Windsor, CA Real Estate & Homes for Sale
By Matthew Martinez, Founder, CEO & Managing Broker, Diamond Real Estate Group. California DRE #01869679.
Windsor is an incorporated town of 25,864 people (Census Bureau, July 2025 estimate) on Highway 101 in northern Sonoma County, just north of Santa Rosa. Three in four of its homes are owner-occupied, and Redfin put the ZIP 95492 median sale price at $814,761 for the three months ending September 2026. Incorporated on July 1, 1992, the town sets its own rules on permits, short-term rentals and growth.
- County
- Sonoma County
- Government
- Incorporated town (since July 1, 1992)
- Population
- 25,864 (July 2025 estimate, U.S. Census Bureau)
- ZIP code
- 95492
- Median sale price
- $814,761 (3 months to Sept 2026, Redfin)
- Transfer tax
- County only: $1.10 per $1,000
Windsor homes for sale
Current MLS listings in Windsor appear below, including new-construction homes when builders list them on the MLS. Use our property search to filter by price, lot size or year built, or to add Healdsburg and north Santa Rosa to the search.
What do homes in Windsor sell for?
$814,761
3 months to Sept 2026, Redfin (ZIP 95492)
50
September 2026, Redfin (45 a year earlier)
99.8%
September 2026, Redfin
Windsor prices held steady over the past year while the pace slowed. Redfin’s three-month median for ZIP 95492 was $814,761 through September 2026, up 0.6%, but homes took a median of 50 days to go under contract, five more than a year earlier, and 58 sold in September against 72 in September 2025. Price per square foot fell 10.7% to $422 while the median barely moved, which points to a change in the mix of homes that sold rather than a 10% drop in values (Redfin).
| Measure | Figure | Period and source |
|---|---|---|
| Median sale price, ZIP 95492 | $814,761 (up 0.6% year over year) | Redfin, three months to September 2026 |
| Homes sold | 58 (72 a year earlier) | September 2026, Redfin |
| Median days on market | 50 (45 a year earlier) | September 2026, Redfin |
| Sale-to-list ratio | 99.8% | September 2026, Redfin |
| Sold above list / had a price cut | 38.6% / 24.9% | September 2026, Redfin |
| Median price per square foot | $422 (down 10.7%) | September 2026, Redfin |
| Owner-reported home value (median), Windsor | $801,100 | 2020–2024, Census American Community Survey |
| Santa Rosa median, for comparison | $716,000 | Three months to August 2026, Redfin |
| Sonoma County median | $875,000 | September 2026, C.A.R. |
The ZIP code and the town aren’t identical. ZIP 95492 is Windsor’s, but some Windsor-area homes carry Santa Rosa 95403 addresses, a ZIP that also covers parts of Santa Rosa, Fulton and Larkfield-Wikiup (Statistical Atlas). Check the parcel’s jurisdiction, not just the address. For the county by town, see our Sonoma County market report.
How Windsor grew into a town
Windsor was named early in 1855 by Hiram Lewis, a pony express rider, and got a post office that August. The railroad arrived in 1872 and pulled the town west toward the tracks, and for most of the 1900s it was farm country: wine grapes, hops and prunes. A World War II Army air base built here became today’s Sonoma County Airport. Housing development took off in the early 1980s, and the town incorporated on July 1, 1992 (Town of Windsor).
The result is a town of owner-occupied homes: 75.6% of occupied units are lived in by their owners, against 62.6% countywide and 56.7% in Santa Rosa, and the 2020–2024 median household income was $133,979 (Census QuickFacts). The same survey put the median gross rent at $2,433 a month and residents’ average commute at 22.7 minutes.
The Town Green and what’s being built in Windsor
The Windsor Town Green, at 701 McClelland Drive, is where the town gathers. Each summer it hosts Summer Nights on the Green, presented by the Town and the Windsor Farmers Market: the 2026 season, the 24th, ran on Thursday evenings from June 4 to August 27, with the farmers market open from 5 to 8 p.m. on concert nights. Concert parking is at Windsor High School, Windsor Middle School and the SMART lot on Windsor Road, with shuttles running from 4:30 p.m. (Town of Windsor). If you’re looking at a home near the Green, visit on a summer Thursday evening to see the crowds and the parking for yourself.
