Silicon Valley Housing Market by City: The 2026 Scorecard

How does each Silicon Valley city’s housing market compare? We put every city on one spec sheet: median price, price per square foot, what $1 million buys, how often homes sold over and under asking, the hottest price band and the best month to sell. All of it comes from closed MLS sales; the full sheets and a sortable table are on the City Scorecard. Here are the highlights among the 25 cities with at least 100 sales in the last 12 months (October 2025 – September 2026).

Silicon Valley overall

• Median price: $1.65M, at $992 per square foot (15,237 sales). Santa Clara County $1.60M; bay-side San Mateo County $1.80M.
• Competition, January 2024 – September 2026: 60% of sales closed over asking (median overbid $112K) and 30% under (median discount $48K).
• Hottest price band: $2M–3M. Best closing month: April, on average since 2012.
• Under $1M: 19% of 2025 sales.

Prices

• Highest median price: Hillsborough ($6.50M), Los Altos ($4.55M) and Saratoga ($4.00M).
• Lowest: Gilroy ($1.10M), Daly City ($1.18M) and South San Francisco ($1.25M).
• Highest price per square foot: Palo Alto ($1,945), Los Altos ($1,878) and Hillsborough ($1,619). Lowest: Gilroy ($524), Morgan Hill ($635) and Daly City ($777).

Space for the money

At each city’s median price per square foot, $1 million buys about 1,910 square feet in Gilroy, 1,570 in Morgan Hill and 1,290 in Daly City, and about 510 in Palo Alto, 530 in Los Altos and 620 in Hillsborough. See every city at five budgets on What $1 Million Buys.

Growth since 2012

Median price per square foot grew most in San Jose (2.81 times its 2012 level), Santa Clara (2.78×) and Campbell (2.76×), and least in Foster City (2.02×), Millbrae (2.11×) and Mountain View (2.14×). Every city’s line is on Home Price History.

Competition

• Most often over asking, 2024–26: Sunnyvale (73% of sales), South San Francisco (72%) and Daly City (70%).
• Biggest median overbids: Los Altos ($372K), Hillsborough ($353K) and Palo Alto ($287K). See How Much Over Asking.
• Most often under asking: Los Gatos (47%), Morgan Hill (40%) and Hillsborough (40%). See Homes Selling Under Asking.

Where sales under $1M still happen

The highest shares of 2025 sales under $1M were in Gilroy (35%), San Bruno (34%) and Daly City (31%). In Hillsborough there were none. The full price-band history is on The $1M Line.

What the scorecard can and can’t tell you

• It describes how homes sold, not what a city is like to live in, and it doesn’t rank places to live.
• Each city mixes many neighborhoods and home types. A condo-heavy city and a city of large lots can’t be compared on medians alone.
• Small towns swing. Atherton, Los Altos Hills, Monte Sereno, Portola Valley, Woodside and East Palo Alto had fewer than 100 sales in the last 12 months, so they’re on the scorecard but left out of the rankings above.

How we counted

Closed sales reported to the MLS, read through the IDX feeds that power our home search, with repeat records removed. Every dataset, its method and its download are listed in the Property Nerds® Data Library.

Comparing cities for your next move?

A Property Nerd will put the cities on your list side by side, down to the neighborhoods and homes that fit your budget. 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.