Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara County publishes every parcel's assessed value, use and last transfer date free, and lists recent sale prices derived from transfer tax, but no owner names; the City's own map layer names the 320 parcels it owns.
10 buildings · 8 with an owner established · 23 sources · 6 tier A · 4 tier B · prepared 2026-11-01
Can you find out who owns it?
California has no public title register: ownership is proved by deeds recorded with the County Recorder, and the County Assessor keeps the roll. Santa Barbara County's free parcel lookup and its public GIS parcel layer give each parcel's value, use, acreage and last transfer date, but no owner name. The Assessor's free Recent Sales search lists sale prices, which it says are 'derived from transfer tax', with addresses. Owner names come from recorded deeds through the Clerk-Recorder, whose online system is for subscription users or per-request orders. Under Proposition 13 a sale resets a parcel's value to its price.
Is ownership public?Public, but one paid search at a time
Cost of one title searchNot available at any price
Bulk ownership dataNo open owner file. County 'Assessor Parcels Public' layer (133,602 parcels, values, use, deed number and date, no names) is free; public entities only: the City of Santa Barbara's 'City Owned Parcels' layer (320 parcels) names City-owned land
Sale pricesEvery sale, with its address
Sites that forbid taking their data
- noozhawk.com — “You may, however, electronically store a reasonable portion of Noozhawk content for your personal, noncommercial use ... You agree, however, that you will not store or archive a significant portion of the content or create a database using the content.”
- independent.com — “Reproduction of material from any Independent.com pages without written permission is strictly prohibited.”
1
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Barbara County Courthouse 1100 Anacapa St |
Civic | County of Santa Barbara Wikipedia: 'The County in 1855 purchased the original Courthouse site', and the 1872 and the present 1929 Spanish Colonial Revival courthouses were built on the same block. The County's free parcel lookup did not return this address (no owner names are shown there in any case), so the parcel number and roll entry were not read. |
Government | —A |
| Santa Barbara City Hall and De La Guerra Plaza 735 Anacapa St (parcel situs 20 E De La Guerra St) |
Civic | City of Santa Barbara The City's own layer of City-owned parcels lists APN 037-092-037, situs 20 E De La Guerra St, category 'I - Public Administration', named 'City Hall and De La Guerra Plaza' (layer data May 2024). The same layer lists the Police Station (215 E Figueroa St), Fire Station 1 (925 Chapala St) and the Public Works and Community Development Building (630 Garden St). |
Government | —A |
| Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA) 500 James Fowler Rd 948 acres |
Civic | City of Santa Barbara Wikipedia: 'owned and operated by the city of Santa Barbara'; 948-acre airfield with three runways, beside UC Santa Barbara and Goleta. The City-owned parcels layer lists APN 073-450-003 ('SB ARPT/100 ADAMS'). On the County's 2026 parcel layer that parcel is 826.24 acres, tax rate area 002018 (City of Santa Barbara), net assessed value $0, plus City-owned airport-area parcels along Hollister Ave and David Love Pl. Second source: City layer (s6) and County layer (s4). |
Government | —B |
| Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital 400 W Pueblo St |
Institutional | Not established a paid title search would answer it Not established. The State's licensed-facility file (data date 16 Oct 2026) lists the 461-bed general acute care hospital, a Level I trauma centre, licensed since 1946 to an entity of type 'NONPROFIT CORP', without naming it in the fields read. Wikipedia gives 519 beds and places it in the Cottage Health system. A licence names the operator, not the holder of title, and the County shows no owner names online. |
Not established | —A |
| Paseo Nuevo 651 Paseo Nuevo (State St at Canon Perdido St) |