Searches for new homes in Windsor are common, and the town publishes the answer: a Major Development and Construction Project list, updated quarterly (the latest PDF is dated October 2025), of projects in review, approved or under construction. It names, among others, Village on the Town Green, Estates at Ross Ranch, Mill Creek Development, Shiloh Crossing, the Shiloh Mixed Use Project, the Windsor Creek Multi-Family Project, Heritage Park, Hembree Lane Oaks, Clearwater at Windsor and Quail Acres (Town of Windsor). The list doesn’t say which projects will sell homes or when, so check a project’s type and status with its assigned planner before you plan a purchase around it. The town is also updating its Station Area Plan around the SMART station.
What Windsor’s town rules mean for a purchase
Inside town limits, the Town of Windsor’s council and staff set the local rules, not Permit Sonoma. Four of them matter most to buyers.
No town transfer tax
Windsor charges no transfer tax of its own, so only the county’s $1.10 per $1,000 applies (Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder). On the $814,761 median, that’s about $896. The same price in Santa Rosa would carry about $1,630 more in city tax.
Short-term rentals and the 12% TOT
Windsor licenses short-term rentals under Ordinance 2023-379, adopted June 21, 2023, and amended on October 15, 2025, by Ordinance 2025-400, which changed the definitions and the renewal schedule (Town of Windsor).
- Residential districts: hosted rentals are allowed with a town license; non-hosted rentals aren’t eligible for a license at all.
- Commercial districts: certain ones allow both hosted and non-hosted rentals with a license.
- Ownership: the owner must be a natural person, no one may own more than three, and the license is non-transferable and doesn’t run with the land, so a buyer can’t take over a seller’s license.
- Neighbors and standards: residents within 300 feet are notified of each license, and operating standards cover noise, occupancy, parking and a ban on events.
Every stay of 30 days or less also owes the town’s 12% transient occupancy tax (TOT), charged on cleaning and other mandatory fees too and on bookings made through Airbnb or Vrbo. Operators report monthly, and late payments draw a 10% charge (Town of Windsor).
Water, sewer and power
Town water comes from five large wells beside the Russian River, one off-river well and a direct connection to the Sonoma County Water Agency aqueduct; the system also has two emergency wells and 16 reservoirs (Town of Windsor). The town also runs its own wastewater treatment plant and sends about 750,000 gallons of recycled water a day to the Geysers geothermal field; a floating solar array went in at the plant in 2021 (Town of Windsor). Electricity comes from PG&E’s lines, with Sonoma Clean Power as the default generation provider, and the town warns that PG&E may shut off power to parts of Windsor for several days during high wildfire risk (Town of Windsor).
County tenant rules don’t apply here
Sonoma County’s 2024 tenant ordinance, which gives just-cause protection from the first day of a tenancy, covers only the unincorporated county (County of Sonoma). The town’s housing page lists no local rent-stabilization or just-cause ordinance and points tenants to Legal Aid of Sonoma County and state agencies (Town of Windsor), so state law is the starting point for a home you’d buy with a tenant in place.
The 2019 Kincade Fire and wildfire planning in Windsor
The Kincade Fire started on the night of October 23, 2019, at John Kincade Road and Burned Mountain Road, northeast of Geyserville. It burned 77,758 acres, destroyed 374 structures and damaged 60 before it was contained on November 6 (CAL FIRE). At its height, evacuations covered nearly 190,000 people, the largest in the county’s history, and the threat that “menaced the edges of Healdsburg, Windsor and north Santa Rosa” was turned back (The Press Democrat, October 2019).
Two years earlier, the 2017 Tubbs Fire burned much of Shiloh Ranch Regional Park on Windsor’s southeast edge (Sonoma County Regional Parks). Homes near the park’s wildland edge deserve the closest fire-zone check.
Before you commit to a Windsor home, look up its evacuation zone and its Fire Hazard Severity Zone under CAL FIRE’s 2025 maps, and get an insurance quote while you’re still in your inspection period.
- Evacuation zone: Windsor is divided into zones WI-A01 through WI-D11, which you can look up by address through the county’s emergency site (Town of Windsor).
- Fire zone and AB 38: CAL FIRE updated the hazard maps for cities and towns in 2025. If the home is in a High or Very High zone, the seller provides a recent defensible-space inspection report, or you agree in writing to bring the property into compliance within a year of closing.
- Power shutoffs: ask whether the home has a generator transfer switch or battery backup if a multi-day shutoff would be a problem for you.
