{"id":431825,"date":"2026-08-13T15:12:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/431825\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T15:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:12:27","slug":"san-francisco-moves-ahead-of-santa-clara-county-as-the-states-no-2-most-expensive-place-to-buy-a-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/431825\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco moves ahead of Santa Clara County as the state\u2019s No. 2 most-expensive place to buy a home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A view of homes perched on a Peninsula hillside in Santa Clara County, which is now the third-most expensive county in California to buy a home, according to a new housing affordability report. Courtesy Getty Images.<\/p>\n

San Francisco County has moved ahead of Santa Clara County as the second-most expensive place in California to buy a home. San Mateo County remains No. 1.<\/p>\n

San Francisco buyers need to earn $535,600 a year to afford a median-priced home, compared with $510,800 in Santa Clara County, according to a new affordability report<\/a> from the California Association of Realtors. In San Mateo County, buyers need to earn $579,600 annually, according to the report. The three counties are now the only ones in California where the median home price tops $2 million, and the minimum qualifying income exceeds $500,000.<\/p>\n

Despite the high home prices, affordability has held steady or improved in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties from a year ago. In Santa Clara County, 22% of households could afford a median-priced home in the second quarter, up from 18% a year earlier. San Mateo County remained at 18%, while affordability in San Francisco fell from 20% to 18%.<\/p>\n

\"map<\/p>\n

San Mateo and\u00a0Santa Clara counties<\/p>\n

Santa Clara County\u2019s median home price reached $2.05 million in the second quarter of this year, while San Mateo County\u2019s was $2.3 million, and San Francisco County\u2019s was $2.15 million.<\/p>\n

Under the report\u2019s affordability calculation, a household is considered able to afford a home if its income is high enough to keep monthly housing costs at or below 30% of gross income. The calculation assumes a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at a 6.54% interest rate and includes principal, interest, taxes and insurance.<\/p>\n

That means estimated monthly payments for a median-priced home was about $12,770 in Santa Clara County, $14,490 in San Mateo County and $13,390 in San Francisco County.<\/p>\n

San Mateo County has the highest qualifying-income requirement in the state, but that doesn\u2019t make it the least affordable county, since household incomes there are also relatively high.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Statewide<\/p>\n

Housing affordability in California slipped in the second quarter of 2026 after reaching a four-year high in the previous quarter. Still, affordability improved from a year ago.<\/p>\n

Overall, 19% of California households could afford a median-priced home of $916,750, up from 17% a year earlier. Buyers needed a minimum annual income of $228,400 to qualify for a mortgage payment on that home. <\/p>\n

Affordability declined in 44 of the 53 counties tracked by the report compared with the first quarter of this year. Compared with a year ago, however, affordability improved in 41 counties, declined in six and remained unchanged in six.<\/p>\n

Condos and townhomes were more affordable than a year ago. According to the report, 30% of households could afford a median-priced condo or townhome, up from 28% a year earlier but down from 32% in the first quarter. The median price was $670,000, with a minimum qualifying income of $166,800.<\/p>\n

Lassen County remained the most affordable in California, with 50% of households able to afford a median-priced home, followed by Glenn County at 43% and Shasta County at 41%.<\/p>\n

Nationally, affordability was considerably higher, with 40% of households able to afford a median-priced home of $434,900. That was down from 44% in the previous quarter but up from 38% a year earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A view of homes perched on a Peninsula hillside in Santa Clara County, which is now the third-most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[14605,14606,5491,5492,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-431825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-mountainview-top-post-secondary","tag-paloalto-top-post-secondary","tag-real-estate-business","tag-real-estate-top-post-primary","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}