Desert Palms vs Lake Mathews

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

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

Lake Mathews has the higher population (6,749 vs 6,522 in Desert Palms). Lake Mathews has the higher median household income ($102,700 vs $81,954 in Desert Palms). Lake Mathews has the higher median home value ($678,300 vs $526,500 in Desert Palms).

Population, income & housing

	Desert Palms	Lake Mathews
Population	6,522	6,749
Median age	76.2 yrs	40.2 yrs
Median household income	$81,954	$102,700
Median home value	$526,500	$678,300
Median gross rent	$2,175	$1,906
Housing units	5,093	1,721
Homeownership rate	83.8%	76.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	48.9%	24.6%
Unemployment rate	8.8%	9.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Desert Palms	Lake Mathews
Population	6,755 → 6,522 (-3.4%)	6,792 → 6,749 (-0.6%)
Median household income	$60,221 → $81,954 (+36.1%)	$102,188 → $102,700 (+0.5%)
Median home value	$371,500 → $526,500 (+41.7%)	$526,600 → $678,300 (+28.8%)
Median gross rent	$2,320 → $2,175 (-6.3%)	$1,477 → $1,906 (+29.0%)

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

Lake Mathews

Population

6,7926,749

Median household income

$102,188$102,700

Median home value

$526,600$678,300

Median gross rent

$1,477$1,906

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Desert Palms	Lake Mathews
Under 5	0.2%	5.6%
5 to 17	0.3%	21.8%
18 to 24	0.0%	7.1%
25 to 34	0.2%	9.8%
35 to 44	0.4%	9.9%
45 to 54	1.5%	13.9%
55 to 64	11.0%	13.8%
65 to 74	32.0%	10.3%
75 and over	54.4%	7.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Desert Palms	Lake Mathews
White (non-Hispanic)	89.5%	45.6%
Black or African American	2.5%	5.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.0%	2.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.8%
Two or more races	0.6%	2.2%
Hispanic or Latino	6.5%	43.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Desert Palms	Lake Mathews
No high school diploma	4.5%	20.2%
High school graduate	18.6%	25.7%
Some college or associate's	28.1%	29.6%
Bachelor's degree	29.9%	16.4%
Graduate or professional degree	19.0%	8.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Desert Palms	Lake Mathews
Drove alone	57.4%	70.0%
Carpooled	4.6%	15.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	38.0%	10.8%
Other means	0.0%	2.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Desert Palms	Lake Mathews
1-unit, detached	95.0%	80.2%
1-unit, attached	2.9%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	0.5%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	1.6%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	19.8%

Poverty & households

	Desert Palms	Lake Mathews
Poverty rate	9.4%	7.4%
Average household size	1.70	3.97
Mean commute (minutes)	25	35
Median year structure built	1999	1984