Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 49% of the 361 measured US metros.

Employment fell 0.7% over the past year, to 215,731 employed residents.

37% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 84% of measured US metros.

Household income is higher than at least 96% of measured US metros.

Median rent of $2,131 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 8.1 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Population has fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 444,500 in 2024.

61% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 3.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US metros.

9 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 71°F and January a low of 43°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 19.0 inches.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, inland flooding and drought.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. This value is the population-weighted mean of all component counties; expected annual loss is their sum. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

AreaProfile does not yet publish tax comparisons. No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, methodology transparency and update cadence, and the product rule is to omit a dimension rather than estimate it. The Area Score is calculated without a tax component and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Nothing on AreaProfile is individualized tax advice.

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 35 miles away.

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

Put Santa Maria-Santa Barbara side by side with a similar place.

Profile recalculated August 29, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.