Where to Live in Silicon Valley: Choosing a City by Budget, Commute and Home Type (2026)

Choosing where to live in Silicon Valley usually comes down to three things you can measure: what you can spend, how you’ll get to work, and the kind of home you want. Here are the 31 cities we cover in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, sorted by each of those, with what houses and condos sold for in the 12 months to October 27, 2026. Every city links to its Moving to guide with the full picture.

The short answer

• On a $1.5 million house budget, the cities where at least 40% of houses sold at that price or less: East Palo Alto, Daly City, Gilroy, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Morgan Hill, Milpitas and San Jose.
• Condos and townhomes with a median under $1 million: San Bruno ($448K), Gilroy ($599K), Daly City ($615K), East Palo Alto ($690K), San Jose ($775K), South San Francisco ($780K), Millbrae ($865K), San Mateo ($866K), Morgan Hill ($890K) and Santa Clara ($900K).
• On Caltrain: 16 cities; on BART: Daly City, Millbrae, Milpitas, San Bruno, San Jose and South San Francisco; on VTA light rail: Campbell, Milpitas, Mountain View, San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
• Median lot of 10,000 sq ft or more: Woodside, Los Altos Hills, Portola Valley, Atherton, Hillsborough, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, Los Gatos and Los Altos.

Every city at a glance

Median prices for the 12 months to October 27, 2026. “Condo share” is condos and townhomes as a share of all sales; “—” means fewer than 10 condo and townhome sales.

By budget

• Houses at $1.5 million or less (share of each city’s house sales): East Palo Alto 98%, Daly City 85%, Gilroy 80%, South San Francisco 74%, San Bruno 54%, Morgan Hill 49%, Milpitas 44% and San Jose 40%.
• Houses at $2.5 million or less, other cities where at least half sold at that price: Santa Clara 83%, Campbell 71%, Millbrae 65%, Foster City 65%, San Mateo 63%, Redwood City 61% and Belmont 57%.
• Condos and townhomes: a lower-cost way into higher-priced cities; see condo and townhome prices by city.
• Full rankings: the most affordable cities and the most expensive.

By commute

• Caltrain cities: Belmont, Burlingame, Gilroy, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Jose, San Mateo, Santa Clara, South San Francisco and Sunnyvale (Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Jose’s Capitol and Blossom Hill stations have weekday commute-hour service only, and College Park a few trains a day). See home prices near every station.
• BART cities: Daly City, Millbrae, Milpitas, San Bruno, San Jose and South San Francisco. VTA light rail: Campbell, Milpitas, Mountain View, San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
• Big employers, city by city: Apple Park (Cupertino), Gilead (Foster City), Netflix (Los Gatos), Meta (Menlo Park), Google (Mountain View), Stanford Research Park (Palo Alto), Cisco (San Jose), Adobe & Zoom (San Jose), eBay (San Jose) and NVIDIA, Intel & AMD (Santa Clara).
• Downtowns within a walk: see walkable neighborhoods.

By home type

• Bigger lots (median house lot of 10,000 sq ft or more): Woodside (1.18 acres), Los Altos Hills (1.11 acres), Portola Valley (1 acre), Atherton (0.99 acre), Hillsborough (24,149 sq ft), Monte Sereno (21,780 sq ft), Saratoga (14,336 sq ft), Los Gatos (11,352 sq ft) and Los Altos (10,824 sq ft).
• More condos and townhomes (30% or more of sales): Foster City (67%), Mountain View (57%), Milpitas (52%), Sunnyvale (43%), Santa Clara (38%), San Mateo (37%) and Campbell (34%).
• Single-story houses (listings that say so, 20% or more): Saratoga (30%), Monte Sereno (23%), Morgan Hill (23%), Los Altos (22%), East Palo Alto (21%), Foster City (21%) and Gilroy (20%).
• Eichlers and mid-century tracts: the Eichler tract index and mid-century tracts by other builders.
• Every home type by city: home types by the numbers.

Things that change at the city line

Transfer tax, electricity provider, rent rules and permit rules follow the city, not the mailing address; each Moving to guide lists them, and cities at a glance puts them in one table. School district lines don’t follow city lines, so check the district’s own boundary lookup for any address.

How we counted

Closed sales reported to the MLS in the 12 months to October 27, 2026, read through the IDX feeds that power our home search, with repeat records removed (same MLS number and sale date). Houses are the MLS property type “single family home”. A sale is placed by the city in its MLS address. Cities with fewer than 20 house sales in the year are left out. Medians follow the mix of homes, and blocks within a city differ a lot; these lists filter by numbers, they don’t rank places to live.

Narrowing down your move?

Tell us your budget, your commute and the home you want, and we’ll show you the cities and streets that fit, then set up a search that catches new listings the day they hit. Call (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or book a call. Commissions are negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what’s included.