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Mentone is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, sitting just east of Redlands at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains. It carries the ZIP code 92359 and runs along State Route 38, the highway locals take up to Big Bear and the San Gorgonio Wilderness.
The appeal is straightforward. Mentone offers detached single-family homes on larger lots, a genuine small-town feel, and mountain access that the denser parts of the Inland Empire cannot match, usually at a lower price than neighboring Redlands. That combination draws buyers who want space and a commute-tolerant lifestyle without paying coastal or central-Redlands prices.
Browse the current Mentone listings below, or contact The Knight Group to talk through what your budget buys here versus the surrounding communities.
Mentone sits at the eastern edge of the San Bernardino Valley, laid out east of Redlands and continuing north toward the Santa Ana River and east toward Mill Creek, a tributary of that river. The community slopes uphill below the San Bernardino and San Gorgonio Mountains, both of which rise past 10,000 feet and hold snow on their peaks through winter.
To the west is Redlands, the larger incorporated city that most people use as their reference point. To the south sits Yucaipa, home to Crafton Hills College. Highland lies to the northwest, and the community of Crafton sits between Mentone and Redlands. Head north and east on Highway 38 and you leave the valley floor entirely, climbing toward Forest Falls, Barton Flats, and eventually the Big Bear area.
That position matters for two reasons. First, Mentone functions as a gateway: its downtown wraps around Highway 38, and a steady stream of traffic passes through on the way to and from the mountains. Second, the community’s northern edge butts directly against the San Bernardino National Forest, which shapes both its recreation options and its wildfire exposure. More on that below.
Mentone is a moderately priced Inland Empire market. As of February 2026, Rocket Homes reported a median home price of roughly $510,000 and an average sale price near $486,544. Earlier, in March 2025, the median sold price was also around $510,000, up about 7.4 percent year over year, at a median of roughly $344 per square foot.
The near-term picture shows some softening. Median listing prices in February 2026 came in around $454,000, which Rocket Homes noted was down about 15 percent from January 2026 and about 14 percent from February 2025. Read that as a market cooling from its recent highs, not as a collapse. Listing prices and sold prices move on different clocks, and a single month of listing data reflects whatever inventory happened to be on the market that month.
Homes here have tended to sell in roughly 36 days, and the active inventory has spanned a wide range, from entry-level houses near $450,000 to properties listed close to $3 million. That spread reflects the mix in Mentone: modest older homes and newer tract product on the valley floor, plus larger parcels and semi-rural properties closer to the foothills and the river wash.
What moves Mentone pricing is largely regional. As one of the more affordable footholds in the east San Bernardino Valley, it draws demand from buyers priced out of Redlands and from those coming east out of the denser Inland Empire. When rates rise and affordability tightens across the region, communities like Mentone feel it in both directions: they attract budget-driven buyers, but those same buyers are the most sensitive to monthly payment swings. That is part of why the recent listing-price softening is worth watching rather than dismissing.
If you want current numbers rather than a snapshot, the listing feed below is the honest source. Market reports lag; the live inventory does not.
The housing stock is mixed, which is part of what keeps the price range so wide. On the valley floor you will find older single-family homes on generous lots, some dating to the community’s agricultural decades, alongside newer tract-style construction that filled in over the last few development cycles. Closer to the foothills and the river wash, parcels get larger and more semi-rural, and that is where the higher-end and acreage listings tend to appear.
Because Mentone grew from farmland rather than from a master-planned template, lot sizes and setbacks are less uniform than in a modern subdivision. For a buyer, that irregularity is often a feature: room for a shop, a garden, trailer or RV storage, or simply more distance from the neighbors than a tract lot allows. It also means each property needs to be evaluated on its own terms rather than assumed from the surrounding block.
Most homes here are detached single-family residences. Condominium and townhome inventory is limited compared with the denser parts of the Inland Empire, so buyers set on attached product usually have to look toward Redlands or Loma Linda. If a large lot and a detached house are what you want, Mentone is built for that.
Price and space, mostly. Central Redlands commands a premium for its historic neighborhoods, walkable downtown, and established schools. Mentone typically trades below that, and the trade-off buyers accept is a quieter, more spread-out community with fewer amenities within walking distance.
Buyers who want a larger lot, room for RV or trailer parking, or a semi-rural feel without leaving the valley often find Mentone fits. The agricultural history here is real: the community grew up around groves and farming, and that legacy still shows in lot sizes and in pockets of land that never got subdivided.
The counterweight is honest to name. You give up the density of services, the shorter commutes to central San Bernardino County employers, and the school-reputation halo that central Redlands carries. Whether that trade works depends on your commute, your family situation, and how much you value land over convenience.
Mentone is part of the Redlands Unified School District. That district covers Redlands, most of Loma Linda, Mentone, Crafton, Forest Falls, the eastern half of Highland, and a small eastern portion of the city of San Bernardino. Mentone Elementary sits at 1320 Crafton Avenue in Mentone.
Because the district is shared with Redlands, families in Mentone draw on the same secondary-school system as much of the east valley. For post-secondary options, Crafton Hills College is nearby in Yucaipa, and the University of Redlands is a short drive west. If schools are a deciding factor for you, confirm current boundary assignments and enrollment options directly, since district lines and school-choice policies change and a specific address can matter.
Mentone’s main artery is State Route 38, which runs through the heart of the community and connects it westward toward Redlands and the Interstate 10 corridor. Interstate 10 is the primary east-west freeway for the region, feeding commuters toward San Bernardino, Riverside, and the wider Los Angeles basin, and eastward toward Yucaipa, Beaumont, and the pass communities.
