Palo Alto · Mountain View
Single-family
Prepared · Evidence observation dates are listed below.
Focus: Balanced overview
How these cities fit your plan
What would owning cost me? Optional · private
Enter your comfortable monthly housing spend and purchase cash. See estimated costs at each city’s median price and what exceeds your targets.
Purchase cash covers the down payment and buying costs. Enter what remains after keeping your emergency reserves.
Adjust mortgage, taxes, insurance & fees
These are editable examples shared across cities. Add the actual HOA and insurance quote for a particular home. Starting mortgage rate: 6.76% national 30-year benchmark, 2026-09-10; use your lender’s quote.
With less than 20% down, enter a mortgage-insurance quote, or 0 if your loan does not require it.
Using 20% down · 6.76% mortgage · 1.2% tax · 1% upkeep · $250/mo insurance · $0/mo HOA · 2% buying fees. HOA starts at $0; check the property.
Add both targets to see the comparison. You can also explore without a budget.
Stays in memory while you navigate this tab. Refreshing clears it. Excluded from links, saved briefs, printouts and analytics.
Keep a dated copy
Anyone with a saved link can read these cities, home type and priorities. Your checklist stays on this device. Saving does not register a forecast.
A current-view link opens the latest published evidence; figures may change. A dated brief keeps its original evidence and text.
Did this help your search?
My next three questions
Saved on this device only. Selections and completion stay out of shared links, public records, analytics and printouts.
0 of 3 questions selected.
Choose investigation questions
Explore the full comparison, local research and history
What stands out
This is a comparison of published city evidence and investigation questions, not a city ranking or a forecast. Lower citywide prices do not establish undervaluation or affordability.
Mountain View’s median sale price is 30.3% lower than Palo Alto’s, using Palo Alto as the denominator. Window: 2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30.
Different homes sell in each city. This does not establish a like-for-like premium, affordability or a negotiating discount.
Evidence 1Evidence 2Mountain View and Palo Alto have the same reported median marketing time: 10 days. Window: 2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30.
Different homes sell in each city. This does not establish a like-for-like premium, affordability or a negotiating discount.
Evidence 1Evidence 2
Modeled home-value and jobs/housing research has not yet been added for every chosen city. The market comparison remains available; inspect each city guide for transaction-price history.
At least one exact historical baseline is unavailable. Missing changes are not interpolated.
The evidence at a glance
Single-family transactions
| Measure | Palo Alto2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30Rolling 3 monthsSource & definition | Mountain View2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30Rolling 3 monthsSource & definition |
|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | $4,198,326 | $2,924,834 |
| Closed sales | 103 | 61 |
| Homes for sale at period end | 56 | 28 |
| Median marketing time (days) | 10 | 10 |
Inventory is a period-end count, not adjusted for city size. Median marketing time may describe homes going under contract rather than the homes in the closed-sale count; each source definition is retained below.
All-homes history
Separate modeled index · No shared month · The selected home type does not change this index. All selected cities and San Mateo County must share the exact month.
| Measure | Palo Alto | Mountain View |
|---|---|---|
| Modeled typical value | Unavailable | Unavailable |
| 1-year change | Unavailable | Unavailable |
| 10-year change | Unavailable | Unavailable |
These are modeled typical values, not sold-home medians. Past growth does not establish future returns. Exact inputs, baseline dates and source locators ↓
Jobs and completed housing · different scopes and periods
Annual Q2 workplace jobs are not employed residents or households. Reported completed homes include replacement units and do not measure net additions. Do not divide these totals to infer a shortage.
- Palo Alto
Jobs: unavailable for the selected latest period.
Completed homes: unavailable for the selected latest period.
- Mountain View
Jobs: unavailable for the selected latest period.
Completed homes: unavailable for the selected latest period.
What to check in each city
Palo Alto
Evidence
Closed sales: 103 homes. 2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30. Evidence 1
Unanswered
City totals cannot establish the price, condition, access or exposure of a particular home. Test these questions at the address.
Next actions
Diligence questions, not established neighborhood facts:
Retained research excerpt
Separate Palo Alto’s single-family and condo price tiers, then evaluate local plans at their actual scale. North Ventura is a place-specific framework, not a citywide appreciation forecast.
Palo Alto: a large single-family premium and a more specific development question · Published 2026-09-17T21:49:42.622Z · Revision 2026-09-17T21:30:32.267Z
Current deep dive →Current reading may have changed since this excerpt was saved.
