Big Bear Lake vs Lucerne Valley

A side-by-side comparison of Big Bear Lake and Lucerne Valley: population, income, housing, and more.

Big Bear Lake and Lucerne Valley are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Lucerne Valley has the higher population (5,946 vs 5,038 in Big Bear Lake). Big Bear Lake has the higher median household income ($74,728 vs $50,330 in Lucerne Valley). Big Bear Lake has the higher median home value ($517,900 vs $240,000 in Lucerne Valley).

Population, income & housing

	Big Bear Lake	Lucerne Valley
Population	5,038	5,946
Median age	45.5 yrs	40.8 yrs
Median household income	$74,728	$50,330
Median home value	$517,900	$240,000
Median gross rent	$1,278	$1,131
Housing units	9,602	2,634
Homeownership rate	67.2%	64.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	34.9%	15.7%
Unemployment rate	6.5%	23.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Big Bear Lake	Lucerne Valley
Population	5,241 → 5,038 (-3.9%)	5,956 → 5,946 (-0.2%)
Median household income	$51,060 → $74,728 (+46.4%)	$32,789 → $50,330 (+53.5%)
Median home value	$391,000 → $517,900 (+32.5%)	$161,900 → $240,000 (+48.2%)
Median gross rent	$957 → $1,278 (+33.5%)	$908 → $1,131 (+24.6%)

Big Bear Lake

Population

5,2415,038

Median household income

$51,060$74,728

Median home value

$391,000$517,900

Median gross rent

$957$1,278

Lucerne Valley

Population

5,9565,946

Median household income

$32,789$50,330

Median home value

$161,900$240,000

Median gross rent

$908$1,131

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Big Bear Lake	Lucerne Valley
Under 5	4.7%	6.2%
5 to 17	14.5%	18.5%
18 to 24	3.9%	8.4%
25 to 34	10.8%	11.0%
35 to 44	15.8%	10.4%
45 to 54	11.1%	9.3%
55 to 64	18.5%	18.6%
65 to 74	14.0%	8.5%
75 and over	6.8%	8.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Big Bear Lake	Lucerne Valley
White (non-Hispanic)	67.7%	57.2%
Black or African American	0.4%	3.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	1.5%
Asian	2.5%	3.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.4%	4.3%
Hispanic or Latino	25.2%	30.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Big Bear Lake	Lucerne Valley
No high school diploma	8.7%	23.5%
High school graduate	21.7%	31.2%
Some college or associate's	34.6%	29.5%
Bachelor's degree	21.7%	10.7%
Graduate or professional degree	13.3%	5.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Big Bear Lake	Lucerne Valley
Drove alone	61.3%	76.9%
Carpooled	12.1%	17.7%
Public transit	0.0%	0.9%
Walked	2.0%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	23.8%	3.9%
Other means	0.9%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Big Bear Lake	Lucerne Valley
1-unit, detached	84.8%	81.1%
1-unit, attached	4.2%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	3.5%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	2.1%	0.5%
20 or more units	2.8%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	18.4%

Poverty & households

	Big Bear Lake	Lucerne Valley
Poverty rate	9.4%	35.6%
Average household size	2.24	2.73
Mean commute (minutes)	28	46
Median year structure built	1976	1971