Most listing descriptions promise something for everyone. These four don’t, and that’s what I like about them.

Our team is bringing four Millbrae homes to market. Same city, same few weeks. On paper they look like neighbors: three to five bedrooms, two or three baths, between 1,510 and 2,290 square feet.

They aren’t close at all. Each one answers a different question, and the buyer’s first question usually decides which house wins.

1. Near Meadows Elementary: the walk

This is the smallest house of the four. For the right buyer, that won’t matter.

The appeal is everyday convenience: walking to school instead of driving. That’s two car trips a day you don’t make. It never shows up in the square footage, and it shows up every morning.

If this is your priority, do two things before you fall for it. Confirm the assigned school for the address with the Millbrae Elementary School District, because being near a school and being assigned to it aren’t always the same thing. Then walk the route at 8 a.m. on a weekday. That’s the walk you’re buying.

2. The income property: a different decision

A reported rent of $10,000 a month changes the conversation completely.

The question isn’t “Would I live here?” anymore. It’s lease terms, expenses, condition and how the property fits into a portfolio.

That’s $120,000 a year before anything comes out of it. What matters is what’s left:

• The leases. Who lives there, on what terms, until when and with what deposits.
• The expenses. Property tax is reassessed when the house changes hands, so budget from your purchase price, not the seller’s bill. Then insurance, maintenance, management if you won’t do it yourself and a realistic allowance for vacancy.
• The condition. One roof or sewer lateral can take a big bite out of a year’s rent.
• The rules. California’s Tenant Protection Act and local rules can limit rent increases and how a tenancy ends. Find out which apply before you count on a number.
• The fit. How this property sits next to everything else you own.

“Reported” is the word to underline. Ask for the leases and the rent records, and verify them before your offer depends on them.

3. Downtown Millbrae: the rooms

Five bedrooms near downtown means flexibility. Guest rooms. Home offices. Relatives who come for a month instead of a weekend. And walking to dinner on Broadway instead of looking for parking.

The honest part: five bedrooms in 1,770 square feet means some of the rooms are small. That’s about 350 square feet of house per bedroom, against roughly 500 to 610 in the other three. Bring a tape measure, and read the permit history so you know how each room came to be a bedroom.

If what you need is more rooms rather than bigger ones, that’s exactly the trade you want.

4. Mills Estates: the land

The biggest lot of the four, at 7,210 square feet. That’s about 60% more land than the house near Meadows.

For some buyers, that matters more than another bedroom. You can change a kitchen. You can rework a floor plan. Land is harder to add.

A bigger lot can mean a real garden, a future addition or room for an ADU. “Can” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Setbacks, slope, easements and the city’s rules decide what a lot can actually take, so check with Millbrae’s planning department before you pay for potential.

There’s no best house

What I like about seeing these four at once is how clearly they show there’s no universally “best” house.

Rank them by bedrooms, by square footage or by lot size and you get three different winners: downtown, the income property and Mills Estates. The house near Meadows wins none of those rankings. For the buyer who wants to walk to school, it’s the only one that counts.

One buyer wants to walk to school. One wants income. One wants downtown. One wants the lot.

The right house depends on the life you’re trying to build.

That’s why my first question for buyers isn’t about bedrooms. It’s what you want your weekdays to look like. If you’re weighing Millbrae in particular, I wrote about who shows up at a Millbrae open house, and why the station keeps coming up.

Which one would you pick?

1. Walk to school
2. Rental income
3. Downtown lifestyle
4. Larger lot

Text me your number, and why, at (650) 866-9266. If one of these is your house, I’ll send the address and the details, and tell you honestly what I’d check first. If none of them is, that’s useful too. It tells me what you’re really looking for.

Home details are as provided for the four listings in October 2026; square footage and lot size are approximate and should be verified independently. The $10,000 monthly rent is as reported and has not been verified; review the leases and rent records before relying on it. Living area per bedroom is total living area divided by bedrooms, a rough measure only. Being near a school does not guarantee assignment to it; confirm school assignment for a specific address with the Millbrae Elementary School District. Property tax, rental rules and ADU rules depend on the property; confirm with the San Mateo County Assessor, the City of Millbrae or a qualified professional. This post is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Most of what I write is for buyers. This one is for the homeowners.

Every question below came from a real conversation at an open house or a tour this fall. I’ve kept them close to how they were asked.

Each one tells you something about how buyers are reading your house.

1. “Fall is still hot. Do I have a shot at my dream house in winter, with fewer buyers and a better price?”

Winter has fewer buyers. It also has fewer listings.

Many of the people touring in January have a reason to be there, like a new job or a lease ending, and they have fewer homes to choose from.

Some will expect a discount. Whether they get one depends on how many alternatives they have. In a thin month, a well-priced house often doesn’t need to give one.

