Sebastopol, California.
Typical home $1,089,598 (+2.4% in a year), asking rent $2,871 (+4.2%). Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,340 (+69%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $25,100 +2%
- $1,064,497$1,089,598 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $11,608 +1%
- $1,077,990$1,089,598 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.
- Sebastopol$5,719
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Sebastopol, CA rose 2.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Sebastopol, CA rose 4.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Sebastopol runs $4,649/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $4,881 in Feb 2025.
That is $7,520 a month against $2,871 rent: a $5,719 mortgage payment, plus $634 property tax and $1,167 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Sebastopol
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$7,520
- Renting$2,871
- Mortgage only$5,719
Property tax · $634/mo 0.70% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Sonoma County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $1,167/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, California
Sebastopol is a city of 7,521 people in Sonoma County. Half its households earn more than $87,684 a year and half less, against $104,674 across Sonoma County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 56% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 44% are rented. Unemployment in Sonoma County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 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. Sebastopol is a small city in Sonoma County where residents are older than in many American towns. Household incomes run below the county's, and homes here are expensive, with typical values and rents high. Slightly more homes are lived in by their owners than by renters, and many adults have a four-year degree. Winters are cool and wet, summers warm, and snow is rare.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by professional and business services and by restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the largest workplaces in Sebastopol are Sonoma Specialty Hospital, West Sonoma County Union High Schools and Safeway. A fair number of people work from home, and the typical commute is a short one. Job numbers across Sonoma County slipped a little last year, and unemployment there is a touch lower than a year ago.
Things to do. Ragle Ranch Regional Park is a protected area in or beside town. A short drive away are the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center and the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens, a botanical garden. For a longer drive, Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve is another protected area worth the trip.
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- 3,319households
- 51%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 30%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Sonoma County had 206,393 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 58° and lows near 37°; warmest in August, with highs near 84° and lows near 50°. About 40 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Graton weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sebastopol
- Sonoma Specialty HospitalLong-term care hospital180FTE
- West Sonoma County Union High SchoolsSchool district176FTE
- Red Clover Workers BrigadeGrocery stores124
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores105
- Sebastopol97
- Earthtone ConstructionHousing, single-family, construction general contractors57
- Sebastopol Carrier AnnexMail and parcel delivery46
- Sebastopol Union Elementary SchoolsSchool district46FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 526 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sebastopol’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 Sonoma County and the Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA metro.
Sebastopol home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sebastopol$1,089,598
- 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 5 Sebastopol listings, and the typical home goes pending in 19 days — the market is heating up.
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.
- Sebastopol18.22%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Sebastopol19
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Sebastopol66
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Sebastopol27
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Sebastopol$1,051,575
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Sebastopol address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sebastopol — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.