We work with lots of clients who live in the Bay Area and beyond who are looking to buy a second home in Sonoma County. While they often have an idea of where they want one, it is either not possible to buy what they want for the money or they hadn't realized they can experience the same lifestyle somewhere else. So where is the best place for a second home in Sonoma County? In this blog post, I will cover off how to go about choosing the location of your second home and talk through some of the pros and cons of different areas that are among the most popular destinations. You might be surprised about some of the areas I mentioned.
If you live in the Bay Area and are looking for a second home, you may well know exactly where you want to be. If you are anything like me when I was looking to purchase a second home before I lived here, I knew I liked Healdsburg but I was open to different areas, I just didn’t know where to start. I spent the best part of six months looking at homes everywhere from Bennett Valley to the outskirts of Sonoma and then ended up buying in rural Healdsburg. In hindsight, if my realtor had asked me what was important to me, I could have narrowed my options down a lot more quickly.
Are you looking for a home that is the total opposite of urban living so you like the idea of being on a bit of land with a view, or do you still want to be able to walk to a restaurant in the evening?
Alternatively, you might be looking to get access to amenities such as a golf club or hiking trails. If that is the case you might be interested in looking at some of the golf communities in Sonoma County.
For people who live in the south bay in San Jose, it is a two hour drive to get to somewhere like Healdsburg whereas if you live in Mill Valley it is just an hour away.
You also need to remember that as soon as you leave the main arterial roads to get to a more rural property it can easily add an extra 10 or 15 mins to your journey which all starts to add up depending on how far you have had to travel.
If you come from San Francisco you might be looking for somewhere you can rely on sunshine whereas if you come from the East Bay you might be looking for a cooler climate.
Coastal areas like Bodega Bay tend to be cooler and foggier, with average highs in the 60s year-round, thanks to the influence of offshore breezes and storms.
Inland towns get significantly warmer summers, with Santa Rosa, Sonoma and Healdsburg all seeing average highs in the 80s from June to September.
You also have to be careful about some of the hyper local microclimates in places like Sebastopol where you can have two homes with a Sebastopol zip code but vary considerably in temperature based on whether or not it is in the Banana belt.
It might not seem to be the most exciting thing to talk about but it is important to cover off. If we look at the main fire events since 2017, they are mostly on the east side of the 101 with the cooler, more westerly areas such as Sebastopol, the Russian River and the coast hardly affected.
Equally, if you buy a rural property with elevation it will always be more susceptible to fire compared to a home within the city limits of somewhere like Sonoma or Healdsburg just because of the resources available to protect a relatively small area.
For some people, the very idea of renting out their second home has no appeal but there are definitely a lot of people who want to have the flexibility to vacation rent the property so they can help offset some of the annual costs of owning a second home.
If this is the case, your geographic options will be very much reduced. If you are interested in the best locations to buy a vacation rental in Sonoma County, I have a video all about it so I will put a link in the description below. Alternatively, just call me and I can walk you through your options
Of course, everyone wants their asset to be appreciated. If you want to try to maximize your investment you might want to trade some personal preferences for areas that are either popular second home areas or purchase a home in an area that is on the rise even though it might not offer everything you are looking for today.
Depending on your budget and how much house you need, this will either limit your options to some specific areas of the county or mean that you can prioritize your geographic location knowing you can get what you want for the money
For example, in some locations, the median price is $600k whereas in other locations it is nearer $1.5m so that might automatically steer you in direction.
When we look at home purchases across the first part of this year, we can see from tax records that in some areas, over half the homes are purchased as non-primary residences. That doesn’t mean they are all second homes because some could well be pure-play investment properties but it does give a clear indication of the strength of the second home market.
As you can see from the graphic, Guerneville and Forestville in the Russian River are two of the most popular areas with 68% and 54% of homes non-primary, respectively.. Sandwiched in between is Healdsburg at 64%, a number that has been steadily growing from the 37% back in 2019.
Healdsburg has long been the darling of Sonoma County having been voted second best town in America by Smithsonian magazine and more recently the number one foodie city in the US. It is therefore no surprise that it is a popular destination for both people looking to purchase a second home as well as use that as a stepping stone to make Healdsburg their primary home. In the first half of this year, 64% of all homes purchased were purchased as non-primary residences.
The most popular option is for people to want to purchase a place within the downtown area, a 15-minute walk to the Plaza. However, although the city is on just over 4 sq miles, the wider Healdsburg area is 188 sq miles so there are a lot of options for people looking to purchase somewhere that is more rural in Dry Creek Valey or Alexander Valley.
If you are looking for a property that you have the option of vacation renting, that rules out the city and large parts of Healdsburg although there are a few options if you know where to look.
Over recent years, Healdsburg has attracted a lot of luxury real estate investment with new developments such as Mill District, Montage, and the new North Village not to mention a $5m-$15m custom home development. With so much luxury property development happening, combined with a growth management ordinance that limits the number of new homes built every year, in my view. Healdsburg is a pretty safe long-term investment,
Alongside Healdsburg, Sonoma is the other iconic town in Sonoma County which like Healdsburg, has a Plaza as its center. While it is a similar size to Healdsburg with just over 10,000 residents, the city itself is just 2.7 sq miles.
