Santa Maria vs Santa Rosa
Metro-area medians — Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA Metro Area vs Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Santa Rosa comes out ahead, winning 7 of the 9 clearly-decided measures.
Santa Maria and Santa Rosa cost about the same to live in, but Santa Rosa households earn about 12% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Santa Rosa.
Their widest everyday difference: Santa Rosa has cleaner air on a typical day — a median AQI of 19 versus 49.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, Santa Rosa leaves you about $504/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Santa Rosa for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
More comparisons
Metros closest to Santa Maria and Santa Rosa on cost, income, size, and education.
Santa Maria vs Santa Rosa — frequently asked
- Is Santa Maria cheaper than Santa Rosa?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Santa Maria and Santa Rosa metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Santa Maria or Santa Rosa?
- Santa Rosa has the higher median household income — $107,274 versus $95,637 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 12% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Santa Maria or Santa Rosa?
- A paycheck stretches further in Santa Rosa. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $99,527 there versus $87,903 in Santa Maria.
- Which has cheaper rent, Santa Maria or Santa Rosa?
- Santa Maria has cheaper rent — a median of $2,108/mo versus $2,229/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).