Santa Cruz County Market Stats
Published
I track Santa Cruz County market conditions every week. The numbers below come from Altos Research for the week ending August 24, 2026, the most current data available.
Data from Altos Research, week ending August 24, 2026. Single-family homes. Sponsored by Padraic Collins, Stewart Title. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Contact me for neighborhood-specific breakdowns.
What the numbers mean
Santa Cruz Median List Price at $1,447,000. Inventory Hits a Summer High of 419
The Santa Cruz County median list price is $1,447,000, off $2,000 in a week. Last week’s $50,000 drop held rather than bounced back, so the county has now spent two weeks under the $1,499,000 band that ran from early June through mid-August. Price per square foot is $733, the lowest reading since spring. Two weeks is enough to call it a shift in asking prices, not a data blip.
Active single-family supply is 419, above the July high of 411 and up from 388 in early July. That is roughly 30 more homes on the market than eight weeks ago, and buyers have more to compare. Price cuts cover 39% of listings, matching the August high and well above the 33% that ran through midsummer. Sellers who priced against closed sales are still getting offers. The ones who priced against last year are cutting.
Market Action Index Holds at 38. The Seller Edge Is Thin but Intact
Santa Cruz County reads 38 on the Market Action Index. Altos treats anything above 30 as a seller’s market and anything below 30 as a buyer’s market. At 38 the county sits on the seller side, unchanged from last month and from the same week in July.
The index compares how fast homes go under contract against how many are listed. Santa Cruz ran at 39 through spring, slipped to 38 in mid-July, and has not moved in six weeks. Supply keeps growing while the reading stays flat, which means sales are keeping pace with the new listings. A drop toward 30 would be the signal that leverage is changing hands. This week does not show it.
Median Days on Market Moves to 70
Median days on market for active Santa Cruz County listings is 70, up from 63 where it had parked since mid-July. The number counts every home currently for sale, not the ones that already closed, so it measures how long the standing pool has been waiting.
A house priced to recent comparable sales in a location buyers want still goes under contract within about two weeks. What pushes the median to 70 is the group of listings that came out high in spring and never adjusted. Each week those homes stay unsold, they pull the figure up. If a property has been available past 30 days with no offer, the asking price is the first thing to fix.