Walnut Creek, CA — Momentum Score, Home Values & Best-For

All states·California·Walnut Creek

Contra Costa County · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley · population 70,817

Walnut Creek, CA
Image: Wikipedia · Walnut Creek, California
OverviewCost of livingMoving guide
View watchlist →
52
Stable
Momentum score · 0–100

Where Walnut Creek stands

Steady, no major recent move.

Median home $1,043,420
1-year -1.4%
5-yr CAGR +2.4%
vs 5-yr peak -6.7%
Population +0.2%/yr

Home value trajectory · last 10 years

Zillow ZHVI · monthly
peak 2022-06$1043k$646k$819k$991k$1163k201620182020202220242026

Lifestyle scores

🚶
Walkability
40/100
Car-dependent
Estimated from population density. Higher = denser, more amenities within walking distance.
🚉
Public transit
22/100
Transit limited
Curated list of major US transit systems + population-based estimate. Higher = real subway/rail/bus options.
💻
Remote work fit
44/100
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
$2,871/mo$2,306$2,675$3,044202220242026

Home value vs rent · indexed to 100

Both rebased at first month of ZORI data (~2015)
Home valueRent113117100120202220242026

Rent vs buy

Price-to-rent ratio: 30.3
Rent

At a 30.3 price-to-rent ratio, renting beats buying in Walnut Creek 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
43 · w22%
Home 5-yr CAGR
49 · w22%
Distance from peak
55 · w18%
Population growth
50 · w16%
Rent YoY
73 · w12%
Home 10-yr CAGR
54 · w10%
Long thesis

Walnut Creek has held up across the cycle: home values at $1,043,420 with +2.4% 5-year CAGR. The bull case is structural — population, location, employer base — and holds even if next year's print is soft.

Short thesis

Walnut Creek carries a $1,043,420 median home with only -1.4% YoY. Premium pricing in a flat tape is the bear setup — you're paying for the trend that already ran while new buyers can't afford to extend it.

About Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, with an estimated population of 70,817. It anchors the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area. The median home value in Walnut Creek is $1,043,420 as of 2026-04, down 1.4% over the last 12 months. Over the last five years, home values have averaged +2.4% annual growth (-6.7% from the 5-year peak). Rents in Walnut Creek average $2,871 per month, up 4.3% year-over-year. The composite momentum score is 52 of 100 (Stable). Conditions are neither hot nor cold, so the local fit matters more than market timing.

▲ Bull case

○The data is the data: Walnut Creek has at least 5 years of Zillow tracking, full Census identification, and is included in the 1-criteria momentum score on this page.

▼ Bear case

●Expensive AND not growing: median home $1,043,420 with only -1.4% YoY. You’re paying premium pricing for a flat trend.
○Local nuance: city-level data smooths over neighborhood differences. School zones, HOA rules, and street-level character matter — visit before deciding.

About Walnut Creek (Wikipedia)

Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about 16 miles east of the city of Oakland, California and 25 miles east of San Francisco. Walnut Creek has a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, is located at the junction of the highways from Sacramento, California and San Jose, California (I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland (SR-24), and is accessible by BART. The city shares its borders with Clayton, California, Lafayette, California, Alamo, California, Pleasant Hill, California, and Concord, California.

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

City facts

Mayorplainlist

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 Contra Costa County right now.

NWS active alerts (CA)California Emergency ManagementHow to prepare (NWS)

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

Neighborhoods of Walnut Creek

3 tracked · ranked by median home value
1Livorna Estates$1,857,327+0.4%
2Woodlands$1,474,091-0.7%
3Almond-Shuey$1,222,894-4.3%

Cities like Walnut Creek

Davis, CA50 · StableRohnert Park, CA56 · StableVacaville, CA50 · StablePetaluma, CA51 · Stable

Run the numbers for Walnut Creek

ToolCan I afford Walnut Creek?Income → city shortlistToolROI on a Walnut Creek rentalCap rate, cash-on-cash, DSCRToolCompare Walnut Creek to anywhereSide-by-side up to 3 citiesToolWalnut Creek 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.

Current weather

Loading current conditions…

7-day forecast on weather.gov →

Find rentals & listings

Open current Walnut Creek listings on the major real-estate sites.

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

Local news & community

Updated 2026-05-21 from Google News + Reddit RSS. Headlines link to original sources.

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.

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