08/26/2026
That $10,000 you spent in Santa Cruz in 1992 🏡 is now worth $1.3-$1.5
I was running comps for a client this week and came across a pretty incredible example of what long-term homeownership can look like in Santa Cruz County.
A home purchased for $10,000 in 1992 is worth approximately $1.3 million today.
For this particular home, that works out to an average compounded appreciation of about 15.4% per year. That’s a 130× increase in value over 34 years. 🤯
Historically, Santa Cruz County real estate has appreciated around 4% annually over the long term. We can’t predict the future, but we can learn a lot from the past.
And this is one of the reasons I find real estate so fascinating. A home can start as simply a place to live, and over decades, become equity, financial security and legacy wealth.
There are plenty of factors that go into that story, location, improvements, timing, interest rates and the market itself, but there’s also something pretty simple at play:
They aren’t making any more land.
Especially here in Santa Cruz County, where geography limits how much we can build, owning a piece of this place over the long term can be pretty powerful.
Sometimes the home you buy today becomes the asset your family talks about 30 years from now.
Just something I was thinking about while running comps. ❤️
Jesselyn Rego, REALTOR®
Keller Williams Thrive Santa Cruz
DRE 02226037
