Blog > Which Cities Are in Silicon Valley? (And Is Cupertino One of Them?)
Yes, Cupertino is in Silicon Valley, under every common definition. But Silicon Valley isn’t an official place, so which other cities count depends on who’s drawing the map. Here’s where the name came from, the definitions people actually use, and the facts about Cupertino. For Apple Park, De Anza College, the foothill parks and the wineries, see what Cupertino is known for.
Quick answers
- Is Menlo Park in Santa Clara County? No. Menlo Park is in San Mateo County. It’s in Silicon Valley under the two wider definitions below, and Meta is headquartered there.
- Is San Jose in Silicon Valley? Yes, under every definition. It’s the largest city in the Bay Area by population.
- Is Palo Alto? Yes, under every definition. Stanford University is next door, and the HP Garage there is a state historical landmark called the birthplace of Silicon Valley.
- Is San Francisco? Not under any of the three definitions below, though many tech companies are based there.
- What does a house cost? In the year to October 27, 2026, the median house sold for $3.3M in Cupertino, $1.65M in San Jose and $4M in Palo Alto. Every city is in the table below.
Where the name came from
Journalist Don Hoefler put the term in print on January 11, 1971, in an Electronic News article titled “Silicon Valley U.S.A.” The silicon is the element in transistors and chips, which the region’s early companies made. The valley is the Santa Clara Valley, which ran to orchards until the 1960s and was known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight. The name didn’t catch on widely until the early 1980s.
Is Silicon Valley an official place?
No. No city, county or federal unit is named Silicon Valley, and the Census Bureau doesn’t define one. Three definitions come up most:
- Santa Clara County. The most common usage, covering all 15 of the county’s cities.
- Santa Clara County plus southern San Mateo County. Narrower than the Index below, it adds Peninsula cities such as Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Carlos and Belmont.
- The Silicon Valley Index region. Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s annual Index, the most-cited formal definition, uses all of Santa Clara County, all of San Mateo County, Fremont, Newark and Union City in Alameda County, and Scotts Valley in Santa Cruz County.
The cities, county by county
- Santa Clara County (all definitions): Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga and Sunnyvale.
- San Mateo County: Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Carlos and Belmont are the cities most often named. The Index counts the whole county.
- Index only: Fremont, Newark, Union City and Scotts Valley.
Every city: home prices and what it’s known for
Median sale prices for the year to October 27, 2026, from the MLS. Each city name links to its own market page. “—” means fewer than 20 house sales or 10 condo and townhome sales in the year.
Santa Clara County (in every definition)
| City | Median house price | Median condo or townhome | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell | $2.17M | $1.04M | |
| Cupertino | $3.3M | $1.28M | Apple Park, Apple’s headquarters |
| Gilroy | $1.15M | $599K | |
| Los Altos | $4.89M | $1.76M | |
| Los Altos Hills | $5.61M | — | |
| Los Gatos | $2.67M | $1.46M | Netflix’s headquarters |
| Milpitas | $1.62M | $1.1M | |
| Monte Sereno | $4.55M | — | |
| Morgan Hill | $1.53M | $890K | |
| Mountain View | $2.93M | $1.4M | Google’s headquarters |
| Palo Alto | $4M | $1.5M | Stanford University next door, and the HP Garage, a state historical landmark called the birthplace of Silicon Valley |
| San Jose | $1.65M | $775K | The largest city in the Bay Area by population; Cisco and Adobe are headquartered here |
| Santa Clara | $1.92M | $900K | NVIDIA and Intel headquarters, and Levi’s Stadium |
| Saratoga | $4.3M | $1.43M | |
| Sunnyvale | $2.63M | $1.35M | LinkedIn’s headquarters |
San Mateo County
Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Carlos and Belmont are the cities most often named; the Silicon Valley Index counts the whole county.
| City | Median house price | Median condo or townhome | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Menlo Park | $3.6M | $1.75M | Meta’s headquarters |
| Redwood City | $2.3M | $1.13M | Electronic Arts’ headquarters, in Redwood Shores |
| San Carlos | $2.74M | $1.25M | |
| Belmont | $2.38M | $1.2M | |
| Atherton | $10.7M | — | |
| East Palo Alto | $1.1M | $690K | |
| Portola Valley | $4.03M | — | |
| Woodside | $4.06M | — | |
| San Mateo | $2.22M | $866K | |
| Foster City | $2.22M | $1.25M | Gilead Sciences’ headquarters |
| Burlingame | $3.21M | $1.1M | |
| Hillsborough | $6.41M | — | |
| Millbrae | $2.33M | $865K | |
| San Bruno | $1.46M | $448K | YouTube’s headquarters |
| South San Francisco | $1.3M | $780K | Genentech’s headquarters and a cluster of biotech companies |
| Daly City | $1.25M | $615K |
San Francisco, for comparison: a median $1.9M for a house and $1.25M for a condo or townhome. Company headquarters are as of 2026. Medians move with the mix of homes that sold, so see each city’s page for the details, or compare any two in the City Match-Up and every city at once on the City Scorecard.
What Cupertino is known for
- A city since 1955. Voters approved incorporation on September 27, 1955, and Cupertino became Santa Clara County’s 13th city on October 10. It had 60,381 residents in the 2020 census.
- The name. On Juan Bautista de Anza’s 1776 expedition, Pedro Font named a stream Arroyo San Jose de Cupertino, according to the city. The stream is now Stevens Creek.
- Vineyards, then orchards. Settlers planted grapes in the late 1800s, with vineyards on Montebello Ridge and the flats below. After a pest wiped out most of the vines, orchards of prunes, apricots, cherries and other fruit took over.
- Apple. Apple arrived in Cupertino in 1977 and opened its Infinite Loop campus in 1993. Apple Park, a 175-acre campus, opened to employees in April 2017, and the Apple Park Visitor Center opened to the public that November.
- De Anza College. Opened in 1967 and run by the Foothill–De Anza Community College District.
- The Rise. On the former Vallco mall site, the city lists The Rise as approved for 2,669 homes plus office and retail space, with the latest change approved in August 2026. The city’s page tracks approvals, not construction.
- School districts. Cupertino Union School District and Fremont Union High School District, with a small northeast corner in Santa Clara Unified.
By employer: home prices near Apple Park, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, Intel and AMD, Cisco, Adobe and Zoom, eBay, Netflix, Stanford Research Park, Gilead.
Buying soon? The Silicon Valley home buyer’s data guide sorts every guide by budget, ZIP code, commute and new construction.
See it for yourself
Our Homes Near Tech Campuses page opens on Apple Park and shows every home for sale within 1, 2 or 3 miles. To weigh Cupertino against a neighbor, try the City Match-Up, and for the city’s Eichler tract, see Fairgrove. Market Pulse has 12 months of sale prices for Cupertino and 31 other cities.
See all 32 cities side by side in Silicon Valley and Peninsula Cities at a Glance: trains, electricity, transfer tax and Eichler tracts in one table.
Looking in Cupertino or anywhere else in Silicon Valley? Call the Boyenga Team at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606. Commissions are negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what’s included.