Sell Your Commercial Property In Santa Clara County, CA

Who rents in Santa Clara County

Renters head 296,206 of the 659,353 occupied households in Santa Clara County, a 44.9% share in the 2020-2024 ACS. Owners hold the remaining 363,147 households. San Jose carries the largest renter pool in Santa Clara County, with 145,219 renter households, about 49.0% of the county total.

Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara city post the highest renter shares among the covered cities, each above 55%. Smaller Santa Clara County cities such as Los Gatos and Gilroy lean more toward owners, with renter shares near or below 37%. Together, the nine cities in the table below hold about 272,244 renter households, 91.9% of the Santa Clara County total.

Rents, growth and affordability

Santa Clara County's median gross rent climbed 26.0%, from $2,268 to $2,857, between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 surveys, a gain of $589. Household income rose faster, up 32.4% to a median of $164,281, while Santa Clara County's population slipped 1.3% to 1,902,047 residents over the same span.

Renter households in Santa Clara County grew 6.1%, adding 17,096 households, while units in 5+ unit buildings rose 8.2%, an increase of 15,125 units. Rent burden remains heavy: 45.0% of Santa Clara County renters paid 30% or more of income on gross rent in the 2020-2024 ACS. HUD's FY2027 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent for the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area is $3,272, effective October 1, 2026, running $415 above the county's median gross rent.

City-by-city comparison

Rents inside Santa Clara County range from $2,301 in Gilroy to $3,501 in Cupertino. Mountain View posts the highest share of units in 5+ unit buildings at 49.0%, while Gilroy's apartment stock sits at just 14.9%. Vacancy swings from 1.6% in Gilroy to 10.2% in Palo Alto.

San Jose combines Santa Clara County's largest renter base with a mid-range rent near $2,669 and a tight 4.8% vacancy rate. Santa Clara city and Sunnyvale both post renter shares above 55%, with vacancy under 6%. Palo Alto's 10.2% vacancy stands out against the rest of the table, giving buyers there more lease-up cushion than in San Jose or Milpitas.

Property taxes and assessment in Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County assesses apartment buildings under Proposition 13: a sale resets the taxable value to the purchase price, which then rises at most 2% a year until the next change of ownership. The base levy is 1% of assessed value, per the county Assessor's Proposition 13 overview, plus voter-approved debt-service rates that vary by Tax Rate Area and commonly push the combined Santa Clara County rate to 1.0-1.3%.

County documentary transfer tax runs $0.55 per $500 of consideration above $100, the standard California rate. Palo Alto, San Jose and Mountain View each layer an added city conveyance tax of $1.65 per $500 on top of the county rate, so a Santa Clara County sale inside those cities carries a higher closing cost than one in Milpitas or Gilroy. Pull the Assessor's current Tax Rate Area figure before you price a Santa Clara County building, since the combined rate is set parcel by parcel, not countywide.

What this means if you sell in Santa Clara County

When you sell commercial property in Santa Clara County, CA, you sell into one of California's deepest renter markets. Renters hold 44.9% of households, and 28.6% of units sit in 5+ unit buildings, with rent up 26.0% over five years. The 5.1% rental vacancy rate means most Santa Clara County buildings lease quickly, but buyers will still test your rent roll against each city's own numbers, from Gilroy's 1.6% vacancy to Palo Alto's 10.2%.

Taxes come next. A sale resets your Proposition 13 assessment, so buyers underwrite the post-sale tax bill, not your current one, and check whether the property sits in Palo Alto, San Jose or Mountain View, where an added city transfer tax applies. Civil Code Section 1946.2 requires just cause to end most Santa Clara County tenancies after 12 months, with relocation assistance owed on no-fault terminations, so document your current leases before you market the property.

As a multifamily buyer in Santa Clara County, we review 5+ unit buildings from San Jose to Gilroy as they stand today. Send a current rent roll, a T-12 and your latest tax bill, and we will price the building on those numbers.