El Centro, CA

Unemployment of 19.7% — higher than in all but 1% of the 835 measured US metro and micro areas.

Employment fell 1.5% over the past year, to 58,966 employed residents.

Median household income of $57,681 is lower than in 80% of measured US metro and micro areas.

Prices for everything a household buys run at about the national average — the Bureau of Economic Analysis index reads 100.2, against 100 for the nation. Nationally, housing drives most of the spread between places in this index; other goods vary far less.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for this area is up 47% over five years, and up 3.8% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.

Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $2,394 a year in real estate taxes, about 0.77% of the median home value.

HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $1,362, some 29% above the $1,056 tenants already here pay.

At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $1,362 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $54,500 a year, about 94% of the median household income here of $57,681.

The typical renter household here spends 32% of its income on rent, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $1,056 a month.

A median home at $309,600 costs 3.9 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $80,037, above the historic benchmark of about 3 times income.

These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures and the cost-of-living index.

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 108°F and January a low of 42°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 2.4 inches.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. How to read climate and air quality.

Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.

Reported crime

Offenses reported to police are published by department rather than by town, so AreaProfile shows a rate only on city profiles, and only where that city’s department submitted every month of a year. City profiles inside this area carry their own figure where their department reported a full year. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.

Death-certificate rates

The CDC publishes these rates by county, so a metropolitan area carries none of its own. The county profiles inside it do.

Air quality

The EPA publishes an air-quality index by county, and only where a monitor sits, so a metropolitan area carries none of its own. The county profiles inside it show it where one exists.

Taxes

Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. The cost-of-living index above is a price level for all consumption, not a household budget, and it excludes taxes. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.

Anything about a specific address

Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.

Profile recalculated October 8, 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 every source with how often each updates.