If you sell in winter, you aren’t competing with a dozen other listings nearby. That is the advantage.

Quieter isn’t the same as dead.

2. “I’d rather renovate it myself than pay the premium for move-in ready.”

Some buyers don’t want your renovation. They want the discount.

A kitchen redone right before listing is a bet on one buyer’s taste, and the buyer who wanted to pick their own counters won’t pay you for yours.

So know which buyer you’re selling to. A finished house brings the move-in-ready crowd. A clean, honest, unrenovated house priced as one brings the people who want a project.

Both sell. The one that struggles is the dated house priced like a renovated one.

3. “What’s the real difference between Millbrae and Burlingame, on a street that’s literally half of each?”

They meant Frontera Way, and they’re right.

The city line runs down the middle of the street. The even side has Millbrae house numbers in the 1200s and 1300s. The odd side has Burlingame addresses in the 2800s and 2900s. Neighbors facing each other have house numbers more than a thousand apart.

Cross the street and you change city services, permit office, elementary school district, and which city filter finds the house in a buyer’s search. Both sides share the same high school district.

If you own on a line like that, your comps need to respect the line too. Start with sales on your own side. Then look across the street to see whether buyers are actually paying for the difference.

4. “Can I build an ADU here?”

Buyers are doing the math: rental income, a parent moving closer, an adult kid moving home.

State law now lets most single-family lots in California add an ADU in some form. So “you could build one” won’t set your house apart. Two things do.

A permitted ADU that already exists is living space a buyer can count and an appraiser can usually value. An unpermitted one has to be disclosed, and it often reads as a question mark, not a bonus.

And a lot that makes one easy, with the room and the access for it, is worth saying out loud. Share what you can back up: lot size, plans, a past conversation with the city.

5. “Does the kitchen have an island?”

Asked like it’s a dealbreaker. It kind of is.

The island has become shorthand for a bigger question: can I live my life in this kitchen?

If you have one, stage it as the center of the home. It’s the workspace, the homework table and the place for a glass of wine with friends.

If you don’t, don’t fake it. A rolling cart dressed up as an island tells a buyer the kitchen is smaller than the photos suggested.

6. “How much more is a four-bedroom really worth than a three, now and when I sell?”

The gap is real.

A fourth bedroom gives a house more ways to be used: an office and a guest room, without giving up either. More uses means more buyers who can say yes to it.

In San Carlos, the median four-bedroom single-family home sold for about $620,000 more than the median three-bedroom in 2025: $3.12 million versus $2.5 million.

That gap has been remarkably steady: about $570,000 in 2021 and about $565,000 in 2024. The exception was 2022, when it ballooned to $950,000 at the peak, then shrank back to about $580,000 in 2023 as the market cooled.

Over those five years, both sizes appreciated about the same, roughly 8%.

So the fourth bedroom widens the pool of buyers. It doesn’t make a house appreciate faster, and it didn’t shield the price when the market turned.

Bedroom count is one of the few things you can’t easily change, so price it honestly. A three-bedroom priced against four-bedroom comps sits.

And if you’re buying and choosing between the two, this is the appreciation question worth asking: are you paying the steady premium, or a peak one?

Listen to the questions

The market talks through buyers’ questions. Sellers who listen price better.

If you own on a city line, on a lot that could take an ADU, or in a house you’re not sure whether to fix up before selling, I’m happy to tell you honestly how buyers are reading it right now. Call or text me at (650) 866-9266, or see how I work with sellers.

San Carlos sales figures are MLSListings closed sales of single-family homes with three or four bedrooms, by close-of-escrow year (2021 through 2025, between 68 and 176 sales per bedroom count each year); information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. City boundaries and address ranges were checked against the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder and Redfin’s street listings in October 2026; school district boundaries can differ from city lines, so confirm the assigned schools for a specific address with the district. ADU rules vary by lot and by city; confirm with the city’s planning department before relying on them. This post is general information, not legal advice.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

A Peninsula disclosure package can run a few hundred pages. Whether I’d chase the house often comes down to about ten of them.

If you bought a home in Boston, New York or Seattle, the sequence here may feel backwards.

In many competitive Peninsula sales, buyers see the inspections before they write the offer.

So an offer with no inspection contingency doesn’t necessarily mean nobody inspected the house.

Often, the inspection happened before the offer.

Which makes the disclosure package part of the due diligence. And I don’t read it front to back.

1. Pest report: Section I first

Section I means there is visible evidence of an active wood-destroying pest problem, fungus, or resulting damage.

Section II is different: conditions that could lead to a problem later.

I want the existing problems first: what was found, the recommended work, and roughly what it may cost.

2. Where the seller and inspector don’t quite match

The seller is telling you what they know.

The inspector is telling you what they see.

