San Mateo, California
City-level Single-Family vs. Condo, market pressure signals, and 5-year trend. Source: Redfin.
Single-Family vs. Condo
Source: Redfin (property-type breakdown)Buyer vs. Seller Market Indicators
Latest month — RedfinInventory ÷ monthly sales. Below 3 = strong seller market; 3-6 balanced; above 6 = buyer market.
Median closing price ÷ original list price. Above 100% = homes routinely closing above asking.
Share of closed sales priced above asking. The single cleanest read on bidder competition.
What does your sqft target cost in San Mateo, California?
$1172/sqft median (Redfin)Estimate = (median $/sqft × your sqft) + bed/bath/lot adjustments. Bed and bath adjustments use Appraisal Institute / Fannie Mae standard rules of thumb (~$15K/extra bedroom, ~$20K/extra bathroom vs. a 3bd/2ba baseline; half-bath = half adj). Lot premium is a $1.50/sqft heuristic beyond a 6,000 sqft baseline — accuracy varies sharply by urban infill vs. acreage market. Quality, condition, year built, and HOA are not modeled here. For a deeper county-level hedonic AVM, see AVM Lite.
Rent + invest vs. buy + own — backtested
15-yr rolling history · S&P 500What if you'd started in a recent year? (most-recent 15yr window: 2011–2025)
| Window | Buy wealth | Buy gain | Rent wealth | Rent gain | Wealth delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011–2025 | $1.58M | $1.17M | $8.58M | $6.19M | $7.00M rent |
| 2010–2024 | $1.58M | $1.17M | $8.74M | $6.36M | $7.17M rent |
| 2009–2023 | $1.58M | $1.17M | $8.24M | $5.85M | $6.66M rent |
| 2008–2022 | $1.58M | $1.17M | $6.29M | $3.90M | $4.71M rent |
| 2007–2021 | $1.58M | $1.17M | $8.19M | $5.80M | $6.61M rent |
| 2006–2020 | $1.58M | $1.17M | $6.97M | $4.58M | $5.39M rent |
| 2005–2019 | $1.58M | $1.17M | $6.30M | $3.91M | $4.72M rent |
| 2004–2018 | $1.58M | $1.17M | $5.18M | $2.79M | $3.60M rent |
Educational tool, not investment or real-estate advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Backtests use actual annual total returns including dividends from S&P 500 (Damodaran (NYU Stern) annual total return (with dividends), 1957-present.).
Buyer model: 30-yr fixed mortgage, P&I + property tax + insurance + maintenance (1% of value/yr) + HOA. Selling cost = 6%. Investor model: down payment + annual cashflow surplus invested in the chosen index at that calendar year's actual return.
Tax model: pre-tax comparison. Toggle "after-tax mode" to apply MID, SALT, LTCG, and the Sec 121 capital-gains exclusion.
This calculator does not adjust for: PMI (assumed 20%+ down), differential transaction costs by state, lifestyle factors (commute, schools, kids), illiquidity / forced-sale risk, or insurance availability constraints (e.g., FL/CA wildfire). Consult a fiduciary advisor and tax professional before acting on any of this.
Cost-of-living escalation — California (7 categories)
7-yr trajectories · state-grain (no city-grain data published)Trajectories anchor each state's most recent published value to the corresponding national YoY pattern (electricity → EIA, natural gas → EIA, groceries → BLS CPI food-at-home, homeowners insurance → NAIC, healthcare → KFF Employer Health Benefits, auto insurance → BLS CPI motor vehicle insurance, childcare → Child Care Aware "Price of Care"). City-grain data is not published for any of these categories — San Mateo inherits California's state-level series. Per-household costs vary by provider, plan, household size, and usage.
Who lives here
Census ACS 5-year (place-level)22.5% of housing was built before 1950 — older stock often means smaller bedrooms, deferred maintenance, and 1-bath layouts.
Market Pressure Signals
Derived from Redfin trendValue / Rent
state ZORI mean (city rent unavailable from public sources)City rent data isn't published in Zillow's public CSVs. We use the state-level ZORI mean as the rent reference. The state-level rent is a useful approximation for big metros within a state but can mislead in extreme outlier cities.
Trends
Up to 5 years of monthly dataMedian Sale Price
Active Inventory
Days on Market
State-level data: California statewide stats →
Verify any number on this page: data sources, formulas, and cross-references →