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Prices, inventory, and demand — distilled every month into one clear verdict: buyer’s market or seller’s. The investor’s read, before you make an offer.
The median asking price in Santa Rosa is about $819,000 as of Sep 2026, down 7.3% from a year ago. The typical listing is 6% smaller than a year ago, and asking price per square foot is flat. So the size of homes on the market explains much of the drop. That is the asking price on listed homes, so sold-price and home-value sites show different numbers (why).
Only on the right house. Neither side has the upper hand in Santa Rosa right now. Santa Rosa is close to its 2017–2019 normal for this time of year. The market will not hand you a discount. You have to find it in one specific listing.
The population in Santa Rosa's ZIP codes fell 2.2% over five years. 5.1% of homes are vacant, lower than most tracked cities. Households still grew 1.1% while the housing stock held flat. Fewer people living in more households means rental demand has held up better than the population suggests. Check vacancy by ZIP before you buy.
HUD sets one fair market rent for Sonoma County. For fiscal year 2026:
The figures include tenant-paid utilities and apply to all of Sonoma County, so one home's rent can sit well above or below them. See fair market rent by city.
In Santa Rosa, 41 out of every 100 households rent. That is nearly half. The renter share is shrinking. Five years ago it was 44 in 100. Santa Rosa lost about 1,700 renter households in five years. Renter households here average 2.6 people. Families rent here. Buy bedrooms. Studios will sit.
The median Santa Rosa household earns $100,028 a year. Incomes here have grown 5.5% a year since 2019. Incomes are rising faster than home prices. Affordability is improving. A typical home costs 8.2 times the median income. Most locals cannot buy. That keeps rental demand deep. It also caps the rent they can pay. At 30% of income, a tenant on the median income can pay about $2,501 a month.
To see what one Santa Rosa address would rent for and cash flow, run it through the app.
The median asking price is 26.4% below its Jun 2023 peak. Per square foot the gap is smaller: 9.7% below the Apr 2023 high. Part of the drop is smaller homes coming to market. Prices stopped falling about a year ago. They are flat now. Waiting will not get you a cheaper house. It might still get you a more motivated seller. Santa Rosa prices rose in only 74 of the last 111 months. This market goes up and down. Timing matters here. Growth will not rescue a bad price.
This market is turning. Which way is not settled yet. Check the monthly numbers above before you commit.
Across 9 full years, Santa Rosa asking prices ran lowest in January, about 3.1% below the year's average. They peaked in April. The most homes for sale show up in September, about 21% above the yearly average. Shop in September for choice, and expect the softest asking prices in January.
Read how population change affects rentals and how we read these numbers, then run the numbers on a deal.
The median asking price in Santa Rosa is about $819,000 as of Sep 2026, down 7.3% from a year ago. The typical listing is 6% smaller than a year ago, and asking price per square foot is flat. So the size of homes on the market explains much of the drop. This is the asking price on homes listed for sale. Sites that report sold prices or estimated home values will show a different number. Our Santa Rosa figures cover the 8 ZIP codes with a Santa Rosa mailing address, which can reach past city limits.
Neither side has the upper hand in Santa Rosa right now. We compare Santa Rosa with 2017–2019 at this time of year: the typical listing has been up 14% more days; there are 37 pending sales per 100 listings, against 42 then; there are 11% more homes for sale.
The median asking price is 26.4% below its Jun 2023 peak. Per square foot the gap is smaller: 9.7% below the Apr 2023 high. Part of the drop is smaller homes coming to market. Prices stopped falling about a year ago. They are flat now. Waiting will not get you a cheaper house. It might still get you a more motivated seller.
95404. Only 34 homes under contract for every 100 still for sale. 23% of sellers there have cut their price, and the typical listing has been up 70 days.
HUD's fiscal year 2026 fair market rent for Sonoma County is $2,827 a month for 2 bedrooms and $3,887 for 3 bedrooms. The figures include tenant-paid utilities and cover the whole county.
ZIP 95403 is on both lists. That is rare. It is the one place in Santa Rosa where leverage and growth overlap.
| ZIP | $/sqft, 2 yrs | $/sqft now | Buyers per home | For sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 95407 | +4.1% | $420 | 0.53 | 55 |
| 95404 | +2.8% | $556 | 0.34 | 98 |
| 95401 | -0.1% | $502 | 0.47 | 46 |
| 95409 | -3.5% | $445 | 0.32 | 87 |
| 95403 | -6.5% | $467 | 0.36 | 97 |
Computed from each ZIP's own ten-year history. ZIPs with fewer than 10 homes for sale are excluded: a median across a handful of listings is noise, not a signal.
Santa Rosa has eight ZIP codes. Each links to its live market dashboard.
Closest matches on asking price, price per square foot, time on market, buyer demand, and price cuts.
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