Santa Maria Eviction Risk: High

Housing insecurity runs 37.3% against 14.2% nationally. 94% of occupied units are rented, so comparables are plentiful and vacancy risk is low, but a mispriced renewal loses the tenant to a building nearby.

The dominant input is tenant-organizing strength at 9/10. Well under the midpoint, supply constraint reads 1/10.

Against the Santa Barbara County average of 7.0, this tract reads riskier for landlords by 1.9 points. 21% are severely burdened past the 50% mark. That cohort absorbs no shock: one repair bill or one cut shift converts straight into arrears.

On the softer side, court filing pressure reads 1.8/10. The poverty rate is 21%. Judgments in high-poverty tracts are collectible far less often than filing counts suggest.

At $1,609 a month, rents run 16% under what the rest of Santa Maria commands. That is riskier than roughly 95% of the 84,120 US census tracts in this model. Social vulnerability reads 9/10 on the CDC index, a measure of exposure to housing and economic shocks.

Statewide the CA average is 7.5, so this tract runs 1.4 points hotter. Of its three components the socioeconomic standing measure is the most pressured.

Rent takes 30% or more of income for 53% of renters.

Tract-level figures come from the ACS 5-year release and are rebuilt whenever that, the court-record feed, or the statutory ledger behind the score changes.