Analytics built by: Location, Inc.
Raw data sources: American Community Survey (U.S. Census Bureau), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Methodology: NeighborhoodScout uses over 600 characteristics to build a neighborhood profile… Read more about Scout's Real Estate Data
With 66,680 people, 26,007 houses or apartments, and a median cost of homes of $3,040,876, Palo Alto house prices are not only among the most expensive in California, Palo Alto real estate also is some of the most expensive in all of America.
Single-family detached homes are the single most common housing type in Palo Alto, accounting for 56.68% of the city's housing units. Other types of housing that are prevalent in Palo Alto include large apartment complexes or high rise apartments ( 31.51%), duplexes, homes converted to apartments or other small apartment buildings ( 6.02%), and a few row houses and other attached homes ( 5.25%).
The most prevalent building size and type in Palo Alto are three and four bedroom dwellings, chiefly found in single-family detached homes. The city has a mixture of owners and renters, with 55.45% owning and 44.55% renting.
At the end of World War II, American soldiers returned home triumphant and, with the help of the GI Bill, built homes by the millions on the edges of America's cities. These homes were predominantly capes and ranches, modest in size, but built to house a growing middle-class as the 20th century became the American century. Palo Alto's housing was primarily built during this period, from the '40s through the '60s. A full 47.03% of the city's housing hails from this era. Other housing ages represented in Palo Alto include homes built between 1970-1999 ( 24.80%) and housing constructed between 2000 and later ( 15.16%). There's also some housing in Palo Alto built before 1939 ( 13.01%).
Appreciation rates for homes in Palo Alto have been tracking above average for the last ten years, according to NeighborhoodScout data. The cumulative appreciation rate over the ten years has been 105.59%, which ranks in the top 30% nationwide. This equates to an annual average Palo Alto house appreciation rate of 7.47%.
Over the last year, Palo Alto appreciation rates have trailed the rest of the nation. In the last twelve months, Palo Alto's appreciation rate has been 9.65%, which is lower than appreciation rates in most communities in America. In the latest quarter, NeighborhoodScout's data show that house appreciation rates in Palo Alto were at -5.13%, which equates to an annual appreciation rate of -19.00%.
Notably, Palo Alto's appreciation rate in the latest quarter is one of the lowest in America.
Relative to California, our data show that Palo Alto's latest annual appreciation rate is higher than 80% of the other cities and towns in California.
One very important thing to keep in mind is that these are average appreciation rates for the city. Individual neighborhoods within Palo Alto differ in their investment potential, sometimes by a great deal. Fortunately, you can use NeighborhoodScout to pinpoint the exact neighborhoods in Palo Alto - or in any city or town - that have the best track record of real estate appreciation, by the latest quarter, the last year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, or even since 2000, to assist you in making the best Palo Alto real estate investment or home purchase decisions.
$3,040,876
for California
for nation
26,007
$5,126 / per month