Summerland, California.
Typical home $3,095,826 (+8.1% in a year). Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$10,058 (+162%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $232,375 +8%
- $2,863,451$3,095,826 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $761,709 +33%
- $2,334,117$3,095,826 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.
- Summerland$16,249
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Summerland, CA rose 8.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Summerland, Santa Barbara County, California
Summerland, in Santa Barbara County, had 1,222 people in the 2020 census. 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 people in Santa Barbara County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Summerland is a small coastal community in Santa Barbara County, home to a small population and a long-standing place on the coast just along from Santa Barbara. Homes here are valued far above what is typical across the country, and household incomes in the county sit comfortably above many parts of California. Winters are mild, with a December that is cool rather than cold, summers that stay pleasantly warm, and little or no snow. Rain falls mostly as a modest yearly total, so the climate is gentle year-round.
Work. Residents of Summerland work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in shops. Across Santa Barbara County, some of the largest workplaces are the University of California-Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Unemployment across the county has eased slightly compared with a year earlier, though the county has seen slightly fewer jobs than the year before.
Things to do. A short drive away, Lotusland is a botanical garden, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art offers a museum visit close to home. For time outdoors, Leadbetter Beach is a short drive away, while Los Padres National Forest is a longer drive away for those wanting a day in protected backcountry.
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What people in Santa Barbara County 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 66° and lows near 46°; warmest in August, with highs near 78° and lows near 60°. About 19 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Santa Barbara weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Santa Barbara County
- University of California-Santa BarbaraUniversity or college5,215
- Freshway FarmsAgriculture production2,673
- Santa Barbara Cottage HospitalGeneral hospital2,666FTE
- Marian Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,857FTE
- Santa Maria-Bonita SchoolsSchool district1,727FTE
- Eat Sweet FarmsBerries, fresh, merchant wholesalers1,716
- Santa Barbara UnifiedSchool district1,386FTE
- Berry Valley FarmsStrawberry farming1,323
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 390 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 67,254 people in all across the county; Summerland has none of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals 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
- LandslidesVery high
- WildfireVery high
- EarthquakesVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Summerland’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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.
Summerland home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Summerland$3,095,826
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Summerland7
Zip codes with a Summerland address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Summerland — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.