Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
For the fifth year in a row, Santa Barbara made it on the list of the top worst cities for first-time homebuyers.
In 2023, our small town has been listed as the fourth worst city with only Santa Monica, Berkeley, and Anchorage taking the top three spots, reports Wallethub.
WalletHub assessed real estate in 300 cities of varying sizes using 22 key metrics. The data set ranges from housing affordability to real-estate tax rate to property-crime rate. Below is how Santa Barbara ranked:
Buying a First Home in Santa Barbara (1=Best; 150=Avg.):
- 239th – Housing Affordability
- 26th – Real-Estate Tax Rate
- 253rd – Cost of Living
- 297th – Rent-to-Price Ratio
- 194th – Median Home-Price Appreciation
- 30th – Foreclosure Rate
- 139th – Property-Crime Rate
Santa Barbara ranks No. 297 overall and No. 131 among small cities.
The top five best places to purchase a home are all located in Florida: Palm Bay, Cape Coral, Tampa, Port St. Lucie, and Orlando, respectively.
The typical home value of homes in Santa Barbara is $1,664,258 with home values decreasing by 4% over the past year, according to Zillow.
Santa Maria was ranked 214, followed by Oxnard at 248 and Ventura at 269. Roseville was the “most affordable” California city for first-time homebuyers ranked at 44 followed by Elk Grove at 57, Visalia at 61 and Clovis at 77.
Read the full rankings here.
The typical home value of homes in Santa Barbara is $258 with home values decreasing by 4% over the past year, according to Zillow.
Nice typo.
Worse than Aspen? Wow, SB is really coming up!
CA has a lockdown on the bottom 20
“typical home value of homes in Santa Barbara is $258 with home values decreasing by 4%”
Evidently the schools are bad too
Who can be surprised considering the beautiful weather we have been having. Florida? The ocean temp was 100° yesterday. It’s sad for our kids who want to stay here, though.
I’ve got mine. F**k you. Go away…
$258 homes in Santa Barbara?
I purchased my first home in the Bay Area in the late 80s…..a 2/1 “fixer” in a blue-collar neighborhood (complete w/shots fired on many Friday and Saturday nights courtesy of the ‘Ralston Rats’). When I originally started looking for a home, the first thing I did was to find out how much home I could afford. Once I found that out I was able to focus on homes within my price range. It was obvious that I could not afford ANY homes in Palo Alto (at least on the southwest side of the 101 or Whiskey Gulch area), Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Atherton, Menlo Park and so on. It’s the same thing when you look in your wallet and you’ve got five bucks to spend you’re looking at half a grilled cheese sammy….not a glorious Porterhouse whiff allll the trimmings.
Another way to look at this article is that SB is one of the top places to buy a house for those who can afford to buy here. That’s it. I wouldn’t be able to buy the house that I own now, but that doesn’t mean that someone else can’t. One thing to remember is that NO ONE is looking out for the buyer: $ellers want top price….Real Estate agents want to top price to get the top amount of commi$$ion….Loan folks want the biggest mortgage to make more intere$t over time. So, if you can buy a home, buy it where you can afford it and stop the nonsense about how prices should reflect what YOU can afford. That’s just the way it is. Don’t give me this “it’s not about the money”…..because real estate is all about money, money, money, and money.
Even if they meant $258K, no way!!!
Agree w you Baby. It’s common sense, supply and demand. It’s not about entitlement – just ‘cause you grew up here or even work hyou have the right to a house.
The compassionate ones are going away, the sociopathic ones seem to be hanging around and thriving.
My doctors keep moving away because they can make more and pay less for housing elsewhere. It’s a real problem.
You don’t think people should be able to live where they are employed? Cops, fire fighters, teachers, even some doctors, aren’t able to live here yet they provide their services and skills to local residents. That doesn’t seem wrong to you? Maybe they should just quit and only provide those essential skills to their fellow residents. Maybe we should have to go to them for help? I don’t know man, I just don’t think it’s right to require services AND a commute.
“Good. Go away, we’re full” — most Santa Barbarbarians, probably.
ORVULL – exactly. It’s reminiscent of the American dream in general: “I got mine, go **** yourselves.”
It seems as soon as they build housing that is somewhat affordable like condos, people from other parts of the country buy them – not native Santa Barbara folk. I live in a condo complex and almost everybody who lives here is from another part of the country and they were so happy to be able to buy in Santa Barbara. Many are retired so it’s not like it’s going to workforce housing.
