Living in Desert Hot Springs, CA
Small city in California
Desert Hot Springs is a small city in California, home to about 33,000 people, with 847,000 living within 31 mi. Day to day, most trips are by car. Life moves at a relaxed pace, and homes are a mix of apartments and houses.
Is Desert Hot Springs a good place to live? Pros and cons
👍 Pros
- Sunny: more sunshine and clearer skies than most places
- Great outdoors: hills or mountains nearby
- Easy flying: PSP is 9 mi away
- Strong healthcare: 1 top-rated (4–5★) hospital within 31 mi
👎 Cons
- Weaker public schools: test results well below the US average
- Fewer graduates: 16% of adults have a bachelor's degree or higher
- Fewer family amenities than most places
- Higher taxes: about $3,279 state income tax per resident, 1.03% property tax
Whether it's a good place for you depends on what you value. Take the quiz to see how Desert Hot Springs ranks against your own priorities.
Key facts
Living in Desert Hot Springs: common questions
What is the cost of living in Desert Hot Springs?
A typical 3-bedroom home is worth about $376k, and a 3-bedroom rents for about $2,910 a month including utilities. Overall living costs are above the US average (index 106, where the US is 100).
What are taxes like in Desert Hot Springs?
California collects about $3,279 in state income tax per resident, and homeowners here pay about 1.03% of their home's value in property tax each year.
Is Desert Hot Springs safe?
Violent crime is well above the national rate (2.3× in FBI 2019 data).
How are the schools in Desert Hot Springs?
Public schools in Desert Hot Springs test well below the US average in math and reading (2018–19 state tests, put on one national scale with NAEP), with about 23 students per teacher.
What is the weather like in Desert Hot Springs?
Desert Hot Springs has mild winters: winter days average around 60°F and summer days around 92°F.
Does Desert Hot Springs get natural disasters?
Natural disaster risk is moderate, mainly from earthquakes and flooding: 11 federally declared disasters have hit the county since 2000, and FEMA expects about 0.82 deaths or injuries per 100,000 residents a year.
What is the nearest major airport to Desert Hot Springs?
The nearest major airport is PSP, about 9 mi away.
How Desert Hot Springs scores
Each bar compares Desert Hot Springs with the other 1,990 places in Best Life Fit Me. A dot shows where it sits between two ends, such as major metro and small town; neither end is better. Coloured bars run from poor (red) to excellent (green).
Places like Desert Hot Springs
These places have the most similar overall profile across all 24 aspects.
The circle is each place's all-round score out of 100: the average of its 15 quality scores, from red (poor) to green (excellent).
Nearby
See all the best places to live in California.
Is Desert Hot Springs right for you?
Answer 27 quick questions and see how it ranks against your priorities.