Getting around from Windsor
Windsor is the northern end of the SMART train for now. The Windsor station is at 464 Emily Rose Circle, with free day parking from 4 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. and $5 overnight parking through ParkMobile; SMART expects to extend the line to Healdsburg in late 2028 (SMART). The next stops south are the Sonoma County Airport station and Santa Rosa North, and the line runs on to Larkspur.
- Highway 101 runs through town toward Santa Rosa to the south and Healdsburg to the north.
- Air: Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport grew out of the World War II air base, and the airport SMART station is one stop south.
- Training: Santa Rosa Junior College’s Public Safety Training Center is at 5743 Skylane Boulevard in Windsor (SRJC).
Parks, schools and daily life in Windsor
- Shiloh Ranch Regional Park: 850 acres with nearly 8 miles of trails, at 5750 Faught Road in southeast Windsor.
- Foothill Regional Park: 211 acres at 1351 Arata Lane, with nearly 7 miles of hiking, biking and horse trails and three ponds for bass and bluegill fishing; parking is $8. The county notes that because of Kincade Fire impacts, the park may close in high winds or storms (Sonoma County Regional Parks).
- Windsor Town Green: the town’s gathering place at 701 McClelland Drive, home to the summer concert series and the Windsor Farmers Market (see above).
- Schools: the town’s district is the Windsor Unified School District, one of the unified districts on the Census Bureau’s 2020 school district map for Sonoma County (U.S. Census Bureau); Windsor High School and Windsor Middle School double as parking for the summer concerts. District lines don’t always follow town limits, so check the district for a specific address.
Windsor compared with nearby areas
| Area | Government | One verified difference |
|---|---|---|
| Windsor | Incorporated town (1992) | 25,864 residents; 75.6% owner-occupied; 12% TOT; ZIP 95492 median $814,761 (three months to Sept 2026) |
| Santa Rosa | Incorporated city, county seat | Adds a $2.00 per $1,000 city transfer tax; median $716,000 (3 months to Aug 2026, Redfin); 11% TOT plus a 3% tourism assessment |
| Healdsburg | Incorporated city | 11,172 residents; the city runs its own electric, water and sewer utility; median $1,049,500 (three months to Sept 2026, Redfin) |
| Fulton | Unincorporated, Sonoma County | County permits, county vacation-rental rules and the county’s 2024 tenant ordinance apply |
| Geyserville | Unincorporated, Sonoma County | Where the 2019 Kincade Fire started, northeast of town |
How Diamond Real Estate Group helps Windsor buyers
Windsor deals turn on details that are easy to miss in a newer subdivision: the HOA’s rules and reserves, the fire zone under the 2025 maps, whether the home sits in town limits or just outside them, and how the price per square foot compares with the last few sales on the same street. We pull those before you’re committed, and on a planned rental we check the town’s short-term rental ordinance and TOT before the numbers go into your offer.
- Our Windsor agents guide lists licensed agents serving the town, each with a linked DRE license record.
- How a purchase works here, from pre-approval to keys: our Sonoma County home-buying guide.
- Thinking about a rental? See our investor services and the county’s vacation rental rules for comparison.
Comparing Windsor with the rest of the county? Start with our Sonoma County real estate guide.
Selling a home in Windsor
Windsor is an incorporated town, so the Town of Windsor’s planning and building staff, not Permit Sonoma, hold the permit records for homes inside town limits. Some homes with Windsor or Santa Rosa addresses sit just outside the town boundary, and for those the county is the records office.
Transfer tax
The county recorder lists the Town of Windsor under the county rate with no town tax, so a sale pays $1.10 per $1,000 of value, about $896 on an $815,000 home. The seller customarily pays in Diamond’s North Bay markets, but it is negotiable. Our transfer tax guide compares Windsor with Santa Rosa, which adds a city tax.
Subdivision homes: HOA and special-tax paperwork
If the home is in a planned subdivision, order the association’s resale packet as soon as you list, because buyers review the rules, budget and reserves before they remove contingencies. If the tax bill shows a Mello-Roos special tax or a 1915 Act assessment, Civil Code 1102.6b requires the seller to make a good-faith effort to get the agency’s notice and give it to the buyer; a current tax bill can stand in.
Fire zone and the rest of the file
Check the parcel against the current state fire hazard map before you list, not the map in an older disclosure. In a High or Very High zone, the seller provides defensible-space documentation under Civil Code 1102.19, or the two sides sign an agreement that the buyer will get it; our AB 38 guide covers the process.
- Written statement that the home has an operable smoke alarm.
