Sarah Wagner - Selling Santa Cruz

Sarah Wagner - Selling Santa Cruz 🏠 Selling homes in Santa Cruz + beyond! Rep’ing buyers + sellers with 🤍 eXp Realty 02192423

A stranger on Reddit calling a neighborhood "sketchy" isn't research. It's a secondhand impression, dated by the time yo...
09/04/2026

A stranger on Reddit calling a neighborhood "sketchy" isn't research. It's a secondhand impression, dated by the time you read it.

Here's how I'd actually evaluate a town in the Santa Cruz Mountains: drive it at different times of day, time your real commute (not the map app's estimate), pull crime stats straight from the source, and check the county's fire hazard zone tool for the actual address. Skip the guesswork.

Full walkthrough here: https://www.sjwrealestate.com/blog/how-to-evaluate-a-neighborhood-in-the-santa-cruz-mountains-not-just-what-you-read-about-it

Most people don't read their homeowners insurance policy until something happens. By then it's too late to fix a gap, es...
09/03/2026

Most people don't read their homeowners insurance policy until something happens. By then it's too late to fix a gap, especially up here where fire risk is real and flood, earthquake, and landslide coverage usually aren't included in a standard policy at all.

With fire season winding down and storm season starting up, I put together what to actually check on your policy right now, including a wildfire hardening discount worth up to 16.4% that a lot of homeowners don't know they qualify for.

Read the full guide: https://www.sjwrealestate.com/blog/homeowners-insurance-101-what-to-check-before-fire-season-turns-into-storm-season

Quick but important one for anyone house hunting with kids: the school shown on a listing site isn't always the school y...
09/03/2026

Quick but important one for anyone house hunting with kids: the school shown on a listing site isn't always the school your kids will actually attend.

GreatSchools has said flat out that it can't correct the boundary data Zillow displays. So before you fall for a house, here's exactly how to verify which school it's really zoned to in San Lorenzo Valley Unified or Scotts Valley Unified, including the phone number to call.

Read the full guide here: https://www.sjwrealestate.com/blog/back-to-school-buying-what-to-know-about-school-boundaries-before-you-fall-in-love-with-a-house

Notice showings getting quieter the last few weeks? That's not the market falling apart. It's the same thing that happen...
09/02/2026

Notice showings getting quieter the last few weeks? That's not the market falling apart. It's the same thing that happens every year once the school buses start running.

Families racing to close before the first bell are done for the season, and that shifts things for everyone else, in a good way if you don't have kids in school. I broke down what this seasonal shift actually means for buyers and sellers in Felton, Ben Lomond, Boulder Creek, Scotts Valley, and Lompico right now.

Read the full post here: https://www.sjwrealestate.com/blog/the-back-to-school-market-shift-what-buyers-and-sellers-should-expect-in-the-santa-cruz-mountains

Halfway through 2026 felt like two different markets. Some stretches nothing moved. Then spring hit and it seemed like e...
09/02/2026

Halfway through 2026 felt like two different markets. Some stretches nothing moved. Then spring hit and it seemed like every buyer who'd been sitting on the fence showed up at once.

I pulled the real numbers instead of relying on my gut: inventory up 62% since January, median price up about 14% (though that number means something different depending on the town), and homes going under contract in 46 days instead of 89.

If you're wondering whether now or spring makes more sense for you, this one's worth a read. Click through for the full county-by-county breakdown: https://www.sjwrealestate.com/blog/mid-year-market-check-in-how-2026-is-actually-shaping-up

We bought our second home at a 7% rate.And honestly, that sentence would have made my 2021 self cringe. We locked in at ...
09/01/2026

We bought our second home at a 7% rate.

And honestly, that sentence would have made my 2021 self cringe. We locked in at 3% on our first home and felt like we'd won something. For a while, we had.

But somewhere along the way, the home that made perfect sense for us stopped making sense. Not because anything was wrong with it. It was the right home for that season. We bought our daughters home there. We figured out what kind of homeowners we even were there.