As with Healsburg, a lot of people looking for a walking lifestyle want to live within walking distance to the Plaza, particularly on the Eastside of town where the more expensive homes are. However, if you are looking for something more rural there are some amazing rural properties in the North East just outside the city limits and then on the west side of town, west of Arnold Drive around the Cariger Road area.
Sonoma is a popular place for people looking for higher-end vacation rentals because they do perform well but with the rules being continually tightened they are harder to find than they used to be. We actually have a website where we put all properties for sale across the county that are eligible for a vacation rental permit so give me a call if you want to get access to that site.
I know when I was looking for a second home, Glen Ellen was where I first started looking because it was such an easy drive from Mill Valley. It was definitely appealing to have a place I could go for just one night without it being a big upheaval. I was also a big fan of the Glen Ellen Star restaurant and their bacon and brussel sprouts but that’s another story.
It is a really cute town with some good food and tasting rooms and really easy access to the trails of Jack London State Park which was really appealing. Since then, Glen Ellen and nearby Kenwood were obviously hit pretty hard by the 2017 fires with numerous homes lost, including one I nearly put an offer in on.
As a result, there are a lot of newly built homes around the whole area as well as lots that are ready to be built.
The great thing about places like Glen Ellen and Kenwood is that because they are so small, you can buy a place on an acre and yet be a minute or two away from a restaurant or bar. That being said, the small number of homes combined with the demand means that median prices are in the $1.5m range with a lot of homes well over $2m
Stretching from Healdsburg to Jenner on the Pacific Coast, the Russian River area presents a huge range of options at generally lower costs than other parts of West County. Rustic Guerneville and Monte Rio have always been a hugely popular place for second homes for people escaping to the river from San Francisco. Because of that it also has some of the highest concentrations of vacation rentals in the county. However, it is more affordable for $1m you can buy a place on the river to enjoy lazy sunny afternoons.
There is a large gay community particularly focused in Guerneville with numerous events and festivals making it a truly vibrant community during the summer. The other great thing about this area is that within 20 minutes you can be out at the coast to take advantage of numerous trails and places to eat on the coast.
The coastal area is very large but drawn by wide open beaches and dramatic seascapes, second home buyers will find options ranging from Sea Ranch's architecturally famous vacation retreats to the cliffs and coves of the Sonoma Coast State Park to Bodega Bay's cinematic harborfront.
Home prices here have skyrocketed over recent years driven in part by the ease of being able to get a vacation rental permit but also because after a few years of fires elsewhere in the county, second homeowners saw the coast as a safe place to purchase a home. This has seen home prices surge to the point where it is hard to find anything for less than $1.5m.
The coastal region is in fact it’s own area separate from Sonoma County with slightly different governance which is why as things currently stand, any property is eligible to be operated as a vacation rental with no permit or licence. I am sure next year that will change with the introduction of a license but regardless of that, the coastal area will still be one of the easiest places to get a vacation rental property in the county.
The city of Santa Rosa is not a second home destination, although it is a good investment property destination. However, there are numerous places in the greater Santa Rosa area that attract second homeowners. For example, in the northeast of Santa Rosa is Mark West Springs Road and the area around Riebli Road which has a lot of high-end rural homes, many of which have been rebuilt after the fires of 2017 so there are a lot of new construction options.
If you are looking to buy a second home with access to a golf and a country club then you might consider Fountain Grove. Nestled in northeast Santa Rosa, Fountain Grove is an upscale community offering a scenic countryside setting yet convenient urban access. At its heart lies the private Fountain Grove Club - a 650-acre world-class facility including an 18-hole championship golf course, tennis courts, pools, fitness center, spa, and restaurants. Also in North East Santa Rosa, close to Windsor and Healdsburg is Mayacama Country Club and Shiloh Estates. A gated community of high-end homes with access to the much sought-after Mayacama. I’ll put a link in the description below to a video focussing on this community.
Tucked in the eastern outskirts of Santa Rosa are Bennett Valley and Sonoma Mountain Road which offer stunning vineyard and mountain scenery yet convenient access to urban amenities. For second-home buyers, the natural beauty, wine country lifestyle, and impressive estates are a major draw.
The city of Sebastopol as well as the larger rural area around Sebastopol is becoming a very popular place for second homes for many reasons. The city has seen a huge amount of investment over the past decade with the development of the Barlow Center while the more rural areas, particularly in the west and moving north are stunning. They feel every bit as wine country as the most beautiful parts of the country. In addition to that, this area is one of the easiest areas to find a vacation rental-eligible property and unlike some other areas in the east of the county, it has not been impacted by fires in recent years.
I would say that its affordability compared to places like Healdsburg and Sonoma was a factor but, at just over $1m, median prices are now on a par with those places although you don’t get the super high-end properties that you do in Healdsburg and Sonoma.
If you are looking for a second home, with access to some great food and wine, in a wine-country setting at an affordable price, the Sebastopol area is a great choice.
So if you are looking at buying a second home in Sonoma County and do not know exactly where you would like to purchase one, the first thing I would do is think through what you want to get out of it and what is most important to you. Once you have that, it is relatively easy to shortlist areas that will meet your needs and give you the lifestyle you are looking for. That being said, you won't know until you drive around and take a look at the areas for yourself and take a look at the type of thing that you can get for your money.
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