Santa Monica 4plexes: Owning a Fourplex in Santa Monica, California
If Santa Monica is on your short list, the numbers below are your starting point for Santa Monica: roughly 90,082 people, median household income of $130,928, and a typical home value of $1,657,936. A house hack in Santa Monica lives or dies on how a specific building's rents in Santa Monica compare with its price, and this guide shows how to make that comparison in Santa Monica.
The Santa Monica numbers that matter
The three numbers that open the table below — about 90,082 residents in Santa Monica, median household income of $130,928 in Santa Monica, and a typical home value of $1,657,936 in Santa Monica — describe the housing market of Santa Monica in miniature. A fourplex buyer in Santa Monica should treat those Santa Monica figures as context for individual properties in Santa Monica, not as substitutes for a specific building's rents and expenses in Santa Monica.
| Measure | Santa Monica | Sacramento (state capital) |
|---|---|---|
| Population, July 1, 2025 (Census Vintage 2025) | 90,082 | 536,449 |
| Median household income (ACS 2024 1-year, B19013) | $130,928 | $91,387 |
| Households earning under $50,000 | 20.6% | 25.8% |
| Households earning $50,000 to $99,999 | 17.8% | 27.8% |
| Households earning $100,000 to $199,999 | 29.1% | 31.1% |
| Households earning $200,000 or more | 32.5% | 15.2% |
| Median gross rent (ACS 2024 1-year, B25064) | $2,450 a month | $1,846 a month |
| Median earnings, workers 16+ (ACS 2024 1-year, B20017) | $96,083 | $51,093 |
| Typical home value (Zillow ZHVI, September 2026) | $1,657,936 | $470,552 |
The income mix in Santa Monica adds texture the medians for Santa Monica alone miss: 32.5% of households in Santa Monica fall in the $200,000 or more bracket, while 38.4% of Santa Monica households earn under $100,000 and 32.5% of Santa Monica households earn $200,000 or more. A fourplex buyer in Santa Monica meets future tenants across that whole Santa Monica spread, so the mix in Santa Monica matters as much as the median in Santa Monica when you think about who will rent the other three units in Santa Monica.
Buyer help and loans in Santa Monica
Six loan types are compared on the Loan Types page for a Santa Monica buyer, and four of them realistically apply to a fourplex purchase in Santa Monica: FHA, VA, conventional, and the two GSE affordable programs for Santa Monica. FHA needs as little as 3.5% down on a 1-4 unit primary residence in Santa Monica; conventional needs as little as 5% down on a 2-4 unit primary residence in Santa Monica; VA typically needs no down payment for eligible veterans buying in Santa Monica.
The fitting set for Santa Monica is short: FHA (3.5% down, 1-4 units) for Santa Monica, conventional (5% down, owner-occupied 2-4 units) for Santa Monica, VA (typically no down payment, eligible veterans) for Santa Monica, plus HomeReady and Home Possible (5% down, capped at 80% of area median income) for Santa Monica.
Two programs to rule out for any Santa Monica fourplex: USDA, which is single-family only in Santa Monica, and CalHFA MyHome, which requires a one-unit residence in Santa Monica. Check any city or county assistance program for Santa Monica the same way — many carry the same one-unit limit for Santa Monica — before counting on it for a Santa Monica purchase.
A buyer in Santa Monica at the top of the income scale in Santa Monica should skip straight to the uncapped programs for Santa Monica. With 32.5% of households in Santa Monica at $200,000 or more, the 80%-of-area-median-income caps on HomeReady and Home Possible for Santa Monica will exclude many local buyers in Santa Monica, leaving FHA at 3.5% down in Santa Monica, conventional at 5% down in Santa Monica, and VA with typically no down payment for eligible veterans in Santa Monica as the routes compared on the Loan Types page for Santa Monica.
Start with the Loan Types page for the full comparison for a Santa Monica purchase, then confirm your situation with a lender.
Living in Santa Monica
Above: Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California, with the '66' sign marking the end of Route 66. Note: CC BY-SA 4.0 rests on a third-party credit for a Cayambe Santa Monica Pier / Route 66-end photo, not proven to be this exact file. in Santa Monica. For a buyer in Santa Monica, the photo is a reminder that a fourplex in Santa Monica is not just a spreadsheet — it sits in a real neighborhood in Santa Monica, where about 90,082 people in Santa Monica live, work, and rent.
The landlord side of the house hack in Santa Monica is unglamorous and steady: three rents to collect in Santa Monica, three households to keep happy in Santa Monica, and a building in Santa Monica to maintain. In Santa Monica, where the median gross rent is $2,450 a month, pricing from verified comps in Santa Monica and fixing problems fast in Santa Monica will do more for your returns in Santa Monica than any financing trick for Santa Monica. Tenants in Santa Monica renew when the place in Santa Monica is cared for and the rent in Santa Monica matches the market in Santa Monica.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates (tables B19001, B19013, B25064, B20017); Census Vintage 2025 population estimates, July 1, 2025; Zillow Research ZHVI, September 2026. Typical home value is the Zillow ZHVI modeled typical value, not a median sale price.