Where can you find the right house at the right price, a reasonable salary, and maybe a decent restaurant for date night? According to Sunset Magazine, in Santa Rosa.
On Monday, the leading lifestyle magazine announced a list of “20 Best Value Towns in the West” and Santa Rosa came in as the runner up in the Northern California category, topped by Nevada City. Ventura, CA, was named the best value town in Southern California, while Boise, ID, took home the Mountains category, Prescott, AZ, the Southwest and Vancouver, WA, the Northwest.
In the Sunset article, Santa Rosa is described as a top choice for Westerners wanting to leave expensive urban areas for smaller cities and towns that offer a mix of culture, beauty and affordability. Sunset highlights that the city’s median home price (stated as $460,000 in the article) comes in lower than the state average, while household income is higher than the national average, and also mentions the spring inauguration of the SMART train. Russian River Brewing’s February release of Pliny the Younger is noted as an added bonus: “if you lived here, you might actually get a taste.”
In contrast to Sunset’s statements regarding the median home price in Santa Rosa and the relative affordability of housing, The Press Democrat Housing Report states that the annual median single-family home price in Santa Rosa was $535,000 in 2016. According to the same report, Santa Rosa had a median home price of $575,000 in November of last year. The California Association of Realtors reports that the median home price for California was $501,710 in November. Based on these numbers, Santa Rosa’s median home price is not “lower than the state average,” as reported in the Sunset article. More information here.
See full list, with runners up, here. What do you think? Does Santa Rosa offer a mix of affordability, culture and beauty?
