Daly City, CA — Momentum Score, Home Values & Best-For

All states·California·Daly City

San Mateo County · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley · population 101,418

Shrinking

Image: Wikipedia · Daly City, California

Overview Cost of living Moving guide

View watchlist →

Stable

Momentum score · 0–100

Where Daly City stands

Population shrinking 0.8% per year. rents up 6.8% in the last year.

Median home $1,134,511

1-year -0.2%

5-yr CAGR +0.4%

vs 5-yr peak -9.0%

Population -0.8%/yr

Home value trajectory · last 10 years

Zillow ZHVI · monthly

Lifestyle scores

🚶

Walkability

78/100

Very walkable

Estimated from population density. Higher = denser, more amenities within walking distance.

🚉

Public transit

30/100

Minimal transit

Curated list of major US transit systems + population-based estimate. Higher = real subway/rail/bus options.

💻

Remote work fit

38/100

Marginal for remote

Composite of city size, housing cost, state tax structure, and region's remote-work track record.

Scores are heuristic estimates from population density, state, and known transit/walkable cities. Not based on a paid Walk Score / Transit Score API — see methodology for the formula.

Rent trajectory · last 5 years

Zillow ZORI · monthly

Home value vs rent · indexed to 100

Both rebased at first month of ZORI data (~2015)

Rent vs buy

Price-to-rent ratio: 34.2

Rent

At a 34.2 price-to-rent ratio, renting beats buying in Daly City for most shorter holds. The premium you pay to own would take many years of rent savings to recoup, and that's before maintenance, taxes, and opportunity cost on the down payment.

How the momentum score breaks down

methodology →

Home YoY

49 · w22%

Home 5-yr CAGR

37 · w22%

Distance from peak

48 · w18%

Population growth

32 · w16%

Rent YoY

85 · w12%

Home 10-yr CAGR

52 · w10%

Long thesis

Daly City has held up across the cycle: home values at $1,134,511 with +0.4% 5-year CAGR. The bull case is structural — population, location, employer base — and holds even if next year's print is soft.

Short thesis

Daly City's population is shrinking 0.8% per year. Housing demand has to come from somewhere — if people are leaving, the buyer pool is shrinking faster than the inventory. That eventually shows up in price.

About Daly City

Daly City is a city in San Mateo County, California, with an estimated population of 101,418. It anchors the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area. The population has contracted 0.8% per year on average since 2020. The median home value in Daly City is $1,134,511 as of 2026-04, down 0.2% over the last 12 months. Over the last five years, home values have averaged +0.4% annual growth (-9.0% from the 5-year peak). Rents in Daly City average $2,762 per month, up 6.8% year-over-year. The composite momentum score is 48 of 100 (Stable). Conditions are neither hot nor cold, so the local fit matters more than market timing.

▲ Bull case

●Hot rental market: rents up 6.8% YoY — landlords have pricing power, supports new investment math.

○The data is the data: Daly City has at least 5 years of Zillow tracking, full Census identification, and is included in the 2-criteria momentum score on this page.

▼ Bear case

●Expensive AND not growing: median home $1,134,511 with only -0.2% YoY. You’re paying premium pricing for a flat trend.

●Flat or shrinking population: -0.8% per year. Housing demand has to come from somewhere — verify the source.

About Daly City (Wikipedia)

Daly City is the second-most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and immediately south of San Francisco, it is named for businessman and landowner John Donald Daly. Its population was 104,901 at the 2020 census. The racial makeup of Daly City was 57.3% Asian, 11.7% non-Hispanic White, and 23.1% Hispanic or Latino of any race in the 2020 census. Notably, 33.2% of the population of Daly City is Filipino.

Source: Wikipedia · this summary is contributed and licensed under CC-BY-SA.

City facts

MayorRod Daus-MagbualCite web

Area7.64 sq mi

Elevation335 ft

EstablishedMarch 22, 1911Cite web

NicknameGateway to the Peninsula

Density13734.09/sq mi

Extracted from the Wikipedia infobox. Values may be slightly out of date relative to the latest sources.

