It can be challenging for people moving to Silicon Valley to get a sense of pricing for home buying. So to compare “apples to apples,” let’s take a hypothetical case of a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home of approximately 2,000 SF house (appx 185 square meters) and see how the cost looks in one area versus another.
Today I compared several cities and areas using the formula: single family homes of 1,800 – 2,200 SF, 3-5 bedrooms, 2-3 bathrooms, on lot sizes of 5,000 SF – 10,000 SF that have sold within the last 60 days. The prices listed are the average from sales in this criteria, so areas with a higher volume of sales will have more stable averages than those with less sales to analyze. DOM means “Days on Market”, the number of days a home was listed as available before pending.
Please note that this is a rough sketch of home prices based on averages taken across large, diverse residential communities. There are many factors that will affect market value beyond these boundaries.
Now, on to the chart.
The Cost To Buy A 4 Bedroom 2 Bath Home In…
I have arranged this chart in descending order by Sales Price. This is usually how I organize the data, and you can see certain markets shifting position, moving up or down the order depending on what’s hot. Since Los Altos had no sales in the last 60 days, I have left it where it was in the last chart but cannot offer any numbers. Scroll down farther to compare this chart against past years.
Before we get into analysis, here’s a chart from October of 2019 for comparison. Back in 2019 I switched to analyzing the market using a 30 day window instead of the 60 days seen above. This short window of time was due to significant price changes over the course of the year – first dropping in the 2nd half of 2018, and climbing again in the latter half of 2019. You can see a chart from early 2019 down below.
In the past, I’ve done similar studies, but using a larger window of time to even out any aberrations.
In most cases, the most expensive and desirable places have either the best schools or shortest commute location or both. Had I ranked these for school scores, you’d find that Cambrian is fairly high up and a good “bang for the buck” location – though not a super short commute for folks who work in Mountain View (though not so bad for people working in Cupertino). None of these is especially close to North San Jose (Cisco).
Palo Alto is a gorgeous, exciting area with all kinds of wonderful features – beautiful neighborhoods, lower crime, great schools, short commute. It is usually the most expensive area on this list. But unless you found a successful startup company or inherit a couple of million bucks, it can be hard to buy a single family home there. Many people would like to live in the shadow of Stanford University, but the budget just won’t allow it. What, then?
Please use the list above as a way to get your bearings on nearby areas in the South Bay (southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area). This is not an exhaustive list – it’s just most of the areas closest to Highway 85 or the West Valley Freeway. You can study various cities, downs, and districts within the region at my stats site, popehandy.rereport.com. (Free and you do not have to register unless you want email updates.)
Finally, it should be noted that one of the main drivers of home values is school districts. In the San Jose / Silicon Valley area, the school district boundaries do NOT follow the city or town boundaries. Los Gatos, for example, has 3 different elementary school districts, with varying scores which impact home values. So too with Saratoga and many other areas, San Jose especially! All this to say that the figures above are only ROUGH GUIDES. When you break it down to micro-markets, the picture changes more. But as a starter guide, I think you’ll find the above info helpful to give you a general idea of how far your money can go in home buying for areas in Santa Clara County from Palo Alto to Blossom Valley.
Edit: I originally wrote this post on August 12, 2013, but it is still accurate today, January 25, 2018, and probably will be for years to come.
This morning I received an email from folks wanting to find a good area in which to move where they’ll have good schools but not pay the kind of prices they see in Palo Alto. Below is my response to them. I focus on Santa Clara County, and in particular the west valley areas from Los Altos to Almaden Valley or Blossom Valley areas of Willow Glen to Downtown San Jose, Santa Clara, Campbell, and back toward Los Gatos and its nearest parts. Below is my response – hope it is helpful to many of my readers! (The list is not exhaustive.)
The easiest way to check school scores is to use the site www.SchoolAndHousing.com. It’s good for showing what house has which schools. The home search feature is not very good, though, so don’t use that. Best for home searching is www.MLSListings.com, as it is the public branch of our agent MLS and it is updated continuously. Something to consider, though, is that the school scores do not tell the entire story. There are many factors to include in your evaluation of a school, such as the variety of coursework offered (some schools may not have art or music, for instance), the availability of sports (for a balanced upbringing) and the overall feeling of a school (are the kids happy or are they overly pressured into excellence at a very young age?). For many of these things, the best approach is to visit the schools personally and request a tour. See if you can chat with the parents who are waiting to pick their kids up after school to hear about their experiences. And of course read reviews online.
