Homes, condos and land for sale and rent in Perris, CA

The Perris Valley was actively settled in the 1880s, a boom period for Southern California. Prior to 1880, the land was used for pastures. The coming of the California Southern Railroad led to the founding of the city around the new depot. The California Southern was built through the future town site in 1882 to open a rail connection between the present day cities of Barstow and San Diego. Due to a land title dispute at Pinacate, most of its citizens moved two miles north on the railroad and established Perris in 1885. The city is named in honor of Fred T. Perris, chief engineer of the California Southern Railroad. The city of Perris was incorporated in 1911. It originally was part of San Diego County, but in 1892 was transferred to the newly established Riverside County.
Perris now incorporates Pinacate Station which is the home of the Orange Empire Railway Museum (a.k.a. “the trolley museum”) – the largest operating museum of its kind on the West Coast of the United States.
On March 20, 2007, Perris was featured on ABC’s Nightline news show during its “Realty Check” segment. The story dealt with the rising trend of home foreclosures in Riverside County, and Perris was referred to as the “epicenter”.
The “Farmer Boys” restaurant chain, which has many locations throughout the Inland Empire, was started in Perris in 1981.
Perris is also known for the Rock Castle house set on a hill above town.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 31.5 square miles (82 km2), of which, 31.4 square miles (81 km2) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) of it (0.35%) is water.
Perris has a Mediterranean climate, with warm to hot summers and cool winters. In the summer, highs average in the mid to high 90’s, and during the winter, the lows can get as cold as 25, with averages in the mid to upper 30’s.
Perris is also notable for being a slight hotspot for tornadoes, the most recent of which struck down with an EF0 rating on August 12, 2012.
The climate in this area is described by the Köppen Climate Classification System as “dry-summer subtropical” often referred to as “Mediterranean” and abbreviated as Csa.

The 2010 United States Census reported that Perris had a population of 68,386. The population density was 2,170.7 people per square mile (838.1/km²). The racial makeup of Perris was 28,937 (42.3%) White (11.0% Non-Hispanic White), 8,307 (12.1%) African American, 589 (0.9%) Native American, 2,461 (3.6%) Asian, 286 (0.4%) Pacific Islander, 24,345 (35.6%) from other races, and 3,461 (5.1%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 49,079 persons (71.8%).

The Census reported that 68,146 people (99.7% of the population) lived in households, 140 (0.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 100 (0.1%) were institutionalized.
There were 16,365 households, out of which 10,836 (66.2%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 9,778 (59.7%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,128 (19.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,441 (8.8%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 1,314 (8.0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 120 (0.7%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 1,442 households (8.8%) were made up of individuals and 383 (2.3%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.16. There were 14,347 families (87.7% of all households); the average family size was 4.32.

The population was spread out with 25,288 people (37.0%) under the age of 18, 7,951 people (11.6%) aged 18 to 24, 20,088 people (29.4%) aged 25 to 44, 11,711 people (17.1%) aged 45 to 64, and 3,348 people (4.9%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25.9 years. For every 100 females there were 98.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.9 males.
There were 17,906 housing units at an average density of 568.4 per square mile (219.5/km²), of which 10,854 (66.3%) were owner-occupied, and 5,511 (33.7%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 5.5%; the rental vacancy rate was 6.8%. 44,695 people (65.4% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 23,451 people (34.3%) lived in rental housing units.
According to the 2010 United States Census, Perris had a median household income of $46,435, with 28.2% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

The city is served by three school districts: the Perris Elementary School District, Perris Union High School District and the Val Verde Unified School District, which also serves the southern part of Moreno Valley. Perris High School of the Perris district is the city’s first public (grades 9-12) school. Established in 1887, the school was relocated in 1961, and the school’s western annex on I-215 and Nuevo Road became a Continuation High School in 1993. Now, there are more high schools in the area including Citrus Hill of the Val Verde district.
Middle schools include Pinacate, Lakeside, Perris and Tomas Rivera. There are ten elementary (grades K-6) schools (two recently opened in 2007).