Retail | City of Santa Barbara (land); Paseo Propco, LLC (buildings), being acquired by Yardi Systems The City said on 28 May 2026 that under the draft deal 'Yardi Systems would acquire all of Paseo Propco, LLC's, interests at Paseo Nuevo, including the former Macy's building, the inline shopping center, and the mall's parking lot (Lot 1). The City would also transfer ownership of the land under the inline mall and the former Macy's building to Yardi Systems', and land under the Nordstrom building to DSP (Dune, Shopoff Realty Investments and Praelium). The Independent reported on 30 Jun 2026 that Council 'officially authorized' the deal and called AllianceBernstein the 'previous majority owner'. No closing or price was found. |
Government | —B |
| La Cumbre Plaza 121 S Hope Ave 325,000 sq ft GLA (Macerich); 31-acre site |
Retail | Riviera Dairy (part of the land); Macerich leasehold Noozhawk (2 Jan 2023): half the 31-acre site is 'owned by Riviera Dairy, a family-owned company', which 'owns the former Sears Building'; a family owns the Macy's building and about 15 acres; 'Macerich Company holds a long-term lease on the mall, which goes through 2077.' Macerich's 2025 10-K lists it at 100%, notes ground leases, and says it is 'under contract to sell La Cumbre Plaza ... for $11.0 million', expected to close in Q2 2026. The buyer was not found. |
Family / private | $11.0M (contract, Macerich's interest) 2026-02 Contract price stated in Macerich's 10-K filed 20 Feb 2026; closing not confirmed B |
| Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort 633 E Cabrillo Blvd 360 rooms; 21.85-acre parcel |
Hotel | Park Hotels & Resorts 50% (fee simple, consolidated) Park Hotels & Resorts' 2025 10-K lists 'Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort FS 50% 360' among consolidated core hotels, 'FS' meaning fee simple, with a $153 million encumbrance in Schedule III. The joint-venture partner is not named there. On the County's 2026 roll, APN 017-680-013 at this address (hotel, 21.85 acres) carries the highest net assessed value in the city, $122,468,282. |
REIT | —A |
| Hotel Californian 36 State St 121 rooms; 21,000+ sq ft retail and restaurant |
Hotel | Foley Entertainment Group The Independent (17 Sep 2021): the 121-room hotel 'Sold for Undisclosed Amount September 1' to Foley Entertainment Group; the site was bought in 2011 as 'La Entrada' by 35 State Street Hotel Partners. The County's 2026 parcel layer shows parcels at 35, 36 and 120 State St all transferred by document 2021063007 dated 2 Sep 2021, with a combined net assessed value of about $155.4 million. |
Private company | —A Santa Barbara Independent |
| El Encanto 800 Alvarado Pl 7.06-acre parcel |
Hotel | Not established a paid title search would answer it Wikipedia: in 2025 'Belmond sells the hotel' to a private buyer group 'for $82.2 million', with $40 million more planned for renovations. No buying entity is named, so the owner is left blank. The County's 2026 roll shows APN 019-170-022 (hotel, 7.06 acres) transferred on 8 Jul 2025, net assessed value $83,000,000, consistent with a Proposition 13 reset to the sale price. |
Not established | $82.2M 2025-07 Price from Wikipedia; transfer date 8 Jul 2025 from the County parcel layer B |
| Old Mission Santa Barbara 2201 Laguna St 14.3 acres (two parcels) |
Institutional | Franciscan Province of Santa Barbara Wikipedia: 'The Mission is owned by the Franciscan Province of Santa Barbara and the parish church rents the church from the Franciscans'; the bishop gave the deed to the Franciscans in 1925 (the article's infobox still names the Archdiocese of Los Angeles). The County's 2026 layer shows two parcels at 2201 Laguna St, 13.2 and 1.11 acres, fully exempt. |
Institution | —A |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
The County's 2026 parcel layer gives values but no owners. Tax rate areas 002xxx are the City of Santa Barbara (the Assessor's sales search labels prefix 02 'City of Santa Barbara'). The most valuable ground is the waterfront hotel strip along Cabrillo Blvd, the Funk Zone end of State Street, and upper State Street's shopping centres.
