Pasatiempo

Pasatiempo sits on the hills above Highway 17 between Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, and it is one of the more unusual residential communities in California. Before anything else, know that it is unincorporated Santa Cruz County rather than part of the City of Santa Cruz, which affects services, taxes and school assignment. It is its own census designated place with 1,093 residents in the 2020 census, so the name is a real place on the map and not a marketing label.

Pasatiempo History: Marion Hollins and Alister MacKenzie

The community was the vision of Marion Hollins, who won the 1921 Women’s U.S. Amateur and announced her sports and real estate development, Pasatiempo Estates, in January 1928. She hired Alister MacKenzie, the architect who would go on to design Augusta National, to lay out the golf course, and it opened in September 1929 with Bobby Jones playing in the opening foursome. The Pasatiempo Golf Club has been ranked among the top courses in the country ever since.

The Depression cut short a lot of what Hollins planned, but the bones survived. Her own home on Hollins Drive was designed by William Wurster, the original clubhouse still stands as the Hollins House, and MacKenzie liked the place enough to build his American home along the sixth fairway on Pasatiempo Drive. Very few communities anywhere in the country were built around a nationally significant golf course, and fewer still were developed by a woman in the 1920s.

Pasatiempo Homes and Housing

The houses reflect that origin, with custom homes on winding lanes among oaks and open fairway views, and the whole place feels designed rather than subdivided. You will find early Wurster era houses, postwar custom homes and substantial newer builds, often on lots that are larger and more private than anything in town. The housing is almost entirely detached single family, terrain rolls, driveways can be long, and there are no sidewalks or flat walking loops.

What Pasatiempo offers in exchange is privacy, mature landscape and the golf course itself, which for a certain kind of retirement is the entire point. The course is semi-private and sets aside tee times for public play, so the club is a neighbor rather than a gate. I have had clients who organized their whole week around a tee time here and would not have moved for anything.

Schools, Services and Healthcare Near Pasatiempo

Pasatiempo falls within Scotts Valley Unified School District rather than Santa Cruz City Schools, which surprises buyers who see a Santa Cruz mailing address and the 95060 ZIP. Assignment can still vary by parcel, so I verify it on every listing rather than assume. Cabrillo College in Aptos serves the wider county with community education classes that plenty of retirees use.

For healthcare, Dominican Hospital on Soquel Drive is roughly ten to fifteen minutes away. The Downtown Senior Center at the London Nelson Community Center is a short drive into town, the Scotts Valley Senior Center is a similar distance north, and the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County runs falls prevention and senior home repair programs for people aging in place.

Getting Around From Pasatiempo

Highway 17 is right at the bottom of the hill, which is the community’s great practical advantage. Downtown Santa Cruz is about five minutes away, and Los Gatos and San Jose are roughly twenty five to thirty five minutes off peak. It is also a demanding road in rain and fog and it closes for accidents, so plan accordingly. Santa Cruz METRO runs the Highway 17 Express commuter bus over the hill from the downtown transit center, and the shops and restaurants of Downtown Santa Cruz are the nearest real errands run.

Is Pasatiempo a Good Fit for Downsizers?

For most downsizers, Pasatiempo is a place you move from rather than to. There is essentially no condo or townhome stock inside the community, the homes are large and individual, and the hills and long driveways mean errands happen by car. If you want to stay close by on easier ground, the flatter streets of nearby Midtown or the newer condos downtown keep you within a few minutes of the same doctors and friends.

For a buyer 55 or older coming from the valley, it can work as a last big house if the golf and privacy are the point and you go in with a plan for the next chapter. Either way, Proposition 19 lets homeowners 55 and over carry their property tax basis to a replacement home anywhere in California, which matters a great deal at Pasatiempo price points.

The Pasatiempo Housing Market

Redfin’s market data puts the Pasatiempo median sale price at about $2.8 million for the three months ending September 2026, up about 3 percent from a year earlier, with only three sales in September. That is roughly double the citywide Santa Cruz median of about $1.35 million. With so few sales and houses this individual, a median tells you very little, and pricing a home here takes careful comparable analysis. My guide to the best luxury neighborhoods in Santa Cruz puts Pasatiempo in context, and my full guide to living in Santa Cruz covers the rest of the city.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pasatiempo

Selling a distinctive property to a small, well advised buyer pool is a different exercise from selling a tract home, and it carries the larger tax consequences that come with long ownership and big appreciation. Between capital gains and what Proposition 19 now means for passing property to children, there is real planning to do, and that is the work I handle for older adults and their families. Book a call with me for a candid conversation, or reach me at 408-413-3087.