For the second year in a row, Santa Cruz has been named the most expensive metropolitan county in the nation for renters. The findings came from the annual National Low Income Housing Coalition’s “Out of Reach” report. For the second year in a row, a housing report has ranked Santa Cruz as the most expensive metropolitan county in the nation for renters., released Thursday, a worker living in the Santa Cruz-Watsonville metropolitan district would need to earn an hourly wage of $77.
The troubling figure was arrived at through what the coalition calls the “housing wage” — an estimation of the hourly wage full-time workers must earn to afford a rental home at fair market value without spending more than 30% of their income. Spending no more than 30% of gross income for a rental meets the definition of “affordable,” according to
“Santa Cruz County lives at the top of many lists – natural beauty, outdoor recreation, farm country, rich cultural history and diversity, and many other aspects we are delighted to honor,” continued Johnson. “Housing unaffordability shouldn’t be a list we’re comfortable sitting at the top of. We can change this, and we must, to make sure our county’s working families, low-income seniors, our neighbors and our loved ones get to remain housed here.
The housing report also comes days after the county released a report of its own that is adjacent to the coalition’s. The county’shelped contextualize the potential impacts of soaring local prices. The county’s Workforce Development Board found that from 2022-2023 the local population declined by 2,300 which, according to the Housing Santa Cruz County, suggests local workers, families and seniors on fixed incomes can no longer afford to live here.