City tax rate areas, 2026 roll25,276 parcels; $30.73B net assessed
Sum over County 'Assessor Parcels Public' layer for TRA 002xxx (land $16.07B; 10,922 acres); roll year 2026, layer data edited Aug 2026 (s4). Under Proposition 13 these are mostly purchase-price bases, not market values
Highest assessed parcel$122,468,282
APN 017-680-013, 633 E Cabrillo Blvd (Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort), 21.85 acres, 2026 roll (s4)
Second highest$95,890,485
APN 039-321-001, 27 W Carrillo St, hotel, 0.39 acres, transferred Jul 2015, 2026 roll (s4); owner not established
Hotels as a class95 parcels; $1.15B
Roll land-use class 'Hotels' in City tax rate areas, 82.2 acres, 2026 roll (s4)
3
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
No owner names are published for private parcels, so only public and institutional holders can be counted. The City of Santa Barbara is by far the largest identifiable landowner: its own layer lists 320 parcels, 312 of which match the County's 2026 parcel layer for 2,024 acres, including the 826-acre airport parcel. That is about a sixth of the land in the City's tax rate areas (10,922 acres).
| Name | Type | Holdings |
|---|---|---|
| City of Santa Barbara City layer of City-owned parcels (May 2024): 129 parks and open space, 33 parking lots, 5 parking structures, 21 utilities (incl. El Estero wastewater plant and the Charles E. Meyer desalination plant), 19 transportation (incl. the train station at 224 Chapala St and the airport), harbour facilities, Stearns Wharf, City Hall, and the Paseo Nuevo walkways. Acreage from the County's 2026 parcel layer. |
Government | 320 parcels; 2,024 acres (312 matched)B |
| Santa Barbara Community College District Wikipedia: SBCC's parent institution is the Santa Barbara Community College District, 74-acre campus. The County's 2026 layer shows the 721 Cliff Dr parcel (use 'Colleges', 42.25 acres, net assessed value $0); the roll's 'Colleges' class covers 3 parcels and 43.75 acres in the City's tax rate areas. The roll gives no owner name. |
Government | 74-acre campus (Wikipedia); 42.25-acre main parcelB |
| Franciscan Province of Santa Barbara Owner of Mission Santa Barbara according to Wikipedia; two exempt parcels on the County layer. |
Institution | 14.3 acres at the MissionA |
| Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara Created by City Council after voters approved Proposition C in November 1968; it 'provides housing that we have developed and own and/or manage'. A unit or parcel count was not found on the pages read. The City-owned layer also lists one 'Housing Authority Property' at 817 Olive St. |
Government | —A |
| Park Hotels & Resorts Fee simple 50% interest in the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort; the city's highest-assessed parcel. |
REIT | 50% of a 21.85-acre beachfront hotel parcelA |
5
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Santa Barbara builds very little and almost none of it is tract housing. The State's permit file shows 661 units permitted in the City in 2023–2025 (202, 204, 255 a year): 356 accessory dwelling units, 269 in buildings of five or more units, 19 in 2–4-unit buildings and just 17 single-family homes. ADUs are built by individual homeowners and are not counted by builder. The largest permitted projects are mostly the Housing Authority's and its affiliates'; private market-rate developers' names are not in the State file.
| Name | Type | Units permitted 2018–2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara State Table A2: 400 W Carrillo St, 63 renter units, permit 25 Sep 2025; 3055 De La Vina St, 33 very-low-income units, permit 18 Aug 2025. HACSB's own pages say it is developing 400 W Carrillo for 'missing middle' workforce households and bought the 3055 De La Vina motel in March 2024 to convert to studios. |
Government | 96 units in 2025 (400 W Carrillo 63; 3055 De La Vina 33)B |
| Santa Barbara Affordable Housing Group Named by HACSB as developer of The Gardens on Hope, 251 S Hope Ave (via Santa Barbara Affordable Housing Group Limited Partnership / 251 South Hope Associates, LP; 90 units, permit 14 Sep 2018, LIHTC) and of 116 E Cota St (29 supportive units, permit 2 Dec 2021). Unit counts and dates from State Table A2. |
Institution | 119 units (Gardens on Hope 90, 2018; 116 E Cota 29, 2021)B |
| 2nd Story Associates HACSB lists '2nd Story Associates' as owner and HACSB as developer of the 14-studio workforce conversion at 821 State St; State Table A2 shows the permit on 2 Nov 2022. 2nd Story Associates also appears in HACSB's own menu as an affiliate. |
Institution | 14 units (821 State St, 2022)B |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
No REIT or pension fund dominates. Downtown State Street's largest landlord is a local company; the waterfront hotels and the two malls carry the institutional names, and both malls changed hands or went under contract in 2026.
