Blog > What Your Budget Buys in San Mateo: Houses by Price Range (2026)
What does your budget buy in San Mateo? We sorted every San Mateo house sale from the last 24 months by price and looked at what each range bought: living area, bedrooms, bathrooms, lot and how hard buyers bid. The middle of the market, $2M–$2.5M, bought a median 1,750 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms on a 5,730 square-foot lot. Here’s every range with at least 12 sales, plus condos and townhomes. We’re the Property Nerds, so the numbers come from real sales.
The short answer
- $1M–$1.5M: 150 sales, a median 1,100 sq ft with 3 bedrooms.
- $2M–$2.5M (where the median $2.23M falls): 209 sales, 1,750 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a 5,730 sq ft lot.
- $3.5M and up: 98 sales, 2,940 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, an 8,170 sq ft lot.
- Condos and townhomes: the median sold for $870K at 1,220 sq ft.
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Buying or selling in San Mateo?
- What’s my home worth? Ask for the recent sales on your street.
- Selling a home in San Mateo: pricing, prep and what’s selling now.
- Talk to a Property Nerd about your plans.
By price range
House sales in the last 24 months (October 28, 2024 to October 27, 2026):
| Price range | Sales | Share | Living area | Beds | Baths | Lot | Per sq ft | Typical sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1M–$1.5M | 150 | 15% | 1,100 sq ft | 3 | 1 | 5,110 sq ft | $1,160 | 4.7% over asking |
| $1.5M–$2M | 271 | 28% | 1,440 sq ft | 3 | 2 | 5,150 sq ft | $1,224 | 6% over asking |
| $2M–$2.5M | 209 | 21% | 1,750 sq ft | 3 | 2 | 5,730 sq ft | $1,282 | 9.1% over asking |
| $2.5M–$3M | 164 | 17% | 2,030 sq ft | 4 | 2.5 | 6,990 sq ft | $1,301 | 6.4% over asking |
| $3M–$3.5M | 79 | 8% | 2,500 sq ft | 4 | 3 | 8,250 sq ft | $1,310 | 10.4% over asking |
| $3.5M and up | 98 | 10% | 2,940 sq ft | 4 | 3 | 8,170 sq ft | $1,491 | 4.4% over asking |
Ranges with fewer than 12 sales are left out of the table; the share column counts all 975 sales.
What the next step up buys
Moving from $2M–$2.5M to $2.5M–$3M bought about 280 more square feet at the median, and a lot about 1,260 square feet bigger. The biggest jump in size came between $2.5M–$3M and $3M–$3.5M: 470 more square feet at the median.
Condos and townhomes by price
Condo and townhome sales in the last 24 months (October 28, 2024 to October 27, 2026); ranges with fewer than 10 sales are left out:
| Price range | Sales | Living area | Beds | Baths | Per sq ft | Typical sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $500K | 52 | 690 sq ft | 1 | 1 | $686 | 3.9% under asking |
| $500K–$750K | 151 | 860 sq ft | 1 | 1 | $731 | 1.8% under asking |
| $750K–$1M | 130 | 1,150 sq ft | 2 | 2 | $751 | 0.3% under asking |
| $1M–$1.25M | 75 | 1,370 sq ft | 2 | 2 | $807 | at asking |
| $1.25M–$1.5M | 76 | 1,600 sq ft | 2 | 2.5 | $836 | at asking |
| $1.5M–$1.75M | 36 | 1,680 sq ft | 2 | 2.5 | $941 | 1.6% over asking |
| $1.75M and up | 44 | 2,170 sq ft | 4 | 3.5 | $1,002 | 1.1% over asking |
Stretching a budget
- Smaller lot, same house: a 10% smaller lot went with about 2.1% less in price for the same house here; see what adds value to a San Mateo house.
- Size: San Mateo price per square foot by house size shows what each extra foot has cost here.
- Neighborhood by neighborhood: San Mateo neighborhoods ranked by price per square foot shows where a budget goes further.
- Bidding: the “typical sale” column shows how far over or under asking each range closed.
The same budget across nine San Mateo County cities
Median living area of the houses that sold within $250,000 of each budget in the last 24 months (October 28, 2024 to October 27, 2026), with the number of sales. “Too few” means fewer than 10 sales.
| City | $1.5M $1.25M–$1.75M | $2M $1.75M–$2.25M | $2.5M $2.25M–$2.75M | $3M $2.75M–$3.25M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Mateo | 1,260 sq ft (245) | 1,580 sq ft (234) | 1,860 sq ft (212) | 2,360 sq ft (116) |
| Redwood City | 1,170 sq ft (160) | 1,520 sq ft (216) | 1,890 sq ft (213) | 2,440 sq ft (102) |
| Daly City | 1,760 sq ft (293) | 2,460 sq ft (19) | too few (0) | too few (0) |
| Menlo Park | 1,140 sq ft (41) | 1,300 sq ft (61) | 1,580 sq ft (55) | 1,840 sq ft (61) |
| San Carlos | 1,090 sq ft (27) | 1,480 sq ft (90) | 1,780 sq ft (122) | 2,180 sq ft (92) |
| South San Francisco | 1,580 sq ft (218) | 2,250 sq ft (35) | too few (3) | too few (0) |
| San Bruno | 1,440 sq ft (202) | 2,100 sq ft (61) | too few (7) | too few (0) |
| Burlingame | too few (8) | 1,250 sq ft (35) | 1,540 sq ft (58) | 2,020 sq ft (89) |
| Belmont | 1,220 sq ft (30) | 1,550 sq ft (92) | 2,030 sq ft (101) | 2,270 sq ft (53) |
Where buyers compete hardest
Bidding varies across the price ranges. Over the last 24 months, buyers bid hardest in the $3M–$3.5M range: the typical sale closed 10.4% over asking, and 78% of sales went over asking. They bid least in the range of $3.5M and up: 4.4% over asking, with 63% over. Our San Mateo over-asking post has every range and size.
The least expensive quarter
A quarter of San Mateo houses sold for $1.66M or less in the last 12 months (118 sales). The median one had 1,150 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms on a 5,000 square-foot lot, and sold 5.2% over asking.
Questions we get
What does $2 million buy in San Mateo?
Houses that sold for $1.75M to $2.25M in the last 24 months had a median 1,580 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms on a 5,450 square-foot lot (234 sales).
What’s the least expensive way into San Mateo?
Condos and townhomes: the median sold for $870K in the last 12 months. The least expensive quarter of houses sold for $1.66M or less.
How big is the typical San Mateo house?
The median house sold in the last 12 months had 1,730 square feet and sold for $2.23M.
How we counted
Medians of closed sales reported to the MLS and read through the IDX feeds that power our home search, one record per sale with a usable living area and map position, the same rules as our city price posts. Houses are MLS property type “single family home”; condos include townhomes. Price ranges use the last 24 months (October 28, 2024 to October 27, 2026); the city medians use the last 12 months (October 28, 2025 to October 27, 2026). Lot is the lot size the listing reports. “Typical sale” is the median of sale price against list price. Past sales aren’t a forecast or the value of any one home, and nothing here is financial, tax or legal advice.
Go deeper
San Mateo housing market by the numbers, moving to San Mateo, San Mateo house prices by bedrooms and San Mateo condo and townhome prices.
More San Mateo numbers from the Property Nerds
Talk to a Property Nerd
We’re the Property Nerds at Compass, recognized as NextGenAgents by a national real estate portal. We’ll pull the sales that matter for your home and your plans, and walk you through what they mean. Call (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or book a strategy call. Commissions are negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what’s included.