Santa Cruz ZIP codes — Santa Cruz County, California

Santa Cruz County is a mid-size city in California, with 266,021 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates. The median age here is 39.6 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in Santa Cruz County earn a median of $109,266 a year, 39.1% above the national figure of $78,538. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 11.2% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Santa Cruz County is valued at $1,015,200, 234.6% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $2,172 a month, 54.5% above the national figure, or roughly $26,064 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 23.9% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 9.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 60% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Home values sit at 9.3× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.