Moss Beach vs Portola Valley

A side-by-side comparison of Moss Beach and Portola Valley: population, income, housing, and more.

Moss Beach and Portola Valley are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Portola Valley has the higher population (4,329 vs 3,016 in Moss Beach). Portola Valley has the higher median household income ($250,001 vs $128,333 in Moss Beach). Portola Valley has the higher median home value ($2,000,001 vs $1,112,900 in Moss Beach).

Population, income & housing

	Moss Beach	Portola Valley
Population	3,016	4,329
Median age	44.3 yrs	58.0 yrs
Median household income	$128,333	$250,001
Median home value	$1,112,900	$2,000,001
Median gross rent	—	$3,501
Housing units	1,050	1,840
Homeownership rate	96.6%	83.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	51.1%	82.8%
Unemployment rate	0.0%	2.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Moss Beach	Portola Valley
Population	3,604 → 3,016 (-16.3%)	4,592 → 4,329 (-5.7%)
Median household income	$108,860 → $128,333 (+17.9%)	$224,554 → $250,001 (+11.3%)
Median home value	$944,900 → $1,112,900 (+17.8%)	$2,000,001 → $2,000,001 (+0.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,822 → $3,067 (+68.3%)	$2,986 → $3,501 (+17.2%)

Moss Beach

Population

3,6043,016

Median household income

$108,860$128,333

Median home value

$944,900$1,112,900

Median gross rent

$1,822$3,067

Portola Valley

Population

4,5924,329

Median household income

$224,554$250,001

Median home value

$2,000,001$2,000,001

Median gross rent

$2,986$3,501

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Moss Beach	Portola Valley
Under 5	6.2%	5.6%
5 to 17	16.9%	12.8%
18 to 24	8.5%	4.9%
25 to 34	5.9%	3.0%
35 to 44	13.8%	8.3%
45 to 54	18.8%	10.6%
55 to 64	10.7%	12.2%
65 to 74	9.7%	19.7%
75 and over	9.5%	22.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Moss Beach	Portola Valley
White (non-Hispanic)	58.8%	75.5%
Black or African American	0.5%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.0%
Asian	5.3%	9.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.9%
Two or more races	5.6%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	29.5%	9.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Moss Beach	Portola Valley
No high school diploma	18.3%	1.4%
High school graduate	7.2%	1.5%
Some college or associate's	23.4%	14.3%
Bachelor's degree	30.6%	31.1%
Graduate or professional degree	20.5%	51.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Moss Beach	Portola Valley
Drove alone	56.9%	39.5%
Carpooled	11.8%	0.0%
Public transit	6.5%	0.0%
Walked	0.8%	2.6%
Bicycle	5.7%	5.9%
Worked from home	18.3%	51.1%
Other means	0.0%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Moss Beach	Portola Valley
1-unit, detached	78.5%	83.4%
1-unit, attached	1.6%	1.6%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.9%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	13.2%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.9%
Mobile home & other	19.9%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Moss Beach	Portola Valley
Poverty rate	5.5%	5.3%
Average household size	2.91	2.48
Mean commute (minutes)	29	28
Median year structure built	1971	1970