Sell Your Commercial Property Fast In Bakersfield, CA

Who rents in Bakersfield

Bakersfield leans toward ownership, but it still has a large renter base. The 2020–2024 American Community Survey counts 411,986 residents in 129,625 occupied homes, and 51,104 of those homes, or 39.4%, are rented. Median household income is $80,540.

That renter share is lower than in Fresno or Sacramento. In the same ACS release, Fresno is at 49.9% renters and Sacramento at 48.3%, while the City of Los Angeles is at 64.0%. Incomes do not explain the gap: Bakersfield's median household income of $80,540 is above Fresno's $70,991 and close to Los Angeles's $81,939. Bakersfield's lower share goes with a housing stock that has fewer apartments and more recent construction, as the building data below shows.

The neighborhoods named on our Bakersfield page, Northwest, East and Southwest Bakersfield, are inside the city, so city-level Census figures cover them. Oildale is an unincorporated community outside city limits, and its figures are not included here.

Agriculture is a core part of the local economy. According to the 2024 Kern County Crop Report, as summarized by Valley Ag Voice, the gross value of all agricultural commodities produced in the county was $7.96 billion in 2024, down 8% from about $8.6 billion in 2023. The top five commodities, citrus, grapes, carrots, almonds and pistachios, accounted for more than $5 billion, or 64%, of the total. Carrots climbed into the top three at roughly $1.1 billion, and grapes were valued at about $1.2 billion. The 2024 decline, about $665.6 million, is a reminder that farm income in the county moves with prices and harvests.

Energy is the other traditional pillar. California Resources Corporation describes its Elk Hills field, about 20 miles west of Bakersfield, as covering nearly 75 square miles and producing over 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent since 1911; in 2024 the company averaged 31,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day there. The company also describes Midway-Sunset, in southwest Kern County, as the largest known oilfield in California.

Rents and affordability

Median gross rent in Bakersfield was $1,472 a month over 2020–2024, including utilities. That is slightly above Fresno's $1,421 and below Sacramento's $1,779, and it is $461 less than the City of Los Angeles median of $1,933.

Lower rent does not mean easy rent. Of Bakersfield's renter households, 53.4% pay 30% or more of income on rent and 28.0% pay half or more, per ACS table B25070. Those shares are close to Fresno's (55.1% and 30.1%) and Sacramento's (53.5% and 27.1%), so tenant budgets are just as stretched here as in larger inland markets even though rents are lower.

HUD's FY2026 fair market rents for the Bakersfield-Delano area, which set the baseline for voucher payment standards, are $1,132 for a studio, $1,140 for a one-bedroom, $1,483 for a two-bedroom, $2,062 for a three-bedroom and $2,488 for a four-bedroom, per HUD. The two-bedroom FMR is $1,118 below the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale figure of $2,601. It is also close to the city's median gross rent, which means voucher tenancies pay rents in line with much of the existing stock.

The apartment stock

Apartments are a small slice of Bakersfield's housing. Of the city's 135,724 housing units, 18,087, or 13.3%, are in buildings with five or more units, per ACS table B25024. Within that group, 6,374 units sit in 5–9 unit buildings and 6,270 in complexes of 50 or more, with 3,286 in 10–19 unit buildings and 2,157 in 20–49 unit buildings. The market is split between small buildings and large complexes, with relatively little in between.

The city's housing is newer than that of Fresno, Sacramento or Los Angeles. The median year built is 1990, only 34.6% of units predate 1980 and 12.1% predate 1960, while 13.3% were built in 2010 or later, per table B25034. Construction has slowed recently, though: just 1.5% of units date from 2020 or later. Even so, Bakersfield's 13.3% share built since 2010 is higher than Fresno's 9.7%, Sacramento's 8.4% or Los Angeles's 7.8% in the same release.

Because so many of Bakersfield's units are relatively new, more of its apartment stock may fall inside the state's 15-year exemption from rent caps than in older coastal cities. That varies building by building and depends on the date on each certificate of occupancy.

Property taxes in Kern County

Kern County taxes apartment buildings under Proposition 13. The Board of Equalization describes a base rate of 1% of assessed value plus voter-approved bond levies. A property's assessed value can go up by no more than 2% a year until there is a change in ownership or new construction, at which point it is reappraised to market value. The BOE's Assessors' Handbook 401 also counts the purchase of more than 50% of an entity that owns real property as a change in ownership.

The county assessor values property as of January 1 each year, and supplemental assessments catch reappraisals that happen between lien dates, so a buyer will see a prorated supplemental bill shortly after closing. When market values fall, owners can seek a decline-in-value reduction, and appeals go to the county's assessment appeals board during a window that runs from July 2 to September 15 or November 30, depending on the county. State law allows counties to charge a documentary transfer tax of $0.55 per $500 of value at sale, and cities may impose up to half that rate.

Rent rules and tenant law

The state Tenant Protection Act sets the main limits for Bakersfield apartments. It caps increases over any 12 months at 5% plus regional CPI, or 10%, whichever is lower, requires just cause to end a tenancy after 12 months of occupancy, and exempts units with a certificate of occupancy issued within the previous 15 years. The law runs until January 1, 2030. Under Costa-Hawkins, local rent control cannot reach units with a certificate of occupancy issued after February 1, 1995.

Under Civil Code 1950.5, most landlords can collect a security deposit of no more than one month's rent, must return it with an itemized statement within 21 days, and must take move-out photos, plus move-in photos for tenancies starting on or after July 1, 2025. A narrow exception lets small landlords, individuals or family LLCs owning no more than two rental properties with four units in total, collect up to two months, which by definition cannot apply to a building of five or more units. For unpaid rent, CCP 1161 requires a three-day notice that does not count Saturdays, Sundays or judicial holidays.

What this means if you own a building here

Bakersfield sellers often fall into two groups: owners of older small buildings with in-place rents near the HUD benchmark, and owners of newer complexes that may sit outside the AB 1482 cap. Either way, buyers will start from trailing net operating income, then adjust for a Prop 13 tax bill reset to the purchase price and for deferred maintenance. Clean rent rolls, documented rent increase history and certificate of occupancy dates help a buyer confirm which rules apply.

Our apartment building value calculator gives a quick range based on income. Skyline Capital Investments buys 5+ unit buildings across Bakersfield, including Northwest, East and Southwest Bakersfield and nearby Oildale; our seller page explains how we work.