In terms of general areas to consider for schools near Mountain View, Palo Alto or Sunnyvale, in general, the better the schools, the more expensive the housing (whether to buy or to rent). Hence Palo Alto is extremely pricey because the schools are absolutely top. Here are some communities that have great schools or good to very good schools:
Palo Alto (very costly)
Cupertino (less expensive for the school scores compared to other areas up to #5 on this list)
Saratoga (very expensive)
Los Altos & Los Altos Hills
Los Gatos & Monte Sereno (95030 & 95032)
Parts of San Jose in Cambrian 95124 and Almaden 95120 (very good value)
The Los Gatos Mountains (zip code 95033)
Parts of Fremont (Mission San Jose area)
Also it should be noted that in many cases, it makes more economic sense to utilize private schools and to live in an area which is a little less costly, such as Santa Clara (part of SC has Cupertino schools, so that will be expensive) or parts of San Jose (part of west San Jose 95129 has Cupertino schools, and part does not). Many of my global clients initially do not see private schools as an option, for fear that all the kids in them will be from wealthy families and spoiled. But often that is not the case at all – the kids are from families who like the curriculum, the teachers, the overall approach of the school and literally make sacrifices to send their kids there. So I would advise that you at least have a look at that option since homes in the areas with the very best schools can be extremely costly.
If you’re moving to pricey Silicon Valley, your goal may not be to find the very most expensive places to live. However, if you are coming here and looking for great schools, it’s very likely that the list of places with fantastic public schools will overlap considerably with that of expensive real estate.
A couple of weeks ago, the Business Insider compiled a list of the 20 most expensive zip codes in the area, and also compared the median sale price in 2014 with that of the same zips in 2013 so you can see how much prices are rising. These are the median sale price and does not reflect cost per square foot. If you want a 2,000 SF house, you may not easily find it in the toniest areas!
Their 2014 Silicon Valley areas include zip codes within Atherton (94027 median sale price $3.9 million in 2014) , Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, Hillsborough, Saratoga, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Redwood City, Belmont, San Carlos, and the Almaden Valley area of San Jose (95120, median sale price $1.177 mil in 2014). Since it’s by zip code, some towns or cities show up twice, for more and less costly parts of that community.
Surprising omissions are Woodside and Los Altos.
Not sure how Almaden could be more costly than those two areas, but this is the list they compiled. Read the whole article with the specifics here:
• 1,044 sq. ft., 1 bath, 3 bdrm single story “Eichler Home!”
– MLS®
#745730
SALE PENDING
$649,950
Sunnyvale Manor, Sunnyvale
–
Open This Saturday & Sunday, Aug 25 – 26, 1:30 – 3:30pm
Please Stop By!
New listing in Sunnyvale Manor, one of three pockets of highly desired Eichler homes in the heart of Sunnyvale! This home has been wonderfully maintained, updated and remodeled. Gorgeous tilework accents both the kitchen and bath. Hardwood floors throughout, exept the bath, which is tile. Beamed ceilings, loads of windows and an open floorplan create a sense of space and a connection to the outdoors. Aggressively priced, this home will not last – so hurry out and take a look!
Darling Eichler built home featuring open floorplan, loads of natural light, and great use of the outdoors as living space!
A gate at the sidewalk welcomes you to a very lush front yard and large deck, both of which create a “B & B” feel.
The updated kitchen features a large gas range, stainless steel fridge, colorful tiled counter and a breakfast bar.
The dining area is open to the living room and kitchen and offers access to the stunning rear yard.
Hardwood floors grace the living areas, hallway and bedrooms of this home.
The bath is very tastefully remodeled with loads of tile and conveniently placed in the home. It features a shower over the tub and a pedestal sink.
An attached two car garage and a privacy fence in front enable extra space for storage and hobbies.
In back, a lovely, tiled patio creates another wonderful living space outdoors. A lawn area and carefully planted areas invite exploration and enjoyment.
Also noteworthy:
Brand new hot water heater
Fridge, oven/stove and gas dryer all remain, plus an extra fridge in the garage if buyer desires it
Radiant heating (great for people with allergies/asthma)
Property information no longer available
Mary Pope-Handy
Realtor, Sereno
CIPS, CRS, ABR, SRES
214 Los Gatos-Saratoga Rd.
Los Gatos CA 95030
Silicon Valley, California, USA
1-408-204-7673
mary@popehandy.com
CA DRE # 01153805
CIPS – Certified International Property Specialist
CRS – Certified Residential Specialist
ABR – Accredited Buyer Representative
SRES – Seniors Real Estate Specialist
Helping nice folks to buy and sell homes in Silicon Valley since 1993
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• 1,044 sq. ft., 1 bath, 3 bdrm single story “Eichler Home!”
