Published October 18, 2026 in Market Update

More listings are giving buyers room, but Core Silicon Valley is still moving

By Brad Bell

Real estate, Core Silicon Valley - $1M-$4M

The one thing that changed most this period: sellers are competing with each other now. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 656 homes for sale across Core Silicon Valley in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is up 44.2% from the same months of 2025. More choice is real, and it shows up in how homes are priced and how long they sit.

Demand is still there. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 1,000 pending sales across these ZIP codes, up 4.1% from a year before. Homes sold ticked up 0.8%. That is not a soft market. It is a market where buyers have more to look at and sellers can no longer assume every offer comes in fast.

The national picture behind these numbers

Realtor.com reported that active listings nationally topped 1.16 million in September 2026, up 5.5% year over year. That is a real shift. At the same time, Realtor.com put the share of listings with a price cut at 20.8% in September 2026, the highest since October 2022. More supply and more cuts nationally means buyers everywhere have more leverage than they did a year ago.

Rates are part of the story too. Realtor.com reported mortgage rates topped 7% in September 2026, the first time since January 2025. Redfin put the weekly average at 7.4% on October 8, a three-year high. That slows some buyers. It also means the ones still moving are serious.

What the ZIP codes show

Not every pocket reads the same. A few areas are still seeing homes sell over list at high rates. Others are taking longer and closing closer to ask. Here is how the ZIP codes lined up.

Where homes are still moving fast

ZIP 95129, the West San Jose area near Lynbrook schools, stood out. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted a median of 13 days on market there, unchanged from a year before. More than 7 in 10 homes sold above list price, 71.7%, up 4 points from last year. The sale-to-list ratio was 105%. Inventory rose 26.9%, but demand kept pace.

ZIP 95051 in Santa Clara also held up. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put the sale-to-list ratio at 104%, with a median of 19 days on market. Pending sales were up 2% from a year before. Inventory there more than doubled, up 123.3%, yet homes still closed over ask. That is the commute advantage: Santa Clara puts buyers close to Apple, Nvidia and other campuses on Lawrence Expressway and 101 without the Cupertino price.

Where more inventory is showing up in the numbers

ZIP 95014, Cupertino proper, saw inventory up 142.9%. The median sale price dipped 11% to $2,860,000, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. Homes still sold in 16 days at 104.9% of list, and more than half sold above ask. But the share of homes going under contract within two weeks fell 13 points. Buyers there have more options and are using them.

ZIP 94086 in Sunnyvale took the longest of any ZIP code here: a median of 28 days on market, 8 days longer than a year before, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. The median price slipped 2.9% to $1,725,000. Still, more than half of homes sold above list, at 53.1%. The slower pace does not mean demand is gone. It means buyers are taking a breath.

Los Gatos: prices up, but fewer homes under contract quickly

ZIP 95032 covers the Los Gatos flats. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put the median sale price at $2,700,000, up 10.1% from a year before. That is the biggest price gain of any ZIP code here. But the share of homes going under contract within two weeks fell 11.8 points, to 34.6%. Inventory there actually fell 6.1%, the only ZIP in this group to see fewer homes for sale. Fewer choices, higher prices, but buyers are taking a little longer to decide.

ZIP 95126: more sales, lower prices

ZIP 95126, near the Diridon area of San Jose, saw the steepest price drop: down 14.2% to a median of $1,098,000, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. At the same time, homes sold jumped 29.3% and pending sales were up 66%. More buyers came in as prices came down. The sale-to-list ratio was 99.5%, meaning homes closed just under ask on average. That is a different dynamic than the rest of this group.

What this means if you are selling

More listings competing at the same time means the homes that are priced right and prepared well are still getting offers. The ones that are not are sitting longer. The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows days on market grew in most of these ZIP codes compared with a year before. That extra time is where price expectations get tested.

Nationally, Realtor.com reported that 20.8% of listings took a price cut in September 2026. That is the highest share since October 2022. The sellers who priced ahead of that number did better than the ones who chased it.

What this means if you are buying

You have more to look at than you did a year ago. That is real. But in the ZIP codes with the strongest schools and the shortest commutes to the major campuses on 280 and 85, homes are still closing over ask and going under contract quickly. More choice does not mean every home is a negotiation. It means you have to know which ones are.