I read those two versions side by side.

A “no” on a seller disclosure next to a photo of an old water stain doesn’t automatically mean something is wrong. But it gives me a question to ask.

The mismatch is often more useful than either document by itself.

3. Permits versus the house I just walked through

I count bedrooms and bathrooms in the records. Then I count them in the house.

If they don’t match, I want to understand why.

Maybe the work was permitted under something else. Maybe it wasn’t permitted. Maybe the records are incomplete.

But I don’t want my buyer discovering that after the offer is accepted.

4. What that particular city requires

Millbrae and Hillsborough have sewer-lateral requirements tied to a sale. Burlingame requires testing for many older properties, with exemptions.

Daly City has its 3R report showing permit, enforcement and zoning history, and the city warns that unpermitted work won’t necessarily appear there.

5. The page that isn’t there

The page I’m most interested in is often the one that isn’t there.

An inspector may write: “Recommend further evaluation by a licensed roofer.”

Then I look for the roof report.

Was one done? If not, why not?

A follow-up nobody ordered can matter more than another 50 pages of boilerplate.

A few hundred dollars before the offer beats a surprise after it.

And if you’re selling?

Your disclosure package is part of the first impression.

A buyer can price uncertainty just as easily as they can price a dated kitchen.

If an inspection recommends a follow-up, getting the answer before you list removes one more reason for a buyer to hesitate — or discount the home.

A thick disclosure package isn’t the goal. A clear one is.

If you’ve bought here, what was in the package you wish you’d read more carefully? I’d like to hear it — call or text me at 650-866-9266, or see how I work with buyers and sellers.

City point-of-sale requirements, exemptions and report contents change; confirm the current rules with the city for the specific property. This post is general information, not legal advice — for questions about a specific disclosure, talk with a qualified professional.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Half the people at my Millbrae open house came from San Francisco. The other half drove up from the South Bay.

More than 30 groups came through. Almost nobody lived nearby.

That split surprised me more than anything about the house.

Why come north?

The San Francisco visitors made sense to me. Millbrae is one of the first cities people look at when they start looking south.

The South Bay visitors were the ones I wanted to hear from. So I asked what brought them north.

The answers varied. Some simply preferred the Peninsula weather. Others were thinking a step ahead: if their next job ended up in San Francisco, or somewhere farther north, they wanted a home that wouldn’t lock them out of it.

Nobody said they were leaving the South Bay behind. They were buying room to move.

Between, or the meeting point

The Peninsula usually gets described as the place between San Francisco and Silicon Valley — the stretch you drive through on the way to somewhere else.

That weekend, it looked more like the meeting point.

The house brought them in. The station kept coming up.

Millbrae is the one Peninsula station where BART and Caltrain meet. BART runs north into San Francisco. Caltrain runs south down the Peninsula toward Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Jose. SFO is next door.

For a household where one person works in San Francisco and the other works in the South Bay, that geography matters.

From most places on the Peninsula, one commute wins and the other loses. Live close to the city and the South Bay drive gets long. Live close to the South Bay and the city gets far. Somebody takes the bad end of the deal, every day.

Millbrae doesn’t make either commute short. What it does is give both people a train — one north, one south — from the same station.

Two jobs, two directions

That’s why, with buyers, I like to map both commutes door to door before we start comparing houses.

Not the distance on a map. The real trip, at the hour you’d actually leave: the walk or drive to the station, whether there’s parking when you get there, the train, and the last stretch to the office. Then the same thing for the other person. Then the drive, for the days the train doesn’t work.

It changes the search more than any filter does.

Because for a two-job household, the house that wins on square footage can lose on the calendar. An extra bedroom doesn’t feel like much if it costs someone 40 minutes each way.

Your next job may not be in your current city

There’s another shift underneath all of this.

AI and tech companies have been taking more office space along the Peninsula again. In San Mateo County, AI companies leased more than 700,000 square feet in the first half of 2026, according to Cushman & Wakefield, and the county’s combined office and R&D vacancy fell to 21.1% in the second quarter. Newmark put AI companies at nearly 30% of the county’s leasing activity in Q2, up from about 13% a year earlier, as reported by the San Mateo Daily Journal.

To be clear, a market where more than a fifth of the space is still empty is not a tight one. But it adds another layer to the location decision. Tech careers move faster than homes do, and your next job may not be in the same city as your current one.

A house near a station hedges that bet. A house that only works for today’s commute doesn’t.

For sellers: look beyond the neighborhood

And for sellers, there’s another lesson:

Your next buyer may not live anywhere near you today.

At this open house, the people who came through were mostly from somewhere else — the city to the north or the South Bay to the south. They were weighing this house against homes in other cities, and they drove in to see it.

