San Jose, CA — Momentum Score, Home Values & Best-For

Santa Clara County · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara · population 997,368

Big-city amenities
San Jose, CA
Image: Wikipedia · San Jose, California
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56
Stable
Momentum score · 0–100

Where San Jose stands

Steady, no major recent move.

Median home $1,452,609
1-year -2.5%
5-yr CAGR +4.9%
vs 5-yr peak -4.4%
Population -0.4%/yr

Home value trajectory · last 10 years

Zillow ZHVI · monthly
peak 2025-01$1453k$697k$992k$1286k$1581k201620182020202220242026

Lifestyle scores

🚶
Walkability
50/100
Somewhat walkable
Estimated from population density. Higher = denser, more amenities within walking distance.
🚉
Public transit
50/100
Some transit
Curated list of major US transit systems + population-based estimate. Higher = real subway/rail/bus options.
💻
Remote work fit
45/100
Marginal for remote
Composite of city size, housing cost, state tax structure, and region's remote-work track record.

Scores are heuristic estimates from population density, state, and known transit/walkable cities. Not based on a paid Walk Score / Transit Score API — see methodology for the formula.

Rent trajectory · last 5 years

Zillow ZORI · monthly
$3,329/mo$2,486$3,007$3,529202220242026

Home value vs rent · indexed to 100

Both rebased at first month of ZORI data (~2015)
Home valueRent127126100120202220242026

Rent vs buy

Price-to-rent ratio: 36.4
Rent

At a 36.4 price-to-rent ratio, renting beats buying in San Jose for most shorter holds. The premium you pay to own would take many years of rent savings to recoup, and that's before maintenance, taxes, and opportunity cost on the down payment.

How the momentum score breaks down

methodology →
Home YoY
37 · w22%
Home 5-yr CAGR
64 · w22%
Distance from peak
63 · w18%
Population growth
39 · w16%
Rent YoY
76 · w12%
Home 10-yr CAGR
70 · w10%
Long thesis

San Jose is a major US metro showing +4.9% annualized appreciation with 997,368 residents — scale plus growth. The kind of city that doesn't need a thesis; the data has been making its own case for years.

Short thesis

San Jose carries a $1,452,609 median home with only -2.5% YoY. Premium pricing in a flat tape is the bear setup — you're paying for the trend that already ran while new buyers can't afford to extend it.

About San Jose

San Jose is a city in Santa Clara County, California, with an estimated population of 997,368. It anchors the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area. The median home value in San Jose is $1,452,609 as of 2026-04, down 2.5% over the last 12 months. Over the last five years, home values have averaged +4.9% annual growth (-4.4% from the 5-year peak). Rents in San Jose average $3,329 per month, up 4.7% year-over-year. The composite momentum score is 56 of 100 (Stable). Conditions are neither hot nor cold, so the local fit matters more than market timing.

Bull case

Scale = optionality: 997,368 population gives you airports, hospitals, a deep job market, and a real cultural scene.
The data is the data: San Jose has at least 5 years of Zillow tracking, full Census identification, and is included in the 2-criteria momentum score on this page.

Bear case

Expensive AND not growing: median home $1,452,609 with only -2.5% YoY. You’re paying premium pricing for a flat trend.
Cooling: -2.5% over the trailing year — momentum has stalled.
Flat or shrinking population: -0.4% per year. Housing demand has to come from somewhere — verify the source.

About San Jose (Wikipedia)

San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, and the 13th-most populous in the United States, with 997,368 residents. The city's metropolitan area is home to nearly two million people, while the broader combined statistical area has a population of over nine million. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of 179.97 sq mi (466.1 km2) and is the county seat of Santa Clara County.

Source: Wikipedia · this summary is contributed and licensed under CC-BY-SA.

City facts

MayorMatt Mahan
EstablishedNovember 29, 1777
MottoCapital of Silicon Valley
Named forSaint Joseph

Extracted from the Wikipedia infobox. Values may be slightly out of date relative to the latest sources.

