Santa Cruz Real Estate and The Community of Santa Cruz, CA

The Dawn Thomas Team’s intimate knowledge of the community makes them experts in Santa Cruz Real Estate!

Santa Cruz is a beach town with a classically Northern California bent. Its world-class surf spots and wide beaches are a backdrop to an ensemble of colorful characters, eclectic businesses, local attractions, and one-of-a-kind annual events. Not cast from the glamorous “SoCal” beach town mold, Santa Cruz is instead bursting with life and personality. Those who call “Surf City U.S.A.” home would have it no other way. Locals come in all shapes and sizes but all agree on one thing: Santa Cruz is no “run of the mill” town. That’s what makes Santa Cruz real estate so attractive.

Within the borders of this city of 62,000 residents lay a dizzying variety of neighborhoods, commercial centers, natural wonders, and tourist attractions. Among these are the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Pleasure Point, and Steamer Lane surf spots, unsurpassed hiking and mountain biking opportunities, and incredible ocean views from Cliff Drive. It also is home to the University of California, Santa Cruz, one of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Public Schools” and “Best Value Schools.”

Life in Santa Cruz blurs the line between indoors and out. The town’s emphasis on casual living is built around an appreciation of nature and a free-thinking populace whose point of reference remains the progressive 1960s. Today’s downtown may teem with cutting-edge restaurants, but many specialize in organic, “farm-to-table” menus. Boutiques tend toward natural fibers while street performers and local artists are still an important part of the local scene.

Santa Cruz is comprised of tightly knit, proud neighborhoods ranging from working-class to ultra-high-end (with a few remaining beach shacks mixed in), from urban to rural, and beachfront to the mountaintop. This city thrives on diversity of all kinds, offering no end to the options residents and would-be residents have when choosing what kind of life they’d like to live in Northern California’s most famous and colorful beach city.