the same as Kern County’s and about 64% of the state’s $2,036.³

02What do the cost-of-living indexes say?

Search for the cost of living here and the first answers are single index numbers from relocation sites, on a scale where the US average is 100. The two most visible do not agree which side of 100 the town is on.

• BestPlaces scores California City at 99.8, below the national average, against 149.9 for California.⁷ We could not read how its score is built.
• AreaVibes gives 108, above the national average, against 141 for California, with housing alone at 89. It says its housing figure uses the Census Bureau’s home price and rent data, and that every other category comes from AI-assisted models.⁸

Both put the town far below California as a whole. Housing, the part AreaVibes says rests on published data, is on this page from that source, in the Census Bureau’s medians above; the property tax, sales tax and water charges below are the other parts that can be read from the agencies that set them.

03What is the property tax rate?

For 2025–26 bills, most of the city pays a property tax rate of 1.208364% of taxable value. The areas that are also in the Tehachapi Valley Health Care District pay 1.262893%, the extra being that district’s bonds. The first rate covers 90% of the assessed value in the city’s tax-rate areas and the two together 99.8%; the rest is in three small areas with rates of their own.⁹

How to read it. The rate is charged on the assessed value, which is not the market value. Under Proposition 13 a property is assessed at what it was worth when it was bought or built, and that value rises by no more than 2% a year until it changes hands.¹⁰ If you live in a home you own, the first $7,000 of its value is exempt.¹¹ So the tax is the assessed value, less $7,000 if the exemption applies, times 1.208364%: $1,208.36 for every $100,000 of taxable value.

The rate is not the whole bill. Cities and special districts add fixed charges to it parcel by parcel,⁹ and the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s bill search shows every line of any parcel’s bill, charges included.¹² If you own an empty lot here, that is where to see what it costs to hold each year; Land & Lots covers owning one.

Bills come in two instalments, due on 1 November and 1 February and late after 10 December and 10 April.⁹ Kern County fixes each year’s rates by 3 October, and the 2025–26 book was the latest published when these figures were checked.⁹

04What is the sales tax in California City?

8.25%: the statewide 7.25% and 1 percentage point of local district tax.¹³ That is the same as in the county’s unincorporated areas and in Arvin, Bakersfield, Delano, Maricopa, Taft, Tehachapi and Wasco; McFarland and Ridgecrest charge 9.25%, and Shafter 7.25%. The rate is unchanged in the table that takes effect on 1 October 2026.¹³

05How much are water and sewer?

The city runs the water and sewer service and bills the two together each month. Water is charged by the size of the meter: a monthly base charge that includes the first few units of water, where a unit is 100 cubic feet, and then a price for each unit above that, in tiers.¹⁴

Sewer is a flat $40 a month for a home, and $10 more for each further unit in a building with more than one.¹⁴ So the smallest bill for a home on a ¾ inch meter is $70 a month, for up to 600 cubic feet of water; above that, add each unit at its tier’s price. To check a bill, take the month’s use in units and read it against the table.

Opening an account costs $120: a $70 deposit applied to your final bill and a $50 service charge that is not refunded.¹⁶ Bills can be paid through the city’s website.¹⁷

06Who supplies power, gas, rubbish and internet?

• Electricity comes from Southern California Edison: the town is inside its service territory on the Energy Commission’s map, which the Commission describes as approximate.¹⁹
• Natural gas comes from Southern California Gas Company, on the same map.²⁰
• Rubbish is collected by WM under a franchise agreement with the city; the city’s page carries the agreement and WM’s 2026–27 rate schedule for the city.¹⁸
• Internet providers vary by address. The FCC’s National Broadband Map lists the ones that report serving any address;²¹ this page has not checked them, so it names none.