Desert Palms vs El Cerrito

A side-by-side comparison of Desert Palms and El Cerrito: population, income, housing, and more.

Desert Palms and El Cerrito are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Desert Palms has the higher population (6,522 vs 5,121 in El Cerrito). El Cerrito has the higher median household income ($122,472 vs $81,954 in Desert Palms). El Cerrito has the higher median home value ($598,000 vs $526,500 in Desert Palms).

Population, income & housing

	Desert Palms	El Cerrito
Population	6,522	5,121
Median age	76.2 yrs	35.7 yrs
Median household income	$81,954	$122,472
Median home value	$526,500	$598,000
Median gross rent	$2,175	$1,776
Housing units	5,093	1,521
Homeownership rate	83.8%	79.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	48.9%	14.3%
Unemployment rate	8.8%	4.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Desert Palms	El Cerrito
Population	6,755 → 6,522 (-3.4%)	5,630 → 5,121 (-9.0%)
Median household income	$60,221 → $81,954 (+36.1%)	$87,118 → $122,472 (+40.6%)
Median home value	$371,500 → $526,500 (+41.7%)	$463,100 → $598,000 (+29.1%)
Median gross rent	$2,320 → $2,175 (-6.3%)	$1,567 → $1,776 (+13.3%)

Desert Palms

Population

6,7556,522

Median household income

$60,221$81,954

Median home value

$371,500$526,500

Median gross rent

$2,320$2,175

El Cerrito

Population

5,6305,121

Median household income

$87,118$122,472

Median home value

$463,100$598,000

Median gross rent

$1,567$1,776

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Desert Palms	El Cerrito
Under 5	0.2%	7.7%
5 to 17	0.3%	16.5%
18 to 24	0.0%	8.6%
25 to 34	0.2%	14.5%
35 to 44	0.4%	13.0%
45 to 54	1.5%	12.8%
55 to 64	11.0%	14.8%
65 to 74	32.0%	6.1%
75 and over	54.4%	6.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Desert Palms	El Cerrito
White (non-Hispanic)	89.5%	40.3%
Black or African American	2.5%	1.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.0%	3.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.6%	7.9%
Hispanic or Latino	6.5%	47.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Desert Palms	El Cerrito
No high school diploma	4.5%	19.5%
High school graduate	18.6%	33.0%
Some college or associate's	28.1%	33.2%
Bachelor's degree	29.9%	11.3%
Graduate or professional degree	19.0%	3.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Desert Palms	El Cerrito
Drove alone	57.4%	78.2%
Carpooled	4.6%	15.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	38.0%	4.8%
Other means	0.0%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Desert Palms	El Cerrito
1-unit, detached	95.0%	96.5%
1-unit, attached	2.9%	0.4%
2 to 4 units	0.5%	0.6%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	1.6%	2.5%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Desert Palms	El Cerrito
Poverty rate	9.4%	5.4%
Average household size	1.70	3.49
Mean commute (minutes)	25	42
Median year structure built	1999	1979