That changes how a home should be presented. The marketing has to reach beyond the local zip code. The listing should explain the location to someone who has never spent a Saturday in Millbrae — where the station is, how long the walk takes, what’s close by. And the open house should be ready for questions about commuting in both directions, not only about the kitchen.

What stayed with me

That was what stayed with me after this open house.

San Francisco coming south. South Bay coming north. And meeting in Millbrae.

If you’re a two-job household trying to find the place where both commutes work, tell me where each of you goes every morning. I’ll map both trips with you before we look at a single listing, and tell you honestly whether Millbrae is the answer — or whether a different stop is. There’s more on the city in my Millbrae guide, or call or text me at 650-866-9266.

Transit routes and schedules change; check current service with BART and Caltrain for your own trip. Office-market figures are from Cushman & Wakefield’s San Mateo County Office and R&D MarketBeat, Q2 2026, and from Newmark data as reported by the San Mateo Daily Journal; deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

I hosted a waterfront open house in Foster City this past weekend. More than 20 groups came through. Nobody asked about the house.

Not about square footage. Not about the finishes. Not even about the roof.

Some were moving from the South Bay. Some were helping adult children buy. Several had been waiting specifically for a waterfront home — not a house in Foster City, a house on the water in Foster City, which is a much shorter list. And one neighbor stopped by to tell me they’ve lived there for 48 years.

I wrote a short post about it afterward, and it got more response than I expected. I think that’s because the questions were so honest. So here they are, with the answers I gave in the backyard — and a few things I checked afterward.

“Can I take a boat from the lagoon out to the Bay?”

No. And this is the question I most want buyers to ask before they fall in love, not after.

Foster City’s lagoon is a man-made, enclosed system of roughly 218 acres. It was built as the city’s drainage system first and a place to paddle second. Bay water is let in through intake gates and moved back out by a pump station — the water gets through; a boat doesn’t.

On the lagoon itself, the city’s rules are short: sail, electric, or paddle power only. No gas or diesel motors, and a 5 mph limit for everything on the water.

What that gets you is quiet. You can carry a kayak from the lawn to the water and be out before most of the street is awake. What it doesn’t get you is a slip for a powerboat and a run out under the San Mateo Bridge. If that’s the dream, it’s a trailer and a launch ramp somewhere else — and it’s better to learn that on a Sunday afternoon than during the inspection period.

“What does the HOA actually cover?”

In Foster City there isn’t one answer. Some neighborhoods have an active association, plenty of single-family streets have none, and townhome and condo complexes almost always do. So my first answer is always: let’s read the documents for this house.

On a waterfront lot, though, the question behind the question is usually this: who is responsible for the edge? The seawall or bulkhead along the lagoon, the dock if there is one, the strip between the patio and the water. Depending on the property, that can sit with the owner, an association, or some combination. It’s the one maintenance item on a lagoon house that has no equivalent on an inland house, so I want it answered in writing and looked at by an inspector who knows what they’re looking at.

“How is the new Osaka supermarket?”

Osaka Marketplace opened last December at Edgewater Place, in the space the old Lucky used to occupy.

It sounds like a small question. It isn’t. Someone asking about the grocery store is asking what a Tuesday looks like here — where dinner comes from, how far it is, whether every errand means the car. A waterfront home is a weekend picture. The grocery store is the other five days.

“With rates where they are, cash or finance?”

I’m not a lender or a financial advisor, and the right answer depends on things I shouldn’t guess at: what that cash is doing now, how much you want in reserve after closing, and your tax picture. That conversation belongs with a lender and a CPA, ideally before you write an offer.

What I can speak to is the offer side. Foster City is not a slow market right now. In August, single-family homes there closed at a median of 104% of list price, after about 18 days on average, with 0.8 months of inventory — the tightest supply of the eight cities I track. That was on 11 sales, so read it as a direction rather than a precise number.

In a market like that, a strong, fully underwritten financed offer can still compete. But a cash buyer with clean terms has an edge on certainty and timing, and sellers notice. Whether that edge is worth tying up the cash is exactly the lender-and-CPA question.

“Would you actually live on the water?”

This one usually came a little more quietly. It’s my favorite question, because it isn’t really asking whether the view is beautiful. Everybody can see that it is. It’s asking about the life that comes with it.

My honest answer: yes — for the right person, after checking three things.

The lagoon. Know what it is and what it isn’t. It’s calm, quiet, and made for paddling. It isn’t the open Bay. Swimming is allowed, but the county monitors the water and advisories do happen, so check before you plan a summer around it. You’ll also be sharing it with a lot of geese.

