Palo Alto housing statistics

Palo Alto has roughly 30,000 homes for about 69,000 people. A little over half are owner-occupied houses, most built in the 1940s and 1950s. The rest are mostly apartments and condos. Rents are among the highest in the state. The city is also under a state mandate to plan for 6,086 more homes by 2031, a pace far faster than anything in its recent past.

This page gathers official counts and survey figures. Unit counts come from the California Department of Finance (DOF). Detail on tenure, rents and building age comes from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 2020 to 2024 5-year estimates. Sale prices are on our separate home prices page.

How many homes

The DOF's E-5 population and housing estimates, released in May 2026, track every city's housing stock each January 1.

That is a net gain of 972 units in under six years, or about 170 a year. The DOF applies the same 7.7 percent vacancy rate to Palo Alto in every year shown, which means its occupied count moves with the unit count rather than being measured directly.

The ACS estimate of 29,241 units, plus or minus 679, is consistent with the DOF numbers once you allow for the survey's five-year averaging.

What kind of homes

Shares are our arithmetic from the DOF counts. Since 2020 the biggest gains by type were in attached homes (up about 300) and larger apartment buildings (up about 360). Detached homes grew by about 260 and small buildings of 2 to 4 units by about 50. Our ADU guide covers the rules that made backyard cottages easier to build.

The ACS shows a similar mix: 57.5 percent detached houses and 11.5 percent of homes in buildings with 50 or more units.

Owners and renters

In the ACS 2020 to 2024 estimates, 14,217 of 26,021 occupied homes were owner-occupied (54.6 percent) and 11,804 were rented (45.4 percent). That split is almost identical to Santa Clara County (55.1 percent owners) and California (55.9 percent). The city's 2023 to 2031 Housing Element, using the 2016 to 2020 survey, reported 56 percent owners and 44 percent renters and said the shares were the same in 2010.

The ACS 2024 1-year estimate showed renters at 48.2 percent. Its margin of error is large, about 1,600 households, so it does not prove a shift.

Owners tend to stay put. Of owner households, 41.7 percent have no mortgage at all, compared with about 33 percent in the county and state. Owner households average 2.71 people and renter households 2.38.

Rents and rent burden

Gross rent includes utilities the tenant pays. Because the median covers every renter, including people who have been in rent-stabilized or long-held units for years, asking rents on new leases are usually higher. The ACS 2024 1-year figure was $3,326, plus or minus $387.

About one in five Palo Alto renter households spends half its income or more on rent. Rights for tenants are covered in our renting guide and tenant protections page.

Age of the housing stock

Palo Alto is an older city by California standards. The ACS puts the median year built at 1963, against 1975 for the county and 1976 for the state.

• Built 1939 or earlier: 13.3 percent, mostly in Professorville, Old Palo Alto, Crescent Park and the downtown neighborhoods
• Built 1940 to 1959: 33.4 percent, the postwar boom that produced most of south Palo Alto and its Eichler tracts
• Built 1960 to 1999: 36.2 percent
• Built 2000 to 2009: 9.4 percent
• Built 2010 or later: 7.6 percent

Source: ACS table B25034, decades combined by us. The 1950s alone account for one home in four. Our history of postwar growth explains how the city doubled in those years.

Vacant homes

The ACS counted 3,220 vacant units, 11.0 percent of the stock, plus or minus about 500. Of those, 1,389 were for rent, 473 were rented but not yet occupied, 251 were for sale or sold, 395 were held for seasonal or occasional use and 712 were "other vacant," a catch-all that includes homes under renovation. The DOF uses a lower 7.7 percent rate. Survey vacancy is a snapshot at the time of each interview, so it moves with turnover and remodeling.

The 2023 to 2031 housing target

State law gives each city a share of the region's housing need, called the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). Palo Alto's share for 2023 to 2031 is 6,086 homes. The state certified the city's Housing Element on August 20, 2024.

Hitting 6,086 in eight years means about 760 homes a year. The DOF count above shows the stock grew by about 170 a year from 2020 to 2026, though permits run ahead of completions. In a May 9, 2025 update, the city reported 522 homes permitted since 2023, 168 of them affordable, plus 2,755 homes in submitted applications, 707 of them affordable. Newer figures are in the annual progress reports listed on the city's Housing Policies and Projects page. Our Housing Element guide explains the sites and programs.

How to read housing data

Different sources answer different questions. Use the DOF series for the number of homes and how fast it is growing. Use the ACS for who lives in them, what they pay and how old the buildings are. Use the city's annual progress reports for permits and the pipeline. When the numbers disagree, the cause is usually timing or method, not error: a five-year survey average will always lag a January count. A permit can take two or three years to become a finished home.

Frequently asked questions