92627Costa Mesa, California

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 92627.

49out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 14% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 32% of 6,210 published ZIP areas63
Growth5272nd of 5,428 published ZIP areas12
Housing affordability6390th of 6,685 published ZIP areas37
ClimateTop 4% of 6,789 published ZIP areas100
Physical resilience6135th of 6,709 published ZIP areas11
AccessTop 39% of 6,791 published ZIP areas95
Economic stabilityTop 19% of 6,742 published ZIP areas76
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 4 units authorized over the past twelve months, 56% below the prior year.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 10.3 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 26% of it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by earthquake, inland flooding and wildfire.

At a glance

Population
60,393
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$108,994
Top 14% nationally
Density
9,439/sq mi
6.4 sq mi of land
Median age
36.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Costa Mesa
California
Metro area
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
Nearest major airport
LGB
18 mi · Long Beach (Daugherty Fld)
Median home value
$1,125,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 83% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.8% over the past year, to 61,070 employed residents.

44% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 83% of measured US ZIP areas.

Household income is higher than at least 86% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,170$108,994Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,233$59,959Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.0%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.4 minBottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher43.7%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment61,070Top 46%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.2%Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 23%June 2026
Labor force63,327Top 47%June 2026
Labor force participation74.0%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$77,270Top 21%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$55,850Top 28%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 40%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 17%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024109k95k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $108,994 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides385,530$34,320
Fast Food and Counter Workers160,270$42,110
Retail Salespersons130,650$37,700
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand120,720$42,390
Office Clerks, General112,270$48,100
Cashiers109,940$36,980

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Costa Mesa, CA, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 17.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Estancia HighNewport-Mesa Unified97618.8
Heinz Kaiser ElementaryNewport-Mesa Unified53921.6
Woodland ElementaryNewport-Mesa Unified48722.1
Whittier ElementaryNewport-Mesa Unified45417.5
Everett A. Rea ElementaryNewport-Mesa Unified34416.4
Wilson ElementaryNewport-Mesa Unified32319.0
Victoria ElementaryNewport-Mesa Unified30115.1
Pomona ElementaryNewport-Mesa Unified26417.6
Back Bay HighNewport-Mesa Unified1438.4
International School for Science and Culture · charterInternational School for Science and Culture District9719.4
HarperNewport-Mesa Unified0

69.8% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against California’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $2,365 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 10.3 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
26.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
10.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,365
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$1,125,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income10.33Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate38.5%Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±67523,536Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$45$2,365Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$31,097$1,125,600Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income26.0%Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.4%Bottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
12/ 100
Ranks 5272 of 5,428 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
4
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 4% nationally
Year over year
−56%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Costa Mesa, CA, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

12 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 79°F and January a low of 49°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 11.2 inches.

40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SANTA ANA JOHN WAYNE AP, 3.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation11.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low49°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high79°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months121991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing16°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

11 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, inland flooding and wildfire.

EarthquakeHigh
WildfireModerate
Inland floodingElevated
AvalancheModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, heat wave, coastal flooding, tornado, hail, lightning, tsunami, strong wind, drought, winter weather.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Orange County records 1.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 4.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.9 per 100,000 residents in Orange County.

Homicide
1.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
8.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Orange County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around 92627 rather than 92627 itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 18 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Long Beach (Daugherty Fld)LGB18 mi10,000 ft
Ontario IntlONT34 mi12,197 ft
Los Angeles IntlLAX35 mi12,923 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
49
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

92627 vs Costa Mesa

How this ZIP area compares with Costa Mesa as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

92627
Costa Mesa
Median household income
$108,994
vs
$111,505
Per capita income
$59,959
vs
$59,742
Population density
9,439/sq mi
vs
6,980/sq mi
Median home value
$1,125,600
vs
$1,115,100
Median gross rent
$2,365
vs
$2,446
Homeownership rate
38.5%
vs
39.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher
43.7%
vs
45.0%
Poverty rate
9.0%
vs
9.1%
Median age
36.0
vs
36.7

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.