The levee. Foster City is built on filled marshland, and the whole city relies on its levee. In early 2024 the city finished a roughly $90 million levee improvement project, funded by the Measure P bond voters approved in 2018. It raised about 6.5 miles of Bayfront levee, typically by around six feet, with allowances for sea level rise. The point was to keep the levee’s FEMA accreditation, which is what keeps the city out of a mandatory flood-insurance zone. That matters — but confirm the flood zone for the specific address and get an insurance quote anyway.

The orientation. Which way the backyard faces decides more about living on the water than the square footage does. It decides where the sun is at dinner, whether the afternoon wind off the Bay lands on your patio or your roofline, and whether the evening light is on the water or in your eyes. An open house is a Sunday afternoon. Come back at 6 p.m. on a weekday before you decide.

The house gets people through the door. The real decision is everything around it.

The question I’d add

If I were buying on the lagoon, I’d ask the neighbor. Not the listing agent, not the brochure — the person who has watched that stretch of water for decades. How it changes with the seasons. Where the wind comes from in June. What they’d do differently if they bought again. Most people are happy to tell you. The 48-year neighbor certainly was.

If you’re weighing a waterfront home in Foster City — or trying to decide whether the water is worth it at all — tell me how you’d actually use it. I’ll tell you honestly whether it fits, or whether a different street does. There’s more on the city itself in my Foster City guide, or call or text me at 650-866-9266.

And if you’d been standing in that backyard, what would you have asked?

Lagoon rules, flood-zone designations and insurance requirements can change; confirm them with the City of Foster City and for the specific property. Market figures are from the KW Advisors San Mateo County Market Report, September 2026 edition (August 2026 activity), sourced from MLS Listings Inc., InfoSparks, and Trend Graphix; deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Nothing here is financial, lending, or insurance advice.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Dreamforce is back this week, and San Francisco has that familiar energy again — Moscone packed, calendars full, and somehow half the conversations circling back to AI.

I spent six and a half years at Salesforce and have been going to Dreamforce for more than a decade, so the week still feels a little nostalgic. Old colleagues, big ideas, too many badges.

And one question kept coming up, inside Moscone and outside it: if the AI boom cools, what happens to Peninsula real estate?

The last pullback is the closest thing to an answer

Nobody knows. But we have watched a tech cycle turn before, and the part most people get wrong is what they expect on the other side of it. The assumption is that a tech slowdown produces discounts.

That is not what happened. Buyers stepped back — and sellers stepped back with them. Fewer people shopping, but also fewer people willing to list a house they financed at a rate they will not see again, or to trade a home they liked for an uncertain market.

The market did not get cheap. It got quiet. Those are different things, and only one of them helps a buyer.

A softer cycle can mean fewer bidding wars and more room to negotiate. It can also mean fewer homes worth wanting. When both sides of the market thin out at the same time, the buyer’s advantage is a lot smaller than the headline suggests.

Right now, it is not quiet

August single-family homes, six Peninsula cities, listed north to south — Millbrae down to Redwood City:

For context, San Mateo County as a whole closed 328 single-family sales in August at a median of $2 million, 106.9% of list, 25 days on market, and 1.5 months of inventory. Every one of the six cities above beat the county on overbid.

Compared with the figures I published in July, two things are true in that table at once.

The market did loosen. Months of inventory rose in every one of these cities, and homes took longer to sell in five of the six. San Mateo nearly doubled its average days on market. Belmont is out to 28 days. That is the softening people keep asking about, and it is real.

And the competition held anyway. Every city still closed above asking. In Millbrae, Burlingame, Belmont, San Carlos, and Redwood City the sale-to-list percentage went up rather than down — even as those same homes sat longer. More listings, more time, and the good ones still going over ask. That is not a market rolling over. That is a market with more to choose from and the same short list of homes people actually want.

A word on the medians

Look at the sold column before you read too much into any median. Millbrae’s $1.7 million rests on nine sales. San Carlos’s $2.8 million rests on 15. At counts like that, which houses happened to close is the whole story — Millbrae did not lose $600,000 of value in 30 days, it sold a different set of houses. Sale-to-list and days on market hold up better month to month, which is why I lead with them.

What I would actually watch

I would not build a buying strategy around predicting when the AI cycle turns. The people at Moscone this week are closer to it than I am, and they do not know either.

I would watch something much narrower and far more useful: how much competition there is for the specific home you want, right now. Not the county. Not the sector. The house.

That part is knowable. How many people came through the last two open houses on that street. Whether the most recent comparable sale drew one offer or nine. Whether the well-prepared homes in that price band are gone in a week or still sitting after a month. Those numbers move before the countywide ones do, and they are what decides what you pay.

If the cycle does soften, you will see it there first — in one neighborhood, in one price band — long before it shows up in a median.

So the honest answer to the Dreamforce question is: wait for the tech news and you will be reacting to something that already happened. Watch the competition for your house instead.