- Written certification that the water heater is braced.
- Civil Code 1101.4 disclosure on noncompliant plumbing fixtures.
- Permits and finals for solar, additions and any second unit.
- Any town short-term rental permit and tax filings, if the home has hosted guests.
For timing, disclosures and costs across the county, see our Sonoma County seller guide. When you’re ready to set a price, talk with Diamond about selling your Windsor home.
Sources for this section: County of Sonoma Clerk-Recorder: Documentary transfer tax; California Civil Code section 1102.6b (California Public Law); Justia: California Civil Code section 1102.19; California Health and Safety Code section 13113.8 (California Public Law); California Health and Safety Code section 19211 (California Public Law); California Civil Code section 1101.4 (California Public Law).
Windsor real estate FAQs
What’s the median home price in Windsor?
Redfin’s three-month median for ZIP 95492 was $814,761 through September 2026, up 0.6% from a year earlier. Homes took a median of 50 days to sell and closed at about 99.8% of list price.
Is Windsor its own city?
Yes. Windsor incorporated as a town on July 1, 1992, so the Town of Windsor, not Sonoma County, handles its planning, permits and short-term rental rules.
Does Windsor have a transfer tax?
Only the county’s: $1.10 per $1,000 of value, or about $896 on an $814,761 sale. Windsor doesn’t add a town tax the way Santa Rosa and Petaluma do.
Can I rent my Windsor home short term?
Only as a hosted rental if the home is in a residential district: the town doesn’t license non-hosted short-term rentals there. Licenses aren’t transferable, one person can hold no more than three, and every stay of 30 days or less owes the 12% TOT.
How close did the Kincade Fire come to Windsor?
Close. The Press Democrat reported that the fire “menaced the edges of Healdsburg, Windsor and north Santa Rosa” before the threat was blunted, after evacuations covering nearly 190,000 people, the largest in county history. CAL FIRE counts 374 structures destroyed in the fire.
How do I find my Windsor evacuation zone?
Windsor’s zones run from WI-A01 to WI-D11, and the town’s evacuation page links to an address lookup on the county emergency site. Sign up for SoCoAlert to get county emergency notices.
Is there a SMART station in Windsor?
Yes, at 464 Emily Rose Circle, with free day parking. Windsor stays the end of the line until the Healdsburg station opens, which SMART expects in late 2028.
Where can I find new homes in Windsor, CA?
New construction shows up in the MLS listings above when builders list it. For what’s coming, the town’s quarterly Major Development and Construction Project list names the projects in review, approved or under construction, such as Village on the Town Green and Estates at Ross Ranch; confirm each project’s status with the town’s planners.
Which school district serves Windsor?
The Windsor Unified School District, as shown on the Census Bureau’s 2020 school district map. District boundaries don’t always match town limits, so confirm the district and assigned schools for the exact address.
Does Windsor have its own sewer?
Yes. The town operates its own wastewater treatment plant and sends about 750,000 gallons of recycled water a day to the Geysers geothermal field.
How does Windsor compare with Santa Rosa?
Windsor’s ZIP median ($814,761) ran above Santa Rosa’s citywide median ($716,000) in late summer 2026, and three in four Windsor homes are owner-occupied against about 57% in Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa also adds a $2.00 per $1,000 city transfer tax that Windsor doesn’t.
Sources & notes
- Redfin: ZIP 95492 housing market (September 2026); C.A.R.: September 2026 home sales and price report
- U.S. Census Bureau: QuickFacts, Windsor town (2020 Census; July 2025 estimate; ACS 2020–2024); Statistical Atlas: ZIP 95403
- Town of Windsor: history, transient occupancy tax, short-term rentals, water, wastewater, wildfire readiness and evacuation map
- Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder: documentary transfer tax; County of Sonoma: tenant protections
- CAL FIRE: Kincade Fire; Office of the State Fire Marshal: AB 38 guidance
- SMART: stations; Santa Rosa Junior College; Shiloh Ranch Regional Park
Figures carry their dates where they appear, and we refresh market numbers every quarter. This is general information, not legal, tax or insurance advice; confirm the rules for a specific property with the agency named. Last reviewed October 2026 by Matthew Martinez.
Plan your next move
Share your preferred location, budget, property requirements and timing. We can help organize a focused search, arrange showings or discuss preparing a property for sale.
Local resource: Sonoma County community directory. Check official information for the address you are considering; area descriptions do not establish a property’s permitted uses.
