House Hacking in San Diego: $9,330 a Month for the Median Duplex, $2,756 to Rent (October 2026)

House hacking means buying a building with two to four units, living in one and renting out the rest, with an FHA loan at as little as 3.5% down. We ran the numbers on every duplex, triplex and fourplex for sale in San Diego County on October 15, 2026 that we can price unit by unit: 74 buildings.

The last column is the median of each building's own gap, so it is not the difference between the two medians beside it.

What living there costs

For the median duplex, the owner pays $9,330 a month after the other unit's rent comes in, against $2,756 to rent the same unit. The median triplex costs $9,498 and the median fourplex costs $9,278. In all 74 buildings, living there costs more each month than renting the owner's unit would.

That gap is not all lost money. In the first year the median duplex owner pays down about $922 a month of the loan, and the building can gain value while the rents rise.

Where FHA draws the line

FHA lends up to $1,413,350 on a duplex, $1,708,400 on a triplex and $2,123,100 on a fourplex in San Diego County in 2026. Of the 74 buildings, 51 are priced where 3.5% down works. On the other 23, the buyer covers the rest in cash, a median of $486,645 down.

Triplexes and fourplexes face one more FHA test: three quarters of the rent from every unit, the owner's included, has to cover the mortgage payment, mortgage insurance, tax, insurance and any HOA. None of the 29 we priced pass at today's prices and rates, so here the FHA route runs through duplexes.

A few to look at

Priced within FHA's limit and closest to the cost of renting:

• 3724 Euclid Avenue, a duplex in City Heights (92105) at $650,000: about $4,317 a month to live in, $2,017 more than renting.
• 405 Juniper Street, a triplex in Escondido Central (92025) at $898,950: about $5,664 a month to live in, $3,781 more than renting, and it misses the FHA rent test.
• 5495 Imperial Avenue, a fourplex in San Diego (92114) at $1,100,000: about $5,129 a month to live in, $2,813 more than renting, and it misses the FHA rent test.
• 4779 Castle Avenue, a house with an ADU in City Heights (92105) at $815,000: about $6,082 a month to live in, $3,897 more than renting.

How we figured it

Unit rents come from closed leases of comparable homes nearby, and the owner takes the cheapest unit. The loan is FHA at Freddie Mac's 30 year average of 7.4% (week of October 15, 2026) with FHA mortgage insurance. Costs include property tax at 1.2% of the price, insurance, upkeep, and 8% vacancy, 10% management and 5% repairs on the rented units, but not closing costs. Four of the duplexes are houses with an ADU, held to FHA's one home limit of $1,104,000. A building listed twice counts once. Seven listings of several lots or a house with two ADUs are left out. Compare every building on our small multifamily page or run your own numbers in the cashflow calculator.