If you are weighing a Peninsula purchase and want to know what that competition actually looks like for the kind of home you are describing, call or text me at 650-866-9266. I will pull the recent comps for that street and tell you honestly whether it is a crowded lane or a quiet one.

And to my Salesforce friends at Moscone this week — have fun. I still miss the energy.

Single-family figures from the KW Advisors San Mateo County Market Report, September 2026 edition (August 2026 activity), sourced from MLS Listings Inc., InfoSparks, and Trend Graphix. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

The September edition of the county market report landed this week, which means we finally have August on paper. Here is what eight Peninsula cities actually did.

The one-line version

The market loosened and the competition did not. Inventory rose in seven of these eight cities and homes took longer to sell in six of them — and all eight single-family markets still closed above asking. Condos went the other direction: more time, more supply, and prices landing under list almost everywhere.

Single-family homes

Listed north to south, Daly City down to Redwood City.

Every city closed over asking. The sale-vs.-list column never dropped below 104%. Millbrae led at 114.3%, Burlingame at 111.8%, San Mateo at 109.5%. Countywide, single-family homes closed at 106.9% of list on 328 sales — so six of these eight cities ran hotter than the county average.

Inventory rose almost everywhere. Compared with July, months of supply went up in seven of the eight: Burlingame and Millbrae roughly doubled, Redwood City moved from 1.0 to 1.8, San Mateo from 0.7 to 1.0. Anything under about two months still favors sellers, so none of these markets actually crossed over — they just stopped being airless.

Foster City went the other way. It was the loose one in July at 2.3 months on seven closings. In August it took eight new listings, sold 11 homes, and finished at 0.8 months — the tightest supply in the group. Average days on market fell from 28 to 18. One month does not make a trend, but that is a real reversal.

Homes sat longer, and it did not cost sellers anything. Six of the eight took more days on market than in July — San Mateo nearly doubled from 14 to 26, Belmont went 19 to 28, San Carlos 13 to 20. And in most of those same cities the overbid went up. More time on market is not the same as less demand. It usually means more homes to see before buyers commit to one.

Condos and townhomes

Two markets, still. Countywide, condos and townhomes closed at 99.4% of list against single-family’s 106.9%, with 2.4 months of inventory against 1.5. That seven-and-a-half-point gap is the clearest dividing line in the report.

The waiting got longer. Redwood City condos averaged 67 days. San Mateo 55. Foster City, Millbrae, and Daly City all sat at 52. In July, Redwood City, San Mateo, Foster City, and Millbrae were all running in the thirties and forties. If you are a buyer who wants time to think, this is where it exists.

Two exceptions worth naming. San Mateo condos crossed over the line, closing at 101.6% after finishing under list in July — on 19 sales, the largest condo sample in the group. Burlingame held at 103.4%. Everywhere else, buyers negotiated.

San Carlos is the outlier. Seven months of condo inventory, the most in the set — on two closings. Read that as thin data, not as a collapse.

What it means, depending on where you stand

Buying single-family. You have more to look at than you did in July and more time to look at it. You do not have more leverage on the good ones. Budget for the premium, and do not let a home that has been sitting three weeks convince you the list price is the ceiling — in four of these cities homes took longer to sell than they did in July and still closed at a higher premium.

Buying a condo or townhome. This is where negotiating is actually possible, in most of these cities. Longer days on market and two to four months of supply mean you can ask for repairs, credits, or a price, and expect an answer rather than a counter-offer deadline.

Selling. Preparation is doing more work than pricing right now. The spread between a well-prepared home and an average one is wider than the spread between cities. Price to invite competition and put the money into getting the house ready.

A note on small samples

Look at the sold column before you read anything into a median. Millbrae’s $1.7 million rests on nine single-family sales, San Carlos’s $2.8 million on 15, and the Millbrae and San Carlos condo medians on two apiece. At counts like that, a median tells you which houses happened to close, not what happened to value. Sale-to-list and days on market hold up better month to month, which is why I lead with them.

Numbers tell you what the month did. They do not tell you whether it was the right house. That part is still a conversation.

If you want to know what this means for a specific street, price band, or timeline — the level where these decisions actually get made — tell me which city is yours and I will pull the comparable sales that matter for your block. Call or text me at 650-866-9266.

Figures from the KW Advisors San Mateo County Market Report, September 2026 edition (August 2026 activity), sourced from MLS Listings Inc., InfoSparks, and Trend Graphix. July comparisons from the July report. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Every town next to an expensive one gets called “the affordable option.” Belmont is not the affordable San Carlos.

Yes, the median price is lower. But Belmont still sells competitively, and reducing it to the cheaper town next door misses what actually makes it different.