Mountain View
Evidence
Closed sales: 61 homes. 2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30. Evidence 1
Unanswered
City totals cannot establish the price, condition, access or exposure of a particular home. Test these questions at the address.
Next actions
Diligence questions, not established neighborhood facts:
Retained research excerpt
A substantial home-type split makes Mountain View useful for comparing actual ownership choices. North Bayshore’s planning framework adds a separate question about delivery and access.
Mountain View: the condo market tells a different story from single-family homes · Published 2026-09-17T21:49:41.705Z · Revision 2026-09-17T21:30:32.138Z
Current deep dive →Current reading may have changed since this excerpt was saved.
Go deeper
Full comparison → · Explore market history and ownership costs →
Model Lab carries these cities into market history, rent-or-buy scenarios and jobs/housing comparisons. Its separate experimental price forecasts use the all-homes index, including when this brief is for condos/co-ops. Choose the relevant home type in the lab.
Dates, definitions and sources
Preview content ID: 159019891d00de9be79b93344b02c17a10c0fe2ed5279c3e50b4c01255d73fa1.
Read the evidence manifest and limitations
Housing release: baseline-2026-09-14 · Structural release: 2026-09-15-completionreview · Template: shortlist-template-v2.
Palo Alto · Single-family
Redfin Data Center · 2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30 · Retrieved 2026-10-16 · Published date unavailable · Edition redfin-2026-09-palo-alto-single-family-20261016.
Redfin Data Center city boundaries; not seasonally adjusted; rolling three-month window. Median price and sales count use closed sales by closing date. Inventory counts homes for sale on the last day, excluding listings older than one year; it is not all listings active during the window. Median days on market uses homes going under contract during the window, from listing to contract, excluding listings older than one year. Property types remain separate. Price-reduction share is unavailable in this extract.
Mountain View · Single-family
Redfin Data Center · 2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30 · Retrieved 2026-10-16 · Published date unavailable · Edition redfin-2026-09-mountain-view-single-family-20261016.
Redfin Data Center city boundaries; not seasonally adjusted; rolling three-month window. Median price and sales count use closed sales by closing date. Inventory counts homes for sale on the last day, excluding listings older than one year; it is not all listings active during the window. Median days on market uses homes going under contract during the window, from listing to contract, excluding listings older than one year. Property types remain separate. Price-reduction share is unavailable in this extract.
Exact observations used
History calculations
- Palo Alto · 1-year change: Unavailable to Unavailable; (end / exact-baseline - 1) * 100; Unavailable.
- Palo Alto · 10-year change: Unavailable to Unavailable; (end / exact-baseline - 1) * 100; Unavailable.
- Mountain View · 1-year change: Unavailable to Unavailable; (end / exact-baseline - 1) * 100; Unavailable.
- Mountain View · 10-year change: Unavailable to Unavailable; (end / exact-baseline - 1) * 100; Unavailable.
Limits of this brief
- This is a comparison of published city evidence and investigation questions, not a city ranking or a forecast. Lower citywide prices do not establish undervaluation or affordability.
- Transaction medians reflect homes sold in the stated window. All-homes history is a separate modeled index, smoothed and seasonally adjusted. Exact shared dates and baselines are required; null means unavailable and zero remains zero.
- Small or missing sales counts are shown beside the values. The latest published evidence can be older than today's brief; age notices use the actual market period end.
- Jobs are annual Q2 beginning-of-quarter workplace snapshots, not employed residents, unique workers or an annual average.
- LODES 8.4 all jobs: one California release, 2020 blocks, 2024 place boundaries; 2012–2023.
- Completions are self-reported certificates of occupancy or other readiness, all housing types; 2018–2025. They include replacement units and do not measure net additions or actual occupancy.
- Eight date-conflict city-years are reconciled to original city current-year summaries. Original unfiltered HCD totals remain in reportedUnits; acceptedUnits supplies the chart. San Bruno 2020 and South San Francisco 2024 remain withheld. Audit records retain all positive row IDs and source decisions; no excluded units are reassigned to another year.
- County jobs cover the entire county. No county completion total is provided; the HCD county jurisdiction covers only unincorporated territory.
- Current revised data cannot establish what was known historically. No new predictive rule or forecast is implied.