Blog > Best Time to Sell a House in the Bay Area: 14 Years of Silicon Valley Sales, Month by Month
Best Time to Sell a House in the Bay Area: 14 Years of Silicon Valley Sales, Month by Month
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Thinking about when to sell? We sorted 248,990 Silicon Valley and Peninsula home sales from 2012 through 2025 by the month they closed, and measured how often each month’s sales went over asking, by how much, and at what price per square foot against that year’s typical sale. Here’s the calendar, region by region and city by city.
The short answer
- The strongest closing month is April: on average 70.9% of April closings sold over asking, against 51.6% in January, the weakest.
- Read it a month or more ahead. Closing usually comes about a month after the accepted offer, and the home was on the market before that, so an April closing typically means a listing in late February or March.
- The median April sale closed 5.0% over asking, against 1.1% over in January.
- Price per square foot peaks in May: +3.4% against that year’s median, compared with −10.5% in January.
- Spring is busiest, too: May and June each average 10.1% of the year’s closings, January just 4.8%, so you’d meet the most buyers and the most competing listings.
- City by city, April was the strongest month in 13 of the 23 cities with enough sales to average year by year, and May in 7.
Plan your sale
- The interactive calendar shows every city month by month, with a download of the data.
- The seller net sheet adds up what you’d walk away with.
- Talk to a Property Nerd about a launch date for your home.
Month by month in Silicon Valley
Santa Clara and San Mateo counties together, averaged over 2012–2025.
| Closing month | Sold over asking | Median sale vs. asking | Price per sq ft vs. the year | Share of the year’s sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 51.6% | 1.1% over | −10.5% | 4.8% |
| February | 63.3% | 3.4% over | −5.4% | 5.6% |
| March | 68.8% | 4.6% over | −0.1% | 8.3% |
| April | 70.9% | 5.0% over | +1.6% | 9.4% |
| May | 70.3% | 4.5% over | +3.4% | 10.1% |
| June | 67.8% | 3.5% over | +2.7% | 10.1% |
| July | 63.8% | 2.5% over | +0.7% | 9.5% |
| August | 61.1% | 2.1% over | −0.1% | 9.2% |
| September | 60.3% | 1.8% over | −0.4% | 8.6% |
| October | 60.2% | 1.9% over | +1.0% | 9.1% |
| November | 57.1% | 1.5% over | +0.6% | 8.0% |
| December | 53.2% | 1.2% over | −1.5% | 7.2% |
Santa Clara County vs. San Mateo County
- Santa Clara County peaks in April (71.5% over asking) and bottoms out in January (52.1%).
- San Mateo County peaks in May (70.2%) and bottoms out in January (50.3%).
- A fall second wind on the Peninsula: San Mateo County’s October closings went over asking 62.8% of the time, at +1.3% per square foot against the year.
City by city: the strongest closing month
Each city’s month with the highest average share over asking; the city links to its own month-by-month post where we have one. Small towns marked “pooled” have too few sales to average year by year, so all 2012–2025 sales in each month are combined.
| City | Strongest month | Sold over asking | Sales, 2012–2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atherton (pooled) | May | 38.7% | 1,095 |
| Belmont | April | 80.3% | 3,000 |
| Burlingame | April | 68.9% | 3,224 |
| Campbell | April | 74.2% | 5,571 |
| Cupertino | March | 81.3% | 4,872 |
| Daly City | May | 82.7% | 4,703 |
| East Palo Alto (pooled) | April | 73.2% | 1,509 |
| Foster City | May | 76.7% | 3,436 |
| Gilroy | May | 55.3% | 7,260 |
| Hillsborough (pooled) | June | 42.9% | 1,687 |
| Los Altos | April | 73.0% | 4,747 |
| Los Altos Hills (pooled) | April | 53.3% | 1,200 |
| Los Gatos | April | 52.9% | 7,908 |
| Menlo Park | May | 63.7% | 5,383 |
| Millbrae (pooled) | May | 78.6% | 1,995 |
| Milpitas | April | 76.2% | 6,313 |
| Monte Sereno (pooled) | March | 52.6% | 616 |
| Morgan Hill | April | 55.2% | 7,529 |
| Mountain View | April | 78.5% | 7,589 |
| Palo Alto | March | 72.8% | 6,535 |
| Portola Valley (pooled) | April | 59.2% | 969 |
| Redwood City | April | 70.9% | 8,551 |
| San Bruno | April | 76.0% | 3,733 |
| San Carlos | April | 73.8% | 4,775 |
| San Francisco (2022–2025, pooled) | May | 62.0% | 18,028 |
| San Jose | April | 72.7% | 99,603 |
| San Mateo | May | 72.7% | 12,113 |
| Santa Clara | May | 79.1% | 11,480 |
| Saratoga | March | 64.6% | 4,455 |
| South San Francisco | May | 83.2% | 3,939 |
| Sunnyvale | April | 82.8% | 12,110 |
| Woodside (pooled) | May | 38.5% | 1,090 |
Should you wait for spring?
- Not automatically. If your home is ready and little else is for sale nearby, a fall or winter listing can stand out; fewer buyers are looking, but fewer homes compete for them.
- The calendar is one input next to condition, price and what’s for sale on your streets right now.
- Your timeline matters more than the average. A move, a purchase or a tax date can outweigh a few points of over-asking odds.
How we counted
248,990 closed sales of houses, condos and townhomes in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, January 2012 to December 2025, reported to the MLS and read through the IDX feeds that power our home search, with repeat records removed and sales under 50% or over 200% of list left out. These are the 31 cities we cover in the two counties; smaller places and unincorporated areas aren’t in the totals. Sales are grouped by the month they closed. For each month, the share over asking and the median sale-to-list are worked out year by year and then averaged, so a hot year like 2021 or a cool one like 2023 counts once; price per square foot is compared with the same calendar year’s median, which takes out the long-run rise in prices but not the rise within a year: in a rising year, January closings look lower and December closings higher than the season alone would make them. It’s a pattern across many years, not a forecast, and part of the seasonal price gap is the mix of homes that sell in each season. Our data covers Silicon Valley and the Peninsula; the East Bay, North Bay and Santa Cruz County aren’t in it, and San Francisco only from 2022.
Go deeper
See the interactive calendar, the best time to buy, homes selling under asking and pre-sale inspections and the disclosure packet.
Thinking about when to list?
We’ll put your city’s calendar next to what’s for sale right now and help you pick a launch date. Call (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or book a strategy call. Commissions are negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what’s included.