Moving to
Garden Acres.

All Garden Acres data Compare Garden Acres

10,667people live here $66,474median household income▼ 18% below US $1,354median rent per monthNear US average $336,000median home valueNear US average

Garden Acres is an unincorporated community in San Joaquin County, CA. It has no city government: the county runs it, and the Census counts it as its own place.

What it's like to live in Garden Acres

Garden Acres is an unincorporated community in California. The numbers below lay out what daily life there actually looks like.

The tradeoffs are worth naming plainly. Garden Acres deals with county unemployment above the national average, household incomes below the national average, long average commutes, and air quality that falls short of national benchmarks.

The not so good

Above-average unemployment in the county
Below-average household incomes
Long commutes
Air quality concerns
Low college degree attainment
High student-teacher ratio

How Garden Acres compares

Median household income

Garden Acres$66,474

California avg$99,122

US$80,734

Median rent (per month)

Garden Acres$1,354

California avg$2,036

US$1,413

Median home value

Garden Acres$336,000

California avg$734,700

US$332,700

What it takes to move to Garden Acres

Based on Garden Acres's median rent, home value and household income

To rent

$2,708

up front: first month plus a typical one-month deposit

Income to keep rent under 30%: $54,160 a year
43% of Garden Acres renters spend 30% or more of their income on rent

To buy

$67,200

a 20% down payment on the median home

With 10% down: $33,600
Homes cost 5.1× the typical local household income (US: 4.1×)

Moving costs, closing costs and taxes not included.

The details

Cost of livingNear US average

$1,354/mo median rent

Rent is pretty middle of the road, at $1,354 a month median. Not a bargain, not a budget-buster. About typical for a city this size. Home prices run above average, with a median around $336,000. Buyers should expect to stretch their budget here.

Median home value $336,000 · 43% of renters cost-burdened

Job market

6.7% county unemployment

Unemployment in San Joaquin County is 6.7%, well above the national average of 4.3%. Moving with a job already lined up matters more here. That's the county-wide rate; BLS doesn't measure a place this size on its own.

San Joaquin County (county-wide)

Safety

433 violent crimes per 100k, whole jurisdiction

Garden Acres doesn't have its own police department, so there's no crime rate for it alone. The figures shown are for the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office jurisdiction as a whole, which runs above the national average for violent crime and covers many communities. Individual neighborhoods can differ a lot from that overall rate.

Property crime 1198/100k · Policed by San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office (county-wide rate) · 2025 data

Getting around▲ 58% above US

41 min average commute

Commutes run long, averaging 41.2 minutes, and that's just the average, meaning a lot of people are doing significantly more. This isn't a city where living far from the office is a comfortable bet. 9 in 10 workers drive to work.

How workers get to work

Drive alone

73%

Carpool

21%

Work from home

4.7%

Other

1.3%

Walk

0.2%

Public transit

0.1%

Climate

Summers are hot and humid, with highs regularly hitting 93°F, and winters are chilly but manageable, with lows around 40°F. It's a dry climate with limited rainfall.

Average month

High °FLow °FPrecip (in)

30-year averages, 1991–2020

Education & workforce▼ 84% below US

6% bachelor's degree or higher

This is a working-class city, and college degree rates reflect that. Trades, manufacturing, and service industries tend to dominate the local economy, which is a strength for some fields and a real constraint for others.

Schools

3 public schools inside the boundary

There are 3 public schools inside the boundary. The student-to-teacher ratio is 24:1, above the national average of 16:1.

Parks & recreation

The nearest national park or historic site is Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial (44 miles away). There are 8 national parks and sites within a day's drive.

Bottom line

Nothing in Garden Acres's numbers stands out as a clear strength, and the main tradeoffs are county unemployment above the national average and household incomes below the national average. A year of median rent ($1,354/mo) equals 24% of the median household income here, more than the 21% typical nationwide. It may be a harder fit for anyone moving without a job lined up, people who dread long commutes, and anyone who doesn't drive.

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