Menlo Park, California.
Typical home $2,898,368 (+10.1% in a year), asking rent $4,277 (+10.7%). San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$6,929 (+84%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $266,644 +10%
- $2,631,724$2,898,368 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $478,487 +20%
- $2,419,882$2,898,368 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.
- Menlo Park$15,213
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 19 years.
Typical home values in Menlo Park, CA rose 10.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Menlo Park, CA rose 10.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Menlo Park runs $15,513/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $19,790 a month against $4,277 rent: a $15,213 mortgage payment, plus $1,474 property tax and $3,103 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Menlo Park
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$19,790
- Renting$4,277
- Mortgage only$15,213
Property tax · $1,474/mo 0.61% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for San Mateo County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $3,103/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 Menlo Park, San Mateo County, California
Menlo Park is a city of 33,780 people in San Mateo County. Half its households earn more than $210,025 a year and half less, against $158,855 across San Mateo County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 54% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 46% are rented. Unemployment in Menlo Park was 3.7% in August 2026, and San Mateo County had 1.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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. Menlo Park is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula, home to a well-educated population in which most adults hold a four-year degree. Household incomes run well above the county's, and homes here are among the costliest around, for buyers and renters alike. Slightly more households own their homes than rent, and the town's typical resident is in middle age. Winters are cool and mild, summers warm, and snow is rare, with modest rainfall through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, or in banks, insurance and property, with manufacturing also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in Menlo Park are the Veterans Health Administration, the construction firm Rudolph and Sletten, and the medical instrument maker Abbott. Unemployment is a little lower than a year ago, a fair number of residents work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. The Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, a protected area, lies in or beside town for walks and birdwatching. A short drive away are the Computer History Museum and Stanford Stadium. For a longer outing, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco offers gardens and open lawns.
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- 11,837households
- 72%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 32%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. San Mateo County had 411,346 jobs in 2025, 1.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 58° and lows near 39°; warmest in September, with highs near 80° and lows near 53°. About 15 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Palo Alto weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Menlo Park
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs947
- Rudolph and SlettenIndustrial building construction, general contractors606
- Care IndeedHospice care services, in home600
- AbbottSurgical and medical instrument manufacturing542
- Mainspring Energy HeadquartersMotor generator sets manufacturing534
- Pacific Biosciences of CaliforniaBiotechnology research and development laboratories or services503
- The City of Menlo ParkCity and town councils368
- Rosewood Sand Hill HotelHotels350
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 25 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,116 people in all. Federal offices come from OPM's federal workforce data (2026). 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
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Menlo Park’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 San Mateo County and the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
Menlo Park home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Menlo Park$2,898,368
- 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 7 Menlo Park listings, and the typical home goes pending in 15 days — the market is heating up.
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.
- Menlo Park15.34%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Menlo Park15
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Menlo Park63
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Menlo Park34
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Menlo Park$2,839,603
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Menlo Park103.34%
Zip codes with a Menlo Park address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Menlo Park — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.