Hillsborough Housing Market by the Numbers: Prices, Bidding Wars and the Price Ladder Since 2012

What does Hillsborough’s housing market look like in numbers? Everything below comes from closed MLS sales in Hillsborough, read in October 2026, and from the datasets on our Property Nerds® market pages. The last 12 months run October 2025 through September 2026 (129 sales). Each section links to the page with the full method, the other cities and a CSV.

Prices now

• Median sale price: $6.50M in the last 12 months, against $1.65M for Silicon Valley as a whole. That’s the highest median of the 25 cities with 100+ sales.
• Median price per square foot: $1,619 (Silicon Valley: $992).
• What $1 million buys: about 620 square feet at that median price per square foot (Silicon Valley: about 1,010). See What $1 Million Buys.

How prices got here

• Since 2012: the median price went from $2.75M to $6.50M (2.36×) and the median price per square foot from $711 to $1,619 (2.28×). That’s the 7th slowest growth of the 25 cities.
• The 2022 dip: price per square foot fell from $1,568 (three months ending June 2022) to $1,216 (ending February 2023), a 22.4% drop.
• Since then: the highest three-month reading so far was $1,722 (ending August 2026); July–September 2026 came in at $1,706.

Every year since 2012 is on Home Price History.

The price ladder

Line up the last 12 months of sales by price: 1 in 10 closed at or below $4.50M (the entry price), half below $6.50M (the median) and 1 in 10 at or above $12.00M (the top end). The middle half sold between $5.50M and $8.30M. All of them were single-family houses.

Since 2019 the entry price is up 52% and the top end up 87% (Silicon Valley: entry up 8%, top end up 51%). The full ladder, year by year, is on the Price Ladder.

Bidding wars and discounts, January 2024 – September 2026

• Over asking: 40% of 306 sales closed above the final list price (Silicon Valley: 60%). The median overbid was $353K. See How Much Over Asking.
• Under asking: 40% closed below it, with a median discount of $287K. See Homes Selling Under Asking.
• Hottest price band: $5M+, where 40% of 207 sales closed over asking. See Bidding Wars by Price.

The $1M line

None of Hillsborough’s 2025 sales closed under $1 million, and none did in 2012 either (Silicon Valley 2025: 19%). Every year and price band is on The $1M Line.

What these numbers can’t tell you

• A city mixes many neighborhoods and home types, and a median blends them all. The closest recent sales to a specific home matter more.
• They describe homes that sold, not a forecast or any one home’s value.
• They don’t rank places to live. They show how homes sold.

How we counted

Closed sales reported to the MLS, read through the IDX feeds that power our home search, with repeat records removed. Houses, condos and townhomes are counted together unless noted. All of Hillsborough’s numbers sit side by side on its City Scorecard datasheet, and every dataset is in the Property Nerds® Data Library.

Buying or selling in Hillsborough?

A Property Nerd will take these numbers down to your street, your price range and the homes that fit. 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.