Selling a home in East San Jose

Around the $1 million mark

measured: houses

East San Jose’s median house sold for $1.1M in the two years to October 27, 2026, or $814 per square foot, against $1.66M and $980 across San Jose. In three of its 11 neighborhoods the median house sold under $1 million (Hillview & Capitol Park $999K, Mayfair $966K, Tropicana & Lanai $949K), and in three more between $1.01M and $1.05M; East Foothills, with the largest houses, was highest at $1.6M. Buyers search in price brackets, so where your list price sits against a round number like $1 million changes who sees the listing; we set it with that in mind.

Neighborhoods ranked by price per sq ft

At or over asking in every neighborhood

measured: 24 months

Counting all home types, the typical sale closed at or over asking in all 11 East San Jose neighborhoods: at asking in East Foothills and Plata Arroyo & Alum Rock Ave, and up to 1.8% over in Overfelt Gardens & Las Plumas. Of the area’s 806 house sales, 55% closed over asking, against 62% across San Jose; in McKee & Capitol, 71% did. With modest bidding past the list price, the list price has to be right on day one: we price from your neighborhood’s record and the closest recent sales.

Over asking, neighborhood by neighborhood

City land or county land?

our guides

About two-thirds of the land in our Alum Rock guide and four-fifths of East Foothills is unincorporated Santa Clara County, though every address says San Jose. It changes the sale: on a county parcel only the county transfer tax applies, permits come from the county, and buyers ask who provides water and sewer and who maintains the road. Before listing we confirm which side your parcel is on (your escrow officer confirms it from the tax rate area), gather permits from the agency that had jurisdiction when the work was done, and note the service providers.

Our Alum Rock guide

Fire, landslide and fault zones in the hills

measured: R-1 lots

East Foothills has 238 single-family lots in a CAL FIRE High fire hazard zone, the second-most of any San Jose neighborhood, and 112 in a Moderate zone, of 613 in the city’s part; by the state’s earthquake zone maps, 284 are in a landslide zone. Its median city lot is 10,710 sq ft, and the city’s flood layer shows almost all of its outline as FEMA Zone D (undetermined). Mount Pleasant has 84 High and 49 Moderate fire-zone lots, 69 in a landslide zone and 139 in an Alquist-Priolo fault zone, of 2,494, and Alum Rock 75 in a landslide zone. No San Jose lot is in a Very High fire zone.

Hillside buyers ask early, so we have the natural hazard disclosure, any geotechnical reports and records of defensible-space work ready before launch.

Earthquake zones by neighborhood

Flood and liquefaction zones on the valley floor

measured: R-1 lots

Overfelt Gardens & Las Plumas has 237 of its 698 single-family lots (34%) in FEMA flood zone AH, shallow ponding, the most AH-zone lots of any San Jose neighborhood. Lyndale & Sundown has 153 lots (7%) in a high-risk flood zone, Mount Pleasant 144 (6%), Plata Arroyo & Alum Rock Ave 25 and Mayfair 9. Liquefaction zones cover every single-family lot in Tropicana & Lanai and Meadowfair & West Evergreen and nearly all of Hillview & Capitol Park, Mayfair and Plata Arroyo & Alum Rock Ave. McKee & Capitol has no lot in any of these zones.

If the house itself is in an A or V zone, lenders on federally backed mortgages require flood insurance, so we order a flood zone determination for the address before launch, and the natural hazard disclosure report states the liquefaction zone.

Lots, flood and fire zones by neighborhood