The hills are the point

Belmont is one of those places where the terrain shapes everything. The streets wind instead of running in a neat grid. Many homes are split-levels or built into a slope. And depending on where you live, you can finish work and be on a real trail at Waterdog Lake not long afterward. That connection to open space is a big part of Belmont’s identity.

The tradeoff: if you want a Laurel Street-style downtown, Belmont doesn’t really have one. What it has instead is Twin Pines, hillside neighborhoods, open space, and views that make the drive home feel very different from the flatter parts of the Peninsula.

One thing I’d pay attention to before buying

On the hills, the reports matter more than the paint.

Drainage, retaining walls, slope conditions, and foundation work deserve extra attention when you’re reading disclosures and inspections. None of that means “don’t buy in Belmont.” It just means Belmont comes with a different set of questions.

My family spends a lot of time here, and I’m on Ralston constantly. I put together eight honest things to know about Belmont before you buy — swipe through the cards above.

Deciding between Belmont and San Carlos?

Tell me what matters most to you — the trail, the school, the commute, the downtown. I’ll tell you honestly which one I’d look at first.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Thinking about downsizing? Your property tax may move with you.

This is the single most common reason I hear for staying put. A couple bought on the Peninsula in 1994. The house is now too big, the stairs are no longer a good idea, and the yard is a part-time job. But the property tax bill is based on a decades-old assessed value, and the assumption is that selling means handing that back and starting over at today’s number.

For many homeowners 55 and older, that assumption is worth checking before it decides anything.

What Proposition 19 changed

Proposition 19 took effect in April 2021. Among other things, it replaced the older Propositions 60 and 90, which let qualifying homeowners move their assessed value only within the same county or to a handful of counties that agreed to accept transfers.

Under Prop 19, a qualifying homeowner who is 55 or older may transfer the taxable value of their principal residence to a replacement principal residence anywhere in California — up to three times in a lifetime. The same provisions extend to homeowners who are severely disabled and to those whose homes were destroyed in a wildfire or declared disaster.

Same house sold. Same money in the bank. A very different monthly cost, depending on whether the basis moved with you.

It isn’t all-or-nothing if you buy up

The version of this that surprises people most: the replacement home does not have to be cheaper.

If the replacement costs the same or less, the assessed value generally transfers straight across. If it costs more, the difference in price is added on top of the transferred value. So a homeowner with a low basis who sells and buys something more expensive doesn’t lose the benefit entirely — they carry the old value forward and get assessed on the gap.

That matters on the Peninsula, where “downsizing” in square footage is not always downsizing in price. A smaller, single-level, recently renovated home in a walkable location can cost as much as the family house you’re leaving.

The timing is the part people miss

Two windows do the damage when they’re overlooked:

• The replacement home generally must be purchased or newly built within two years of the sale of the original — before or after, but within that window.
• The claim is filed with the County Assessor, not applied automatically. Filing within three years of the replacement purchase is what preserves full retroactive relief; later filings may only go forward from the filing date.

Both properties also have to be your principal residence — this is not a path for a rental or a second home.

What this changes about the decision

If you’ve been assuming a move is financially off the table, the honest next step isn’t a listing appointment. It’s a comparison.

Run three numbers side by side:

• What your current home would realistically sell for today.
• What the home you actually want costs — the one with fewer stairs, less maintenance, and a location you’d use.
• What the annual carrying cost looks like with the transferred basis versus without it.

I’ve seen that third number reorder the whole conversation. Sometimes it confirms staying put, which is a useful answer too. But I’d rather a client decide from the actual figures than from a rule they half-remember from a neighbor.

What I can and can’t help with

I’m a Realtor, not a tax professional, and I’m careful about that line. The rules have eligibility conditions, exceptions, and filing mechanics that belong with the people who administer them.

What I can do is the housing half: what your home is likely to bring in this market, what the inventory looks like for the kind of home you’re describing, how the sale and the purchase are sequenced so you’re not moving twice, and what the two-year window means for your listing timeline.

If you’re weighing a move on the Peninsula, call or text me at 650-866-9266. I’m happy to think through the housing side with you and point you toward the right resources for the tax details.

Before you decide moving is too expensive, run the numbers first.

Rules and timing matter, and eligibility depends on your specific situation. Confirm the details with the San Mateo County Assessor or a qualified tax professional before acting. This article is general information, not tax or legal advice.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

On the Peninsula, days on market often measures the listing calendar before it measures demand.

Every listing page shows the number, and most buyers read it the same way: how long has this house been sitting? Useful question. But here, especially in the first couple of weeks, it can mislead.

The number is partly scheduled

Before a Peninsula home goes live, it may already have been shown privately — through the listing agent’s network, internal team previews, or select buyer agents.

Then it hits the MLS. That’s when the public marketing window begins: open houses, showings, disclosures, and usually an offer date several days later.