For most working residents, the pattern is a short surface drive to reach Redlands and the 10, then a freeway commute from there. That extra step is part of the trade-off: Mentone is not directly on a freeway, so you build a few minutes of local driving into every trip. In exchange, you get distance from freeway noise and the through-traffic of the larger cities.
Highway 38 also makes Mentone a practical launch point for anyone who works or plays in the mountains. Ski season, summer camping, and forest recreation are all reachable without first fighting cross-valley traffic.
The outdoors is the headline. Mentone sits at the doorstep of the San Bernardino National Forest, and the San Bernardino National Forest maintains a recreation office in the community at 34701 Mill Creek Road. From here, the Santa Ana River corridor, Mill Creek, and the trail systems climbing toward San Gorgonio are all close.
Highway 38 is the recreation spine. Follow it up and you reach Forest Falls, the Barton Flats campgrounds, and the high country around Big Bear. Hikers, campers, and anglers use Mentone as a staging point, and residents get that access as a matter of course rather than as a weekend expedition.
Day-to-day retail and dining lean toward the practical, with more extensive shopping and restaurant options a short drive west in Redlands. If you want a walkable downtown with a dense commercial core, Mentone is not that. If you want a quieter base with the forest at your back and a full-service city fifteen minutes away, it fits.
Mentone dates to the 1880s land boom. In 1886, W.H. Drew and N.K. Fairbanks bought about 3,000 acres north of Crafton and south of the Santa Ana River and formed the Mentone Corporation. They named it after Menton, the Mediterranean village on the French Riviera, because the climate and vegetation reminded them of the coast, minus the sea. By 1897 the town plat had been surveyed and recorded under W.P. McIntosh, a Los Angeles real estate agent who was among the investors.
One landmark from that era tells the boom-and-bust story cleanly. In 1892, developers built the Hotel Mentone at a cost of about $30,000, modeled after the Hotel del Coronado. The tourists never arrived in the numbers hoped, and the building was later converted into a sanitarium for tuberculosis and asthma patients before it was demolished in 1917.
The agricultural chapter outlasted the tourism ambition. Farming and groves defined Mentone for generations, and that history still shapes the community’s land pattern and its self-image as a small, semi-rural town rather than a suburb.
Mentone is a small community. The 2020 census recorded a population of 10,141. World Population Review estimated the 2026 population at about 9,664, a decline of roughly 4.7 percent from the census count. Other sources have put the figure slightly higher, near 9,900 to 9,950 for 2025, which is normal variation between estimate methods.
The practical takeaway for a buyer is scale, not the exact headcount. This is a community under 10,000 people, not a large city. Expect the service level, the traffic, and the pace that a town of that size implies.
Wildfire risk is the factor to take seriously here. Mentone’s northern edge sits against the San Bernardino National Forest, and that proximity places the upper part of the community in a very high fire hazard severity zone under California’s classification system. That has real consequences: insurance availability and cost, defensible-space requirements, and building standards can all be affected depending on the specific parcel.
If you are looking at a property toward the foothills or the forest boundary, verify the fire hazard zone for that exact address, and get an insurance quote before you are deep into escrow. California’s insurance market for high-hazard areas has been volatile, and the premium can change the math on a purchase. A home on the valley floor and a home against the tree line can carry very different risk profiles even within the same ZIP code.
The other environmental context is the Santa Ana River wash. The Upper Santa Ana River Wash Habitat Conservation Plan, administered through the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District, governs land use and habitat protection across the wash area north of the community. For most residential buyers this is background, but if a property sits near the wash, it is worth understanding how the conservation plan and floodplain considerations may affect it.
It suits buyers who want more land and a quieter setting at a price generally below central Redlands, and who accept a short drive to reach freeway and shopping. It is less suited to those who want a walkable downtown or the shortest possible commute. The right answer depends on your priorities.
Rocket Homes reported a median home price of roughly $510,000 as of February 2026, with an average sale price near $486,544. Median listing prices that same month were softer, around $454,000. Use the live listings below for current figures.
Mentone is served by the Redlands Unified School District, which also covers Redlands, most of Loma Linda, Crafton, Forest Falls, part of Highland, and a portion of San Bernardino. Mentone Elementary is located at 1320 Crafton Avenue. Confirm boundary assignments for a specific address.
The northern edge of Mentone, nearest the San Bernardino National Forest, falls in a very high fire hazard severity zone. Risk varies significantly by parcel, so check the fire hazard classification and secure an insurance quote for the exact property before committing.
Mentone sits at the base of State Route 38, the highway that climbs to Forest Falls, Barton Flats, and the Big Bear area. It functions as a gateway community, so mountain recreation is directly accessible without crossing the wider valley first.
No. Mentone is an unincorporated community, sometimes classified as a census-designated place, within San Bernardino County. It is governed at the county level rather than by its own city government.
Mentone uses a single ZIP code, 92359.
Recent data has shown homes selling in roughly 36 days on average, though that figure moves with market conditions and inventory. The current listings below are the most accurate read on how the market is behaving right now.
The Knight Group covers Mentone as part of the broader east San Bernardino Valley, alongside Redlands, Yucaipa, and Highland. That footprint matters here, because the right recommendation often involves comparing Mentone against its neighbors rather than looking at it in isolation.
Our approach is to lead with the numbers and name the trade-offs plainly. For a buyer, that means being direct about fire hazard zones, insurance realities, commute times, and how a given price compares across nearby communities. For a seller, it means pricing against real comparable sales and current inventory rather than a hoped-for figure, and being honest about how long a listing is likely to take at a given price.
If you are weighing Mentone, start with the listings below to see what is actually available, then contact The Knight Group to pressure-test whether this community fits your budget, your commute, and your risk tolerance better than the alternatives.
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