| Name | Type | Holdings |
|---|---|---|
| SIMA Corporation The Independent (4 Mar 2020), headlined 'State Street's Biggest Landlord': the company's head said it 'controls 500,000 square feet of retail and office space downtown from which no fewer than 300 merchants and business professionals rent'. A self-reported figure; 'controls' may include managed space. |
Private company | 500,000 sq ft downtown (2020)A |
| Macerich 100% interest, partly on ground leases, under contract to sell for $11.0 million (10-K filed 20 Feb 2026). |
REIT | 325,000 sq ft (La Cumbre Plaza)A |
| Park Hotels & Resorts Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort, fee simple, 50%. |
REIT | 360 rooms (50%)A |
| Foley Entertainment Group Hotel Californian, bought 1 Sep 2021 for an undisclosed amount. |
Private company | 121 rooms + 21,000 sq ft retail/restaurantA Santa Barbara Independent |
| Yardi Systems Council authorised in June 2026 the transfer of the City's land and Paseo Propco, LLC's interests to Yardi, which is to become majority owner and move about 600 employees into the former Macy's. Closing not confirmed. |
Private company | Paseo Nuevo inline mall, former Macy's building, Lot 1 (pending)A |
?
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- The entity that bought El Encanto from Belmond in 2025 for $82.2 million: Wikipedia names only private individuals and a family
- Who owns Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital's land (the State licence names only an entity type, 'NONPROFIT CORP'; Cottage Health is the system per Wikipedia)
- The buyer of Macerich's La Cumbre Plaza interest ($11.0M contract, expected Q2 2026) and whether it closed
- Whether the Yardi Systems acquisition of Paseo Nuevo has closed, and at what price
- Owner of 27 W Carrillo St (hotel, second-highest assessed parcel at $95.9M)
- Clerk-Recorder copy fees ($10 per document, $2 certification, per a search summary) and Assessor data-sale fees: the County's fee pages render only by script and were not read
- Housing Authority's total owned units: 75 property pages are listed, but no total was stated on the pages read
- A County of Santa Barbara owned-parcel count: no County-owned parcel layer was found
§
Sources
- Parcel Details & Value Notice Lookup (search by parcel number or address; detail pages give situs, transfer date, use, acreage, 2026 assessed land/improvement/net values; no owner name field) — Santa Barbara County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor · openA
- Recent Home Sales Search: 'Estimated Sale Price is derived from transfer tax'; APN, sale date, address, est. sale price, use, doc type, TRA prefix, percent reappraisable; 'Search is limited to 6-month periods' — Santa Barbara County Assessor · openA
- Assessor site Disclaimer: 'This service has been provided to allow access of County Assessor's public information ... Do not make any business decisions based on this data before validating your decision with the appropriate County office.' No reuse prohibition stated — Santa Barbara County Assessor · openA
- Assessor Parcels Public FeatureServer layer 0 (133,602 county parcels; fields APN, TRA, DocNum, DocDate, Acreage, LandUse, LandValue, Net_AV, RollYear 2026; no owner field); data last edited Aug 2026; read 1 Nov 2026 — County of Santa Barbara (ArcGIS Online organisation, Clerk-Recorder-Assessor) · openA
- Clerk-Recorder Self-Service (Tyler): 'SUBSCRIPTION USERS must click on Log In to begin their search process. All others, please select one of the options to start your request.' Landing page only read; no disclaimer accepted — Santa Barbara County Clerk-Recorder · registrationA
- City Owned Web map_WFL1, layer 2 'City Owned Parcels - Land Use Categories' (320 parcels: APN, situs, land-use category, name); 'polygon features representing city-owned parcels'; credits 'The County of Santa Barbara Clerk-Recorder-Assessor's Mapping Division, and the Community Development Department, City of Santa Barbara'; data last edited May 2024 — City of Santa Barbara (ArcGIS Online) · openA
- Santa Barbara County Courthouse: 'The County in 1855 purchased the original Courthouse site'; the 1929 courthouse occupies the same block — Wikipedia · openA
