Sell Your Commercial Property In Ventura County, CA

Who rents in Ventura County

Renters hold 99,321 of the 280,360 occupied households in Ventura County, a 35.4% share in the 2020-2024 ACS. Owners outnumber them, with 181,039 households, a split that has barely moved since 2015-2019. Renter households actually slipped 0.5% over that five-year comparison, from 99,866 to 99,321.

Oxnard carries the largest renter pool in the table, with 24,073 renter households and a 45.6% renter share. Ventura and Santa Paula both run renter shares near 44%, closer to Oxnard than to the Ventura County average. Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark lean owner-heavy, with renter shares between 20.7% and 29.2%, typical of the county's inland and hillside suburbs.

Rents, growth and affordability

Ventura County's median gross rent climbed 30.5%, from $1,776 to $2,317, between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 surveys. Population slipped 1.2% over the same span, down to 837,469 residents, even as rents kept climbing. Renter households fell slightly too, down 545 households.

Supply grew faster than renter demand. Units in 5+ unit buildings in Ventura County rose 5.8%, adding 2,603 units since 2015-2019. Even with that growth, rental vacancy sits at a tight 3.8%, and 58.8% of Ventura County renters paid 30% or more of income on gross rent in the 2020-2024 ACS.

HUD's FY2027 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent for the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA MSA is $2,424, effective October 1, 2026. That benchmark runs $107 above the county's $2,317 median gross rent, a gap buyers weigh against each building's actual rent roll.

City-by-city comparison

Camarillo posts the highest rent in the table at $2,734, followed by Thousand Oaks at $2,664. Santa Paula is the most affordable at $1,736. Oxnard's 22.6% share of units in 5+ buildings leads the county's cities, while Moorpark's 9.8% share is the thinnest.

Vacancy swings widely by city. Simi Valley posts a tight 2.0% and Santa Paula 2.9%, while Moorpark reaches 5.8% on a small renter base of about 2,323 households, so its figure carries a wider survey margin. Ventura and Santa Paula both sit near 44% renters, yet Santa Paula's rent runs over $400 below Ventura's.

Property taxes and assessment in Ventura County

Under California's Proposition 13 framework (Rev. & Tax Code Section 110), Ventura County apartment buildings are assessed at full cash value when a sale closes, then capped at increases of 2% a year, or the inflation rate if lower, until the next change of ownership.

Rates vary by tax rate area. The Ventura County Auditor-Controller's property tax rate book lists Camarillo's TRAs 07001-07003 at a combined 1.1055% for FY2024-25, covering the 1% statewide base plus voter-approved bond debt. Other Ventura County cities and tax rate areas carry their own combined rates in the same rate book.

Documentary transfer tax in California runs up to $0.55 per $500 of consideration under Revenue & Taxation Code Section 11911, and no Ventura County-specific override rate was confirmed on the Clerk-Recorder's site as of this profile, so the standard rate is the one to confirm before closing.

What this means if you sell in Ventura County

When you sell commercial property in Ventura County, CA, you are selling into a market with a thin apartment supply and a tight 3.8% rental vacancy rate. That combination tends to support occupancy, but 58.8% of renters already pay 30% or more of income on rent, so buyers will test how much further rent can realistically climb.

Expect a fresh look at taxes too, since a sale resets the assessed value under Prop 13 and the new tax rate area's combined rate, whether that is Camarillo's 1.1055% or another city's figure from the county's rate book. Civil Code Section 1946.2 also governs just-cause terminations statewide, which buyers factor into underwriting when selling an apartment building in Ventura County, CA.

As a multifamily buyer in Ventura County, CA, we look at 5+ unit buildings from Oxnard to Santa Paula as they stand today. Send a current rent roll, a T-12 and the latest tax bill, and we will price the building on those numbers.