Things to see in San Jose(Landmarks)

  • The Tech Museum of Innovation
  • Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, which houses the largest collection of Ludwig van Beethoven in the world outside of Europe
  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, the largest U.S. public library west of the Mississippi River
  • San Jose Museum of Art, contemporary art museum with a collection of West Coast artists
  • Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose
  • History Park at Kelley Park
  • Mexican Heritage Plaza, a Chicano museum and cultural center
  • Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, an inclusive contemporary arts museum grounded in the Chicano/Latino experience
  • Portuguese Historical Museum
  • Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts on display in the western United States, located at Rosicrucian Park
  • San Jose East Carnegie Branch Library is notable as it is the last Carnegie library still operating in San Jose, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
  • San Jose Steam Railroad Museum, proposed, artifacts and rolling stock are kept at the fairgrounds and Kelley Park

+5 more on Wikipedia.

Extracted from the Wikipedia article. Names linked in the source — open the city’s Wikipedia page for details.

Playbook

Buyer

Lifestyle fit matters more than market timing in a Stable market. Take your time on the home and neighborhood; the macro trend isn't urgent. Negotiate normally.

Seller

Price competitively from day one or risk a 60+ day listing. Staging, photography, and presentation matter more in Stable markets than in Hot ones.

Investor

Stable cap rates, no big appreciation story to lean on. Underwrite this as a pure cash-flow play — the math has to work on rent alone.

Local safety & alerts

No active National Weather Service alerts for Santa Clara County right now.

Public-safety links are official .gov sources, not curated by us. Santa Clara County routes NWS alerts; check the state EM portal for non-weather emergencies.

Neighborhoods of San Jose

24 tracked · ranked by median home value
1Cambrian Park$2,490,102+5.5%
2Almaden Valley$2,213,239+2.1%
3West San Jose$2,210,060+0.4%
4Willow Glen$1,857,923-0.2%
5Cambrian Park$1,852,246+0.5%
6Evergreen$1,696,888-0.8%
7Berryessa$1,675,646-2.8%
8Rose Garden$1,637,387-0.7%
9Fruitdale$1,604,515+1.2%
10East Foothills$1,457,639-4.4%
11Blossom Valley$1,433,388-3.6%
12Santa Teresa$1,368,008-3.5%
13North Valley$1,204,175-4.7%
14Burbank$1,197,417-3.4%
15North San Jose$1,126,191-3.8%
16Alum Rock-East Foothills$1,124,881-4.0%
17Edenvale – Seven Trees$1,113,062-0.9%
18Sunol-Midtown$1,107,373-5.5%
19Seven Trees$1,097,602-1.5%
20East San Jose$1,060,988-4.3%
21Downtown$1,013,752-4.9%
22Alum Rock$991,974-4.8%
23Fairgrounds$958,176-4.2%
24Buena Vista$845,462-7.7%

Cities like San Jose

Sources: Zillow ZHVI (home values), Zillow ZORI (rents), US Census ACS + place population. Updated when source agencies publish revisions.

Climate & natural-disaster risk

Winter (Jan)
60° / 41°
avg high / low
Summer (Jul)
82° / 60°
avg high / low
Sunny days/yr
258
~71% of year
Annual precip
22″ rain
8″ snow
Disaster risk (1=very low, 5=very high)
Hurricane
Very low
Tornado
Very low
Wildfire
Very high
Earthquake
Very high
Flood
Moderate

State-level averages from NOAA Climate Normals (1991-2020) and FEMA National Risk Index. City-level conditions can vary significantly within a state.

Local sports teams

Major professional teams the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area cheers for. Detailed stats, schedules, and player pages on intherafters.com.

Current weather

Loading current conditions…

7-day forecast on weather.gov →

Find rentals & listings

Open current San Jose listings on the major real-estate sites.

Links open the live search on the destination site — results are always current.

Local news & community

Updated 2026-05-21 from Google News + Reddit RSS. Headlines link to original sources.

Local economy & environment

Humidity
65%
Moderate climate
Median household income
$91,500
California state median
Top industries (state-level)
TechEntertainmentAgriculture

Humidity is annual average relative humidity (NOAA). Income is Census ACS 5-year estimate. Industries are largest employment sectors statewide (BLS); the local mix in a given city may vary.

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