Blog > What Your Budget Buys in San Carlos: Houses by Price Range (2026)
What does your budget buy in San Carlos? We sorted every San Carlos house sale from the last 24 months by price and looked at what each range bought: living area, bedrooms, bathrooms, lot and how hard buyers bid. The middle of the market, $2.5M–$3M, bought a median 1,900 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms on a 6,910 square-foot lot. Here’s every range with at least 12 sales, plus condos and townhomes. We’re the Property Nerds, so the numbers come from real sales.
The short answer
- $1.5M–$2M: 61 sales, a median 1,290 sq ft with 3 bedrooms.
- $2.5M–$3M (where the median $2.75M falls): 126 sales, 1,900 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a 6,910 sq ft lot.
- $4M and up: 36 sales, 2,960 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, an 8,000 sq ft lot.
- Condos and townhomes: the median sold for $1.26M at 1,240 sq ft.
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Buying or selling in San Carlos?
- What’s my home worth? Ask for the recent sales on your street.
- Selling a home in San Carlos: pricing, prep and what’s selling now.
- Talk to a Property Nerd about your plans.
By price range
House sales in the last 24 months (October 28, 2024 to October 27, 2026):
| Price range | Sales | Share | Living area | Beds | Baths | Lot | Per sq ft | Typical sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1.5M–$2M | 61 | 13% | 1,290 sq ft | 3 | 2 | 5,350 sq ft | $1,391 | at asking |
| $2M–$2.5M | 103 | 22% | 1,640 sq ft | 3 | 2 | 6,000 sq ft | $1,363 | 2.3% over asking |
| $2.5M–$3M | 126 | 28% | 1,900 sq ft | 3 | 2.5 | 6,910 sq ft | $1,434 | 4% over asking |
| $3M–$3.5M | 78 | 17% | 2,300 sq ft | 4 | 3 | 7,130 sq ft | $1,431 | 8.1% over asking |
| $3.5M–$4M | 47 | 10% | 2,670 sq ft | 4 | 3 | 9,340 sq ft | $1,362 | 4.4% over asking |
| $4M and up | 36 | 8% | 2,960 sq ft | 4 | 3.5 | 8,000 sq ft | $1,456 | 2.2% over asking |
Ranges with fewer than 12 sales are left out of the table; the share column counts all 458 sales.
What the next step up buys
Moving from $2.5M–$3M to $3M–$3.5M bought about 400 more square feet at the median, and a lot about 220 square feet bigger. That was also the biggest jump in size between neighboring ranges.
Condos and townhomes by price
Condo and townhome sales in the last 24 months (October 28, 2024 to October 27, 2026); ranges with fewer than 10 sales are left out:
| Price range | Sales | Living area | Beds | Baths | Per sq ft | Typical sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $750K | 13 | 1,040 sq ft | 2 | 2 | $697 | at asking |
| $750K–$1M | 42 | 1,040 sq ft | 2 | 2 | $782 | 2.2% under asking |
| $1M–$1.25M | 13 | 1,240 sq ft | 2 | 2 | $862 | 0.5% under asking |
| $1.25M–$1.5M | 29 | 1,260 sq ft | 2 | 2 | $1,006 | at asking |
| $1.5M–$1.75M | 22 | 1,860 sq ft | 3 | 2.5 | $864 | at asking |
Stretching a budget
- Lot size: in San Carlos, a bigger lot alone didn’t clearly raise the price once house size was held equal; see what adds value to a San Carlos house.
- Size: San Carlos price per square foot by house size shows what each extra foot has cost here.
- Neighborhood by neighborhood: San Carlos neighborhoods ranked by price per square foot shows where a budget goes further.
- Bidding: the “typical sale” column shows how far over or under asking each range closed.
The same budget across nine San Mateo County cities
Median living area of the houses that sold within $250,000 of each budget in the last 24 months (October 28, 2024 to October 27, 2026), with the number of sales. “Too few” means fewer than 10 sales.
| City | $1.5M $1.25M–$1.75M | $2M $1.75M–$2.25M | $2.5M $2.25M–$2.75M | $3M $2.75M–$3.25M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Mateo | 1,260 sq ft (245) | 1,580 sq ft (234) | 1,860 sq ft (212) | 2,360 sq ft (116) |
| Redwood City | 1,170 sq ft (160) | 1,520 sq ft (216) | 1,890 sq ft (213) | 2,440 sq ft (102) |
| Daly City | 1,760 sq ft (293) | 2,460 sq ft (19) | too few (0) | too few (0) |
| Menlo Park | 1,140 sq ft (41) | 1,300 sq ft (61) | 1,580 sq ft (55) | 1,840 sq ft (61) |
| San Carlos | 1,090 sq ft (27) | 1,480 sq ft (90) | 1,780 sq ft (122) | 2,180 sq ft (92) |
| South San Francisco | 1,580 sq ft (218) | 2,250 sq ft (35) | too few (3) | too few (0) |
| San Bruno | 1,440 sq ft (202) | 2,100 sq ft (61) | too few (7) | too few (0) |
| Burlingame | too few (8) | 1,250 sq ft (35) | 1,540 sq ft (58) | 2,020 sq ft (89) |
| Belmont | 1,220 sq ft (30) | 1,550 sq ft (92) | 2,030 sq ft (101) | 2,270 sq ft (53) |
Where buyers compete hardest
Bidding varies across the price ranges. Over the last 24 months, buyers bid hardest in the $3M–$3.5M range: the typical sale closed 8.1% over asking, and 74% of sales went over asking. They bid least in the $1.5M–$2M range: at asking, with 43% over. Our San Carlos over-asking post has every range and size.
The least expensive quarter
A quarter of San Carlos houses sold for $2.29M or less in the last 12 months (58 sales). The median one had 1,400 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms on a 5,640 square-foot lot, and sold 0.1% over asking.
Questions we get
What does $2.5 million buy in San Carlos?
Houses that sold for $2.25M to $2.75M in the last 24 months had a median 1,780 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms on a 6,110 square-foot lot (122 sales).
What’s the least expensive way into San Carlos?
Condos and townhomes: the median sold for $1.26M in the last 12 months. The least expensive quarter of houses sold for $2.29M or less.
How big is the typical San Carlos house?
The median house sold in the last 12 months had 2,010 square feet and sold for $2.75M.
How we counted
Medians of closed sales reported to the MLS and read through the IDX feeds that power our home search, one record per sale with a usable living area and map position, the same rules as our city price posts. Houses are MLS property type “single family home”; condos include townhomes. Price ranges use the last 24 months (October 28, 2024 to October 27, 2026); the city medians use the last 12 months (October 28, 2025 to October 27, 2026). Lot is the lot size the listing reports. “Typical sale” is the median of sale price against list price. Past sales aren’t a forecast or the value of any one home, and nothing here is financial, tax or legal advice.
Go deeper
San Carlos housing market by the numbers, moving to San Carlos, San Carlos house prices by bedrooms and San Carlos condo and townhome prices.
More San Carlos numbers from the Property Nerds
Talk to a Property Nerd
We’re the Property Nerds at Compass, recognized as NextGenAgents by a national real estate portal. We’ll pull the sales that matter for your home and your plans, and walk you through what they mean. 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.