Los Altos is Wealthiest City

Forbes.com just released a list of 20 cities with the highest income in the country, and our own Los Altos came in third, with a medium $158,745. They came in behind South Lake, Texas and Darrien, Connecticut. Saratoga came in thirteenth with a median income of $137, 270 and Danville came in twentieth with a median income of $126,797.

Besides having many owners with great incomes, Los Altos has very few renters, not too many smaller condos, and most homes are on very large lots. Since land value is so much higher than house value it costs more to buy a home per square foot in Los Altos than in many places, like neighboring Palo Alto, which tends to have smaller lots. For example, many tracts from the 50's in Los Altos are on 10,000 square foot lots, while similar tracts in Palo Alto are on 6,000 square foot lots, so if you have two similar home in size, condition, and age, the home in Los Altos will probably cost more than in Palo Alto--simply because of lot size.

One interesting difference is that if your goal is to move to Los Altos because of the schools, you can move to certain parts of Mountain View that are in Los Altos school district and buy a less expensive home, often on a smaller lot, and still get the Los Altos school district.

This plan is not possible for Palo Alto. The only homes that feed into Palo Alto schools are the ones in Palo Alto, with the exception of a small slice of homes in Los Altos Hills, which is not less expensive than buying in Palo Alto. 

Please contact me if you have any questions about homes or schools in Los Altos, Palo Alto, or Mountain View.