- Santa Barbara Municipal Airport: 'owned and operated by the city of Santa Barbara'; 'The airfield covers 948 acres (384 ha) of land and has three runways' — Wikipedia · openA
- City of Santa Barbara to Publicly Discuss Draft of Paseo Nuevo Revitalization/Adaptive Reuse Proposal (press release, 28 May 2026) — City of Santa Barbara · openA
- City of Santa Barbara Officially Passes Paseo Nuevo Development Agreement (30 Jun 2026) — Santa Barbara Independent · openA
- Macy's Will Be Out of La Cumbre Plaza by 2028 as Housing Plans Roil Santa Barbara (2 Jan 2023) — Noozhawk · openA
- The Macerich Company, Form 10-K for 2025: La Cumbre Plaza, Santa Barbara, 100%, acquired 2004, 325,000 sq ft total GLA, Macy's anchor, footnote (5) 'Portions of the land on which the Center is situated are subject to one or more long-term ground leases'; 'The Company is under contract to sell La Cumbre Plaza ... for $11.0 million, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026' — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · openA
- Park Hotels & Resorts Inc., Form 10-K for 2025: Item 2 portfolio as of 20 Feb 2026 — 'Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort FS 50% 360' (consolidated core hotels; 'FS' refers to fee simple ownership interest); Schedule III encumbrance $153 million — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · openA
- Hotel Californian sale report (17 Sep 2021): '121-Room State Street Hotel Sold for Undisclosed Amount September 1'; buyer Foley Entertainment Group; property bought in 2011 as 'La Entrada' by 35 State Street Hotel Partners — Santa Barbara Independent · openA
- El Encanto Hotel: '2025: Belmond sells the hotel to [a buyer group] for $82.2 million, with the new owners planning to invest an additional $40 million in renovations' — Wikipedia · openA
- Mission Santa Barbara: 'The Mission is owned by the Franciscan Province of Santa Barbara and the parish church rents the church from the Franciscans'; deed awarded to the Franciscans in 1925; Mission Historical Park 'sold to the City in 1928' — Wikipedia · openA
- Healthcare Facility Locations (health_facility_locations.csv, data date 16 Oct 2026): Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, 400 West Pueblo Street, general acute care, 461 licensed beds, Level I trauma, entity type 'NONPROFIT CORP', licence 050000140, initial licence 1 Jan 1946 — California Department of Public Health via CHHS Open Data · openA
- Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital: 519 beds (infobox), founded 8 Dec 1891; one of four hospitals in the Cottage Health system — Wikipedia · openA
- Santa Barbara City College: public community college, parent institution Santa Barbara Community College District, 74-acre campus, opened 1909 — Wikipedia · openA
- Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara, About Us: created by City Council after voters approved Proposition C in November 1968; 'provides housing that we have developed and own and/or manage' — Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara · openA
- State Street's Biggest Landlord Comes Up Short (4 Mar 2020): the head 'of Sima Corporation said he controls 500,000 square feet of retail and office space downtown from which no fewer than 300 merchants and business professionals rent' — Santa Barbara Independent · openA
- Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR) Data by Jurisdiction and Year, Table A2 (tablea2.csv; building permits by project, APN and address, 2018–2025), filtered to the City of Santa Barbara (1,757 rows) — California Department of Housing and Community Development via data.ca.gov · openA
- HACSB property pages: 821 State Street ('Owner 2nd Story Associates Developer HACSB', 14 studio units); 400 W Carrillo St ('The Housing Authority is in the process of developing a new affordable housing project'); 3055 De La Vina St ('The Housing Authority purchased 3055 De La Vina ... in March of 2024', 34-room motel converted to 32 studios plus a manager's unit); The Gardens on Hope (developer Santa Barbara Affordable Housing Group Limited Partnership / 251 South Hope Associates, LP); 116 E Cota St (developer Santa Barbara Affordable Housing Group); 75 property pages in the site's sitemap — Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara · openA