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Sonoma County Indicators

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Housing

Housing continues to be a much discussed topic for Sonoma County. Housing market demand remains strong as median home prices continue to rise. Despite a low rating on the housing affordability index, homeowner vacancy rates were trending downward before the pandemic, at an all time low of 0.3%. Following the pandemic there has been an upward trend hitting an all time high of 9.3% housing vacancy.

Graph illustrating the housing affordability index for Sonoma County. Since 2012, California and Sonoma County’s HAI’s have fallen drastically, with Sonoma County recording an HAI of 28% and California 25% by Q4 2021. Source: California Association of Realtors Graph illustrating the average days on market for housing in Sonoma County. Over the past decade, the average number of days a house remains on the market has plummeted from 106 in 2011 to 49 in 2021, a 54% decrease. Source: California Association of Realtors
Graph illustrating the housing vacancy rates for both homeowners and renters in Sonoma County. Housing vacancy rates in Sonoma County. Average vacancy rates have been on the decline in Sonoma County’s housing market. From 2019 to 2020, homeowner vacancy rates went from less than 1% to just under 3%. Renter vacancy stayed close to 3% during the same time period. Source: U.S. Census Bureau www.census.gov This graph illustrating the median rent for 7 bay area counties with Marin having the highest for a 2-bedroom rental at $3,500 and Sonoma having the lowest cost for a 2-bedroom rental at $2,200. Source: U.S. Department of Housing www.huduser.gov
Graph illustrating the median home prices for the same 7 bay area counties. Santa Clara has the highest cost for homes being $1.3 million and Contra Costa having the lowest cost for homes at $626,000. Sonoma County’s median home prices were at $678,000. Source: National Association of Realtors www.nar.realtor Graph illustrating the percentage of renters facing a housing burden in Sonoma County by race. 68% of Black renters face a high rental burden, followed by Latino renters (59%), white renters (53%), and Asian renters (52%). Source: A Portrait of Sonoma County: 2021 Update www.measureofamerica.org/sonoma
Graph illustrating the percentage of homeownership in Sonoma County by race. 66% of Asian and white populations are homeowners, while just 39% of Latinos are homeowners, and only 34% of Blacks are homeowners. Source: A Portrait of Sonoma County: 2021 Update www.measureofamerica.org/sonoma Graph illustrating the racial/ethnic demography of owner and renter occupied housing units. 88% of single family homes owners and 52.2% of renters are white. Among the renting population in Sonoma County, the second largest demographic is the Latinx population. Source: U.S. Census Bureau www.census.gov
Graph illustrating the percentage of rental versus owner occupied housing units in Sonoma County and California. The majority of housing units in Sonoma County are occupied by homeowners. In 2020, it is estimated that 118,640 housing units were occupied by homeowners (61.3%) and 67,984 housing units were occupied by renters (38.7%) comparative to California where (55.3%) of housing units are occupied by homeowners and (44.7%) are occupied by renters. Source: U.S. Census Bureau www.census.gov