San Jose vs. Santa Clara: BART, Power, Transfer Tax and the Market

San Jose and Santa Clara sit side by side in Santa Clara County, about 4 miles apart center to center. San Jose is the big city, with the most train stations and a city transfer tax; Santa Clara runs its own electric utility and adds no transfer tax. Future BART stations will connect the two. Here’s the comparison, with a live-market snapshot from our City Match-Up.

The basics

• Caltrain. San Jose has five stations: San Jose Diridon, College Park, Tamien, Capitol and Blossom Hill. Santa Clara has one, Santa Clara.
• BART. San Jose’s Berryessa/North San Jose station opened in 2020. VTA’s planned Phase II extension would add stations at 28th Street/Little Portugal, Downtown San Jose, Diridon and Santa Clara, next to the Santa Clara Caltrain station; VTA targets the second quarter of 2037 and calls that date subject to change. See BART to Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara.
• Light rail. VTA light rail serves both. See Homes Near VTA Light Rail.
• Electricity. San Jose’s default provider is San Jose Clean Energy, delivered by PG&E. Santa Clara runs its own utility, Silicon Valley Power, in business since 1896. See who supplies electricity in each city.
• Campuses and employers. San Jose has San Jose State University and the headquarters of Adobe, Cisco, eBay, PayPal and Zoom. Santa Clara has Santa Clara University, Mission College and the headquarters of NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, Applied Materials and ServiceNow. See Homes Near Tech Campuses.
• Downtowns. San Jose has several: downtown around Plaza de César Chávez and San Pedro Square, Japantown, Willow Glen’s Lincoln Avenue and Santana Row. See Homes Near Downtown.
• School districts. Check the district’s boundary lookup for any address.

At closing

San Jose adds a city transfer tax of $3.30 per $1,000, plus Measure E on sales above about $2.3 million: 0.75% of the whole price up to $5 million, 1% from $5 million to $10 million and 1.5% above that. Santa Clara adds none. On a $2 million sale that’s $8,800 in San Jose and $2,200 in Santa Clara; on a $3 million sale, $35,700 in San Jose and $3,300 in Santa Clara. See our transfer tax guide.

Homes and rules

• Eichlers. Our index lists five San Jose Eichler tracts, including Morepark, Fairglen and Fairhaven; a National Register study counts 484 Eichlers in seven tracts in Willow Glen and the city’s western district, and the Fairglen Additions were listed in 2019. Santa Clara’s Eichler is Pomeroy Green, a townhouse cooperative. See Silicon Valley Eichler tracts.
• Victorians. San Jose’s Hensley district, Naglee Park and Horace Mann hold documented Victorian houses; exterior work in the Hensley City Landmark District needs a Historic Preservation Permit. Santa Clara’s Old Quad has houses from the 1860s on. See San Jose Victorian and Edwardian homes.
• Rentals. San Jose’s Apartment Rent Ordinance covers buildings of three or more units built and occupied before September 7, 1979, with one increase of up to 5% every 12 months; houses, duplexes, condos, townhomes and ADUs are exempt. See rent rules by city.

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: 1,012 in San Jose, 101 in Santa Clara.
• Sales in 90 days: 1,307 in San Jose, 170 in Santa Clara.
• Median sale price: $1.36 million in San Jose, $1.58 million in Santa Clara.
• Median price per square foot: $857 in San Jose, $984 in Santa Clara.
• Median sale-to-list: 100.0% in San Jose, 100.9% in Santa Clara.
• Months of supply: 2.3 in San Jose, 1.8 in Santa Clara.

San Jose is big enough that citywide medians hide large differences between neighborhoods, so open the live City Match-Up, switch to houses only, and see our San Jose neighborhood guides.

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.