Buellton, California.
Typical home $900,927 (+3.3% in a year). Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,592 (+121%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $28,783 +3%
- $872,144$900,927 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $170,307 +23%
- $730,621$900,927 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Buellton$4,729
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Buellton, CA rose 3.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Buellton, Santa Barbara County, California
Buellton is a city of 5,161 people in Santa Barbara County. 59% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 41% are rented. Unemployment in Santa Barbara County was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Buellton is a small city in Santa Barbara County, with a median age close to that of the country as a whole. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though typical home values run high, and poverty is not widespread among residents. Winters are mild, with the coldest days in December still well above freezing at night, and summers are hot in August. Snow is rare and the rain is modest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in government and in shops. Among the largest workplaces in Buellton are Albertsons, the Buellton Union Elementary Schools and Firestone Walker, a brewery. Many people spend a fair stretch of time commuting, and a good number work from home.
Things to do. OstrichLand USA, a zoo, is in or beside town. A short drive away are Nojoqui Falls, a waterfall, and Gaviota State Park, a protected coastal area. The Elverhøj Museum of History and Art and the Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum are also a short drive from Buellton.
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- 1,886households
- 39%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 16%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Santa Barbara County had 214,947 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 67° and lows near 33°; warmest in August, with highs near 93° and lows near 48°. About 21 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cachuma Lake weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Buellton
- Coastal Vineyard Care AssociatesFarm labor contractors682
- American Medical Response171
- AlbertsonsSupermarkets and other grocery stores102
- Buellton Union Elementary SchoolsSchool district72FTE
- ExceltaHandtool metal blades manufacturing55
- Firestone Walker Inc. -- BuelltonBreweries55
- GP MachiningMachine shops43
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,108 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Inland floodingVery high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Buellton’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Santa Barbara County and the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA metro.
Buellton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Buellton$900,927
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Buellton listings — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Buellton24.80%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Buellton20
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Buellton7
Zip codes with a Buellton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Buellton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.