Cupertino, California.
Typical home $2,957,922 (+2.9% in a year), asking rent $4,307 (+9.2%). San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$8,385 (+117%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $84,607 +3%
- $2,873,314$2,957,922 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $623,711 +27%
- $2,334,210$2,957,922 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Cupertino$15,525
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Cupertino, CA rose 2.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Cupertino, CA rose 9.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Cupertino runs $16,039/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $16,687 in Jan 2025.
That is $20,346 a month against $4,307 rent: a $15,525 mortgage payment, plus $1,654 property tax and $3,167 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Cupertino
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$20,346
- Renting$4,307
- Mortgage only$15,525
Property tax · $1,654/mo 0.67% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Santa Clara County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $3,167/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Cupertino, Santa Clara County, California
Cupertino is a city of 60,381 people in Santa Clara County. Half its households earn more than $234,707 a year and half less, against $164,281 across Santa Clara County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 61% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 39% are rented. Unemployment in Cupertino was 4.6% in August 2026, and Santa Clara County had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Cupertino is a city in Santa Clara County, in the heart of Silicon Valley, and it has long been one of the area's better-off communities. Household incomes run well above the county's, and very few residents live below the poverty line. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though both home values and rents are high, and the great majority of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild, with the coldest days in December still cool rather than freezing, summers warm into September, and little rain or snow through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in professional and business services, manufacturing, schools, hospitals and social care, and media and telecoms. Among the largest workplaces in Cupertino are De Anza College, the City of Cupertino and Front Porch, a retirement community operator. Many residents work from home, and commutes are typical for the region. Unemployment is about where it was a year ago, and the county has added only a few jobs over the past year.
Things to do. The Computer History Museum is a short drive away and is one of the best known museums of its kind. Levi's Stadium, a large stadium for big games and events, is also a short drive away, as is California's Great America, an amusement park. For time outdoors, the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve is a protected area a longer drive away.
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- 21,020households
- 82%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 32%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Santa Clara County had 1,119,582 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 59° and lows near 42°; warmest in September, with highs near 78° and lows near 57°. About 13 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Moffett Federal Airfield weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Cupertino
- De Anza CollegeTwo-year college917
- City of CupertinoCity and town councils270
- Front PorchRetirement communities, continuing care160
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores111
- CupertinoMail and parcel delivery77
- Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Inc.Hotels64
- ABM IndustriesService to buildings and dwellings47
- Ekim Painting- SouthPainting45
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 13 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 970 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24). Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Cupertino’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Santa Clara County and the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metro.
Cupertino home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cupertino$2,957,922
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Cupertino listings, and the typical home goes pending in 15 days — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Cupertino15.41%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Cupertino15
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Cupertino84
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Cupertino34
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Cupertino$2,833,245
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Cupertino104.99%
Zip codes with a Cupertino address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cupertino — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.