The problem was the next season was knocking and that house wasn't built for it.

So we did what we always do with big decisions: we slowed down and ran the numbers. Not once. For almost four years, we kept a running tab on what a move would cost, what it would take, what we'd need to save. No pressure. No timeline. Just a plan we kept adjusting until it was one we could live with.

When we finally said yes to 7%, it was because we understood exactly what we were saying yes to. A bigger payment. A bigger backyard. A home that had room for the life we were actually building.

I share this because I talk to a lot of people sitting on low rates who feel stuck. Not unhappy, just… frozen. And I get it. That rate feels like something you'd be foolish to give up.

But your rate is not your home. Your life is your home.

If you're wondering whether a move-up makes sense for you, the answer probably isn't yes or no right now. It's: let's run the numbers.

Comment "MOVE UP" for my free move-up buyer guide.

Summer up here always slips by faster than it should. One minute it's Memorial Day, the next you're back-to-school shopp...
09/01/2026

Summer up here always slips by faster than it should. One minute it's Memorial Day, the next you're back-to-school shopping and wondering where June went.

Before the fog moves in for good, I put together 6 end-of-summer spots worth hitting across Felton, Ben Lomond, Boulder Creek, and Scotts Valley: a swimming hole on the San Lorenzo River, a sunset trail that actually earns its name, a bakery that just doubled its space, and the last few weeks of the Scotts Valley Farmers Market.

Click the link to see the full list (with parking tips and honest notes on each spot): https://www.sjwrealestate.com/blog/end-of-summer-bucket-list-santa-cruz-mountains-spots-to-hit-before-fall-takes-over

Every family that considers Boulder Creek asks some version of the same question: what's the commute actually like? The ...
08/27/2026

Every family that considers Boulder Creek asks some version of the same question: what's the commute actually like? The honest answer is that it depends entirely on how often you're doing it, and 2026 has made that answer more forgiving than it used to be.

I wrote about what Highway 9 and Highway 17 actually look like this year, the Highway 17 Express bus option most people don't know about, and how hybrid work has changed the math for families weighing a move to Boulder Creek.

Full breakdown waiting here: https://www.sjwrealestate.com/blog/boulder-creek-ca-commute-hybrid-work-living

Most people picture sun-baked hills when they think of California wine country. Ben Lomond quietly breaks that image — i...
08/26/2026

Most people picture sun-baked hills when they think of California wine country. Ben Lomond quietly breaks that image — its wine region grows in the fog and shade of the redwoods, and the wine tastes different because of it.

I wrote about what makes the Ben Lomond Mountain AVA distinct, where to actually go tasting (Beauregard Vineyards has been farming this land since 1949), and why a twenty-minute drive to a redwood grove with a glass of estate Pinot is a real part of what weekend life looks like up here.

It's all here: https://www.sjwrealestate.com/blog/wine-country-in-the-redwoods-the-ben-lomond-mountain-ava

Ten signs you don't actually live in the Santa Cruz Mountains.If you've ever wondered what actually separates a longtime...
08/25/2026

Ten signs you don't actually live in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

If you've ever wondered what actually separates a longtime local from someone just passing through Felton, Boulder Creek, Ben Lomond, or Scotts Valley, it's rarely the big stuff.

It's knowing that the fog on your side of the hill has nothing to do with the sun ten minutes away.

It's using the turnout on Highway 9 without being asked twice.

It's having a genuine opinion about your well water pressure, and knowing without checking which Tuesday belongs to the Felton Farmers Market.

None of this shows up in a moving guide. It's the small, unspoken stuff that only clicks once you've actually lived here long enough to stop noticing it's unusual.

If you're new to the mountains, consider this your cheat sheet. If you've been here a while, you probably just nodded at half of these.

Locals, what did we miss? Drop your number one tell in the comments, and tag the friend who'd get all 10 right without even trying.

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1360 41st Avenue
Capitola, CA
95010

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