So when a San Carlos home shows 10 or 13 days on market, that doesn’t mean buyers needed that long to decide. Part of the number reflects a launch calendar designed in advance. And Day 1 on the MLS may not be the first day serious buyers or agents have seen it.

Where the number starts talking

I pay much closer attention once the offer date passes.

A home that goes into contract on schedule tells me the launch worked. But if it’s still active several days later, that’s new information.

Maybe the price was too ambitious. Maybe buyers didn’t respond to the condition, layout, or location. Maybe seller expectations didn’t match the market. Whatever the reason, we know something we didn’t know before the deadline.

Same days-on-market number. Very different story underneath.

For buyers

Before the offer date, speed isn’t necessarily your advantage. You can’t outrun a deadline the seller already set. Preparation matters more:

• Knowing about the home early.
• Understanding the comps.
• Reviewing disclosures.
• Having financing and offer strategy ready.

After the offer date passes without a sale, the conversation changes. You now have market feedback — and potentially more negotiating leverage than the listing page suggests.

For sellers

The first stretch of days on market is partly built into your launch plan. So before listing, I wouldn’t just ask how do we sell quickly? I’d ask: what is our plan if the offer date comes and we don’t get the result we expected?

A seller can lose valuable time by holding the same price after the first buyer pool has already seen the home and responded. Decide beforehand what would trigger a change in price, presentation, or strategy — not on day 19.

What I actually look at

Days on market is one data point. I also want to know:

• Was there an offer date?
• Did it move?
• What happened afterward?
• Were there price changes?
• Was the property marketed or listed before?

Because the more useful question often isn’t how many days has this house been on the market? It’s where is this house in its selling cycle?

Send me the address

I live on the Peninsula and watch these offer dates every week. If there’s a property you’re weighing, send me the address. I’ll tell you what the timing and listing history actually say.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Buyers ask me what San Mateo is going for. It’s a fair question with no honest answer.

San Mateo is one city and several housing markets, and the seams between them don’t follow neighborhood lines — they follow blocks. One street catches the wind off the bay every afternoon; four blocks uphill sits still. One address pulls permits from the city, the next one over answers to the county. One block is quiet at a Sunday open house and sits under a departure path on a Tuesday.

You can renovate a kitchen. You can’t renovate a flight path.

None of it shows up in a listing portal. All of it shows up after you move in. So I put together eight San Mateo details worth checking before you lean on a citywide average or a price per square foot — swipe through the cards above. Some take an afternoon: drive the block on a weekday evening, not Sunday at one. Others take one call to the right department.

Watching a specific address?

Send it over. I’ll tell you which of the eight actually apply — and if the answer is that the block doesn’t fit how you live, I’d rather you hear it now than at the inspection.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

A house sells for $600,000 over asking and it reads like a verdict. Everyone’s fighting. Prices are climbing. You’re already too late.

Except that number measures far less than it seems to.

What it actually measures

List price is a decision, not a fact. Two nearly identical houses on the same Belmont street can go out $400,000 apart. The underpriced one “overbids” by a spectacular number. The honestly priced one sells at ask. Same buyer pool, same final sale price, two completely different headlines.

So overbid percentage doesn’t measure demand by itself. It measures demand and pricing strategy tangled together, and you can’t pull them apart from the headline alone. In isolation it’s a weak signal — and an easy one to misread in exactly the direction that makes you act.

What to read instead

Days on market, and where a home closes relative to the last comparable sale on that street. Those are harder to manufacture.

If similar homes are closing above where they closed in March, that’s a market moving. If they’re closing at the same number with louder press releases, that’s a pricing strategy.

Why this one bothers me

I spent enough years in revenue reviews to recognize a number that gets quoted more than it gets interrogated. Overbid percentage is one. It makes the best screenshot and the worst decision — buyers see it and either panic-stretch or walk away from a house that was never actually out of reach.

Send me the address

I live in San Carlos and I watch these closings every week. If you saw a number that spooked you, send me the address and I’ll tell you what I actually see in it — the days on market, the comps on that street, and whether the headline is a market or a marketing choice.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Eight cities, one month of closed sales, two very different stories depending on what you were buying. Here is how the Peninsula looked in July 2026, pulled from San Mateo County MLS. I read these reports the way I used to read dashboards — looking for the number that contradicts the headline. This month, the contradiction is sitting one row down on every card.

The one-line version

Single-family homes stayed a seller’s market: every city closed over asking, most with well under a month and a half of inventory, many selling in two weeks or less. Condos and townhomes told a quieter story — more inventory, prices landing around or just under list, and homes sitting weeks longer. Same county, two separate games.

Single-family homes

Everything closed over asking. The “sale vs. list” column never dipped below 100% — Daly City led at 113.7%, with San Mateo, Burlingame, and Millbrae all above 107%. