Map: See How Santa Cruz Home Ownership Rates Compare to Nearby Cities

Click on the cities for home ownership details. Red cities have the lowest rates of home ownership. Greener cities have the highest. Yellow & orange fall between. 

Proponents of home ownership argue that it ties people more closely to a community and makes people more invested in taking care of a neighborhood.  

There are many factors that determine how much of a community is made up of homeowners vs. renters - age of the community, income, whether a town is mostly single-family housing or multi-family housing. 

The Patch map above shows the percentage of the town's population that owns a home, based on figures from the 2010 census.  A full window view of the Bay Area map is available here. Click each city for details. 

In Santa Cruz, with its population of students and transients, only 44.3 percent of the residents own their homes. Watsonville is lower at 42.2 percent, while in Aptos it jumps to 76.2 percent. In Soquel more than 69 percent own their homes, but Capitola and Seacliff drop to 45 and 49 percent.

Bonnie Doon and Felton are back over 70 percent. 

Over the hill, Los Gatos has a homeownership rate of 68.5 percent, higher than neighboring Campbell (53.6 percent) and Cupertino (62.9 percent), but far lower than Monte Sereno (90.7 percent) and Saratoga (88.1 percent). Los Altos Hills tops Silicon Valley with a 91 percent home ownership, where the occupants of the dwelling are the owners.

Mountain View at 43.4 percent.  San Francisco checks in at 42 percent.

Do you think a high level of home ownership is important in a community?  Share your views with us in the comments section.