Menlo Park vs. Palo Alto: The County Line, Utilities, Taxes and the Market

Menlo Park and Palo Alto sit about 2 miles apart, center to center, on either side of San Francisquito Creek, and both border Stanford’s land. But the creek is also the county line: Menlo Park is in San Mateo County and Palo Alto in Santa Clara County. That one line changes your utilities, your closing costs and the zoning rules. Here’s the comparison, with a live-market snapshot from our City Match-Up.

The basics

• Incorporated. Palo Alto in 1894, Menlo Park in 1927.
• Caltrain. Menlo Park has one station; Palo Alto has two, Palo Alto (University Avenue) and California Avenue.
• Electricity. Menlo Park gets power from WestLight Energy (formerly Peninsula Clean Energy), delivered by PG&E. Palo Alto runs its own utility, which also provides gas, water, wastewater collection and fiber.
• School districts. Menlo Park is served by the Menlo Park City, Ravenswood City and Las Lomitas elementary districts and the Sequoia Union High School District. Palo Alto is in the Palo Alto Unified School District. Check the district’s boundary lookup for any address.

At closing

Menlo Park adds no city transfer tax, so a $2 million sale carries the county’s $2,200. Palo Alto adds $3.30 per $1,000, for $8,800 on the same sale. See our transfer tax guide.

Homes and rules

• Second stories. Palo Alto’s R-1(S) single-story overlay covers many Eichler tracts. Menlo Park has no single-story overlay; Lorelei Manor’s special zoning limits second stories without banning them, and in Menlo Park “R-1-S” means suburban, not single-story. See overlays by city.
• Eichlers. Our indexes list 29 Eichler tracts in Palo Alto and three small Eichler groups in Menlo Park: Stanford Gardens, Oakdell Park and four homes in unincorporated Menlo Oaks.
• Rentals. Neither city has a rent cap. Palo Alto applies just cause after six months and keeps a rental registry. Menlo Park requires relocation payments for no-fault evictions and a one-year lease offer from landlords with four or more units. See rent rules by city.
• Near Stanford. Both cities include part of Stanford’s land. See cities near Stanford.

The market, in a snapshot

From our City Match-Up on October 18, 2026, for houses, condos and townhomes, with sales from the previous 90 days:

• Homes for sale: 50 in Menlo Park, 56 in Palo Alto.
• Median sale price: $3.02 million in Menlo Park, $3.6 million in Palo Alto.
• Median price per square foot: $1,548 in Menlo Park, $2,007 in Palo Alto.
• Median sale-to-list: 100.0% in Menlo Park, 103.9% in Palo Alto.
• Median days on market: 30 in Menlo Park, 18 in Palo Alto.
• Months of supply: 1.6 in Menlo Park, 1.3 in Palo Alto.

These numbers change daily, so open the live City Match-Up and switch to houses only to compare like with like.

Weighing the two? Call the Boyenga Team at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606. Commissions are negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what’s included.