How areas in the city of Santa Cruz Compare

[Dax Nollenberger]

Playing off of the topic discussed last month about how areas in Santa Cruz County compare, this time I got hyper-focused on the city of Santa Cruz since 2010. Broken down by six areas: Lower Westside, Upper Westside, Downtown/Beach Flats, Seabright, Banana Belt,  and Carbonera/Prospect Heights.

If you are interested in the full analysis with maps, charts, and data, reach out.

Quick Takeaways: The westside drives the Santa Cruz market. Not only are the Lower and Upper Westside #1 and #2 in size, but they are also #1 and #2 in median and average price. Seabright has performed well of late but falls behind when looking at median % change since 2010. The Banana Belt is last in price but is the quickest to sell and has the best price to list ratio.

Upper Westside: #2 in both median and average price since 2010. The Upper Westside has also seen the second-largest median % gain since 2010 at 131.2%.

Lower Westside: #1 in both median and average price since 2010. The Lower Westside is the second-largest market in the city and ranks 3rd in Days on Market. It has also seen the largest median % gain since 2010 at 162.0%.

Seabright: Ranks #4 and #3 in the median and average home price since 2010, respectively. Seabright has come on strong of late ranking 3rd in median home price in 2021 at $1.33MM. Central location and proximity to the Highway 1 are very attractive to the Silicon Valley commuter. Since 2010, the median % gain ranks 5 out of 6 with 104.8% gain. 

Downtown/Beach Flats: #5 in median price and #4 in average price. Downtown/Beach Flats is the smallest in terms of sales volume and ranks last in DOM and Price to List ratio but 3rd in median % gain at 131.1% since 2010. 

Banana Belt: Last in both median and average home price. The Banana Belt ranks 4th in median % gain since 2010 at 126.4%. It is first in DOM and Price to List ratio. 

Carbonera/Prospect Heights: Although they are neighbors, they are vastly different neighborhoods combined only to get an ample sample size. This combo of Carbonera and Prospect Heights ranks 3rd in median price and 5th in average price. It's last in percentage change since 2010 at 104.1%. It ranks 4th in both DOM and Price to List ratio.