Blog > What a Bigger Lot Sells For in Silicon Valley, City by City
Two houses the same size in the same city, one on a bigger lot: how much more did it sell for? We ran the Lot Value Lab’s model on every city we cover, using house sales reported to the MLS over the 180 days through October 19, 2026 (5,294 sales in the 27 cities with a usable line). For each city, one line splits sale price between living area and lot size, so each figure below is what added lot went with when house size is held steady.
The short answer
- Biggest lot premium per added 1,000 square feet: Palo Alto (+$159K), Sunnyvale (+$143K) and Mountain View (+$129K).
- Smallest clear premium: Morgan Hill (+$5K), San Jose (+$10K) and Gilroy (+$13K).
- No clear lot premium in these sales: Burlingame, Hillsborough, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Menlo Park, Milpitas, San Bruno, San Francisco and Saratoga, where the 90% range for the lot figure reaches $0.
- Bigger lots went with lower prices once house size is held steady in Los Gatos and Redwood City. Something else that comes with the biggest lots there pulls prices the other way, and the line can’t tell what.
- House size still does most of the work: in every city with a line, an added 100 square feet of house went with +$31K to $174K.
Every city with enough sales
Cities with a clear lot premium come first, then those whose range reaches $0, then those where bigger lots went with lower prices; each group is sorted by the lot figure. The 90% range shows how tightly the city’s sales line up; R² is how much of the spread in sale prices house size and lot size together explain. Tap a city to open the live lab.
| City | Houses | Median lot (sq ft) | 1,000 sq ft more lot | 90% range | 100 sq ft more house | R² |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palo Alto | 214 | 7,156 | +$159K | $111K to $207K | +$172K | 78% |
| Sunnyvale | 284 | 6,347 | +$143K | $117K to $169K | +$93K | 63% |
| Mountain View | 124 | 6,445 | +$129K | $97K to $160K | +$119K | 71% |
| San Mateo | 272 | 6,000 | +$95K | $73K to $117K | +$96K | 70% |
| Santa Clara | 228 | 5,982 | +$87K | $68K to $106K | +$73K | 47% |
| Foster City | 40 | 5,761 | +$82K | $49K to $115K | +$51K | 59% |
| Campbell | 97 | 6,870 | +$69K | $57K to $82K | +$67K | 75% |
| Belmont | 102 | 6,439 | +$60K | $41K to $79K | +$92K | 75% |
| Cupertino | 112 | 7,560 | +$39K | $19K to $59K | +$80K | 70% |
| Daly City | 167 | 3,402 | +$38K | $19K to $56K | +$34K | 52% |
| San Carlos | 128 | 6,200 | +$24K | $770 to $47K | +$89K | 58% |
| Millbrae | 55 | 6,740 | +$18K | $675 to $34K | +$49K | 58% |
| South San Francisco | 123 | 4,723 | +$16K | $4K to $29K | +$40K | 60% |
| Gilroy | 171 | 6,930 | +$13K | $11K to $15K | +$31K | 86% |
| San Jose | 1,077 | 6,200 | +$10K | $4K to $16K | +$80K | 61% |
| Morgan Hill | 155 | 8,739 | +$5K | $3K to $8K | +$52K | 85% |
| Menlo Park | 151 | 6,399 | +$22K | −$756 to $45K | +$174K | 83% |
| San Bruno | 95 | 5,030 | +$15K | −$719 to $30K | +$48K | 61% |
| Los Altos | 152 | 10,790 | +$12K | −$11K to $35K | +$123K | 62% |
| Saratoga | 119 | 13,081 | +$7K | −$990 to $14K | +$117K | 72% |
| Milpitas | 101 | 5,999 | +$6K | −$1K to $12K | +$60K | 76% |
| San Francisco | 688 | 2,796 | +$2K | −$54K to $57K | +$136K | 60% |
| Burlingame | 110 | 6,000 | +$571 | −$27K to $28K | +$118K | 79% |
| Hillsborough | 59 | 23,232 | −$2K | −$36K to $31K | +$99K | 42% |
| Los Altos Hills | 45 | 47,480 | −$10K | −$46K to $26K | +$153K | 73% |
| Redwood City | 262 | 6,501 | −$10K | −$20K to −$1K | +$96K | 73% |
| Los Gatos | 163 | 10,000 | −$29K | −$36K to −$21K | +$114K | 64% |
Too few house sales with a lot size on record for a steady line (fewer than 40): Atherton, East Palo Alto, Monte Sereno, Portola Valley and Woodside. The lab still shows their sales by lot size.
San Francisco and San Jose have more sales than the lab reads at once, so their lines use the most recent 2,000 sale records (San Francisco since June 22; San Jose since July 7).
Reading it right
- It isn’t a land value. A bigger lot often comes with other differences: a different part of town, an older house, a view, room for an ADU. The line credits all of it to the lot.
- Houses only, lots from 1,000 square feet to 2 acres, sales more than three standard deviations off the line set aside. Lot sizes and living areas are as listed in the MLS.
- Usable land is what counts. Slope, easements, setbacks and shape decide how much of a lot can be used or built on.
- 180 days is a short window, so the figures move as new sales close; the lab recalculates every time it loads.
Go deeper
The Lot Value Lab draws each city’s sales on a chart, groups them by lot size and lists the houses for sale with the most land per dollar. The Price per Square Foot Map plots every sale where it happened, and the Build Lab and ADU Guide cover what state law allows on a single-family lot.
Weighing a bigger lot against a bigger house?
A Property Nerd will pull the sales that match the homes you’re considering and walk you through what the land and the house each added. 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.