Housing and jobs in Santa Barbara are all about the ol’ Supply and Demand “thingy” that some are conveniently thinking about. Many, many, MANY people from around the country want to live here and are willing to take less pay and pay more for housing. Get over it folks. My profession pays anywhere from 20 to 40 percent less in Santa Barbara/Goleta/Carp than elsewhere. I lived and worked elsewhere for nearly 20 years until I save up enough dough and investments “matured” to the point I could afford to live here. What some of you think should be, such as “if you work here you should be able to live here.” I agree, until doing a reality check and that simply is not how it works. That’s the same as saying I should be able to visit Rome/Paris/New York/wherever simply because that how it s-h-o-u-l-d be. Well, hate to break it to you “shoulda” people, but that’s not how the chip crumples. Financial math should be taught to everyone……if you work for it, you can have it; if you don’t work for it, then maybe you won’t be able to have it; sometimes, you get what you need.
BABY – again, what about the people who provide essential services to YOU and others here that aren’t able to live here? Maybe give them a call and tell them you’ll take care of crime, fire, education, surgery, infrastructure, etc all on your own.
The difference between SB and Rome/Paris/New York, is that the people who work in those cities are able to afford to live somewhere in them. SB is not a cosmopolitan city. It’s an overrated and small beach town that has been artificially elevated to an unattainable place of residence for thousands who provide it and its residents with essential services.
SacJon: I agree with you that life is not always fair….it really is not. However, we who live in Santa Barbara have to deal with things like housing that we can afford. I don’t know why a fireman, teacher, or doctor pay less for a house than a busboy, dishwasher, or any minimum-wage earner. That is, unless you think we should live where we simply cannot afford. “Hey, I don’t make enough money to buy a fixer in SB, so you need to make it so I can buy something that fits my budget.” That does not make sense to people who deal in reality such as myself. My landscape gardener came to the US in 1986 and has worked his you-know-what off. He bought used trucks, used equipment, didn’t take fancy vacations, scrimped/saved…. and he now owns three houses in Goleta and scads of farmland in Jalisco (Mexico).
Bottom line: If you work here, but cannot afford to live here, then you’re going to have to commute or you need to find a job closer to where you live. I didn’t like the pay I was getting in SB, so I ended up nearly doubling my salary by taking a position in Thousand Oaks (Amgen….biotech company).
Please do not begrudge those who have been able to purchase homes in SB. The jealousy has g-o-t to stop. No one who buys here thinks to themselves, “Oh, I’ve made it and I don’t care about anyone else (as I rub my greedy hands and double-check the amounts in my 401k, savings and checking accounts four times a day). Be happy for local homeowners…thank you!
That’s because Rome/Paris/New York are actual cities, major metropolitan areas, were they let you build apartment buildings with dozens of floors on nearly every square inch of land. If they allowed that here, we’d have much more affordable housing, however we’d no longer recognize it as Santa Barbara.
dude…i was born here, 3rd gen. i’m the last of my family that still resides here, the rest sold and ran away (mostly to ojai). i’m not going to move away and work my tail off just to come back and lose it all. i rent, then i’ll be leaving for good within 6 more years and have just purchased 85 acres in oregon for $100k. heavily forested and has loop houses, three year round springs, power, and an off grid cabin with solar panels (so i won’t be using the power that is provided by the state). 100k. 100k here maybe gets you in line for an apartment on the east side.
ZeroHawk: I would have to say that your plan is brilliant! You are walking the walk. The weed in Oregon is dirt cheap, you can buy Everclear there ( you have to ask for it as it’s kept hidden behind the counter), lots of river gold, great beer, clean air, fishing, crabbing, agate hunting…congrats!!!
No jealousy. Nice job ignoring the point.
California, and Santa Barbara in particular, is not affordable for everyone. However, you’ll notice that there are millions of people living in the state who are able to live here by living within their means. I cannot afford a home in Montecito, but not crying about it. I can’t afford a home in Malibu, but not moaning about it. I can afford four houses in Rogers, Arkansas. I love my coffee, but I refuse to pay $3 for a cup at the usual places, so I make mine at home (We treat ourselves to Handlebar or Vices/Spices a couple times a month though).
I you find yourself having a hard time dealing with living in such an expensive place such as Santa Barbara, my advice would be to take a deep breath and enjoy what you have. If you were in one of my life-coaching sessions, I’d make sure that you fully understood the Serenity Prayer:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.”
Namaste my good Edhat friends. May you live in peace and harmony within yourselves each and every day. Life is precious, so get out there and enjoy it!
It has been expensive to live in this area for a long time. After graduation from Cal Poly, I went to work in Goleta and rented a tiny duplex by the tracks on West Valerio and rode a bike to Goleta to work. It sucked but savings helped us by a car, and gradually enough for a small home in Ventura. Commuted for several years and then bought a home near Milpas with 11% interest rate. Later times and housing improved but it is always a struggle here unless you have a very high salary or family to help.