by Mary Pope-Handy, Clair Handy | Aug 1, 2025 | Market reports, Market trends & statistics, Real Estate, San Mateo County (The Peninsula), Santa Clara County (The South Bay), Santa Cruz
Today we’ll share the market reports for three Silicon Valley Counties. These are from July 2025.
Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, and Santa Cruz County are the areas covered below. Generally, “Silicon Valley” is 95% within Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, plus a little of Santa Cruz County and a small part of Alameda County. Alameda County uses a different MLS system, and we don’t usually sell there, so we are not covering it in this post.
Each section below includes first the data for single family homes and then condos and townhomes for each region.
If you’re ready to dive a little deeper, we also provide regular monthly market updates on some of the popular communities within Santa Clara County over at my Valley of Heart’s Delight blog. Scroll the most recent ones here.
July 2025: Three Silicon Valley Counties
Santa Clara County Real Estate Market Report for July 2025
The first of the three Silicon Valley counties is Santa Clara County – home to San Jose, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Santa Clara, Campbell, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, and a number of other cities and towns. This county is the heart of Silicon Valley.
If you’re having trouble reading any of the charts on this page, click to open the full size image.
The market is clearly cooling with longer days on market, fewer sales, and a falling sales price.
The condominium and townhouse report for Santa Clara County
While it had fewer than half the sales of the single family home market, the condo and townhouse market is experiencing similar trends, though prices are on the rise again after an earlier summer low.
Keep reading for updates on the San Mateo and Santa Cruz county markets.
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by Mary Pope-Handy | Apr 17, 2025 | FAQs, Lifestyle, Recreation, Santa Cruz
Planning a beach day? Watch out for beach traffic!
One of the many lures to the San Jose area and Santa Clara County (SCC) generally is the fairly close proximity of the beach at Santa Cruz, Capitola, Rio del Mar, and other scenic places that line the Monterey Bay. From most of SCC, it’s under a one hour drive. If you live in Los Gatos, it could be just half of that. That said, not all trips over the hill are created equal when it comes to beach traffic. Go on a regular weekday in summer and it’s pretty much a piece of cake. Go on a summer weekend or holiday and it’s a whole other matter!
Capitola Beach as seen from the Pier – photo by Mary Pope-Handy
If you live in Silicon Valley, a trip to the beach usually means a drive “over the hill” via highway 17’s pass through the Santa Cruz Mountains to the sandy beaches of the Monterey Bay. It’s a beautiful drive through lush redwood forests with occasional views of Monterey Bay and wild mountain valleys. Since this is the main route between Santa Cruz and the Santa Clara Valley, and a winding mountain pass, it doesn’t take much to create a traffic jam that can stretch for miles.
Weekdays, rush hour, and traffic jams
Commuter traffic mostly flows north into the San Francisco Bay Area in the morning, returning south into Santa Cruz County at the end of the work day. Rush hour can double or triple the time it takes to get where you’re headed. Stalled cars or collisions can take longer to clear and cause even longer jams since much of the pass has no emergency shoulders and some stretches can be quite remote.
But you aren’t a commuter – you want to visit the beach and enjoy your day off! Most of the locals know this about holidays or weekends and the shore: go early or don’t go. Especially when the weather is hot!
How early is early enough?
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by Mary Pope-Handy, Clair Handy | Nov 6, 2022 | Almaden Valley, Alviso, Cambrian, Campbell, Environmental Hazards, Foster City, Los Gatos, Los Gatos Mountains, Morgan Hill, Natural hazards, Recreation, Redwood Shores, San Jose, Santa Clara County (The South Bay), Santa Cruz
Sometimes people relocating to Silicon Valley tell me that they’d like to move to a waterfront home, something with a view of the Pacific Ocean or the San Francisco Bay. Most of Silicon Valley is inland, though, separated from the ocean by the coastal mountains.
Ocean View Homes
For those truly set on having a view of the Pacific, home can be found in the Santa Cruz area with lovely ocean and Monterey Bay views. The compromise will likely be a long, winding commute over Highway 17’s mountain pass.
Similarly, ocean lovers may settle close to Half Moon Bay or Pescadero, but will have to slog over the coastal hills on Hwy 35 each day to get to the Peninsula. (Some lucky souls may find employment in Scotts Valley or along the coast, but most of the jobs are not in these places.) If faraway ocean view will work, a home in the Santa Cruz Mountains may be the ideal fit.
Silicon Valley Waterfront Homes
If you want to live along the waterfront within Silicon Valley and not these neighoring communities, there really are not a lot of neighborhoods from which to choose. Most water-view homes involve the San Francisco Bay. There are a few rivers, creeks, ponds (mostly man-made or percolation), lakes, and reservoirs to be found as well, but enjoying lovely water views up close is not the easiest criteria to fill and each come with their own concerns. Waterfront bay views often come down to Foster City and Redwood Shores, which we’ll discuss next. (more…)