Playbook

Buyer

Lifestyle fit matters more than market timing in a Stable market. Take your time on the home and neighborhood; the macro trend isn't urgent. Negotiate normally.

Seller

Price competitively from day one or risk a 60+ day listing. Staging, photography, and presentation matter more in Stable markets than in Hot ones.

Investor

Stable cap rates, no big appreciation story to lean on. Underwrite this as a pure cash-flow play — the math has to work on rent alone.

Local safety & alerts

No active National Weather Service alerts for San Mateo County right now.

NWS active alerts (CA)California Emergency Management How to prepare (NWS)

Public-safety links are official .gov sources, not curated by us. San Mateo County routes NWS alerts; check the state EM portal for non-weather emergencies.

Neighborhoods of Daly City

12 tracked · ranked by median home value

1Westlake$1,239,331+0.6%

2St. Francis$1,226,552+1.3%

3Southern Hills$1,207,355-2.6%

4Skyline$1,183,916-1.5%

5Broadmoor$1,137,384-0.1%

6Serramonte$1,122,906-0.5%

7Bayshore$1,068,570-4.8%

8Hillside$1,045,036+0.9%

9Vista Grande$1,003,162-0.8%

10Colma Station$952,918-3.5%

11Crocker$920,336-3.6%

12Sullivan Corridor$601,335-5.5%

Cities like Daly City

Santa Monica, CA45 · Cooling Berkeley, CA41 · Cooling San Rafael, CA51 · Stable South San Francisco, CA55 · Stable

Run the numbers for Daly City

ToolCan I afford Daly City?Income → city shortlist ToolROI on a Daly City rentalCap rate, cash-on-cash, DSCR ToolCompare Daly City to anywhereSide-by-side up to 3 cities ToolDaly City cost-of-livingEquivalent income elsewhere

Sources: Zillow ZHVI (home values), Zillow ZORI (rents), US Census ACS + place population. Updated when source agencies publish revisions.

Climate & natural-disaster risk

Winter (Jan)

60° / 41°

avg high / low

Summer (Jul)

82° / 60°

avg high / low

Sunny days/yr

258

~71% of year

Annual precip

22″ rain

8″ snow

Disaster risk (1=very low, 5=very high)

Hurricane

Very low

Tornado

Very low

Wildfire

Very high

Earthquake

Very high

Flood

Moderate

State-level averages from NOAA Climate Normals (1991-2020) and FEMA National Risk Index. City-level conditions can vary significantly within a state.

Local sports teams

Major professional teams the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley area cheers for. Detailed stats, schedules, and player pages on intherafters.com.

NFLSan Francisco 49ers →

NBAGolden State Warriors →

MLBSan Francisco Giants →Oakland Athletics →

NHLSan Jose Sharks →

Current weather

Loading current conditions…

7-day forecast on weather.gov →

Find rentals & listings

Open current Daly City listings on the major real-estate sites.

For rent

Zillow rentals → Apartments.com → Trulia rentals →

For sale

Zillow for sale → Realtor.com →

Links open the live search on the destination site — results are always current.

Local news & community

Latest news

Why one of the Bay Area’s poorest cities is losing out on millions in state funding
San Francisco Chronicle · 2d ago
Daly City: Silver Alert Issued For Missing At-Risk Woman Sunday
SFGATE · 3w ago
Nation’s largest urban battery to take center stage near San Francisco
Canary Media · 1mo ago
364 Oriente St, Daly City, CA 94014
Realtor.com · 1w ago
California man facing federal charges in international turtle trafficking plot
Los Angeles Times · 4d ago
Bank of America agrees to $2.25M settlement over 7-Eleven ATM fees. Here's how to file a claim
CT Insider · 2d ago

Local economy & environment

Humidity

65%

Moderate climate

Median household income

$91,500

California state median

Top industries (state-level)

TechEntertainmentAgriculture

Humidity is annual average relative humidity (NOAA). Income is Census ACS 5-year estimate. Industries are largest employment sectors statewide (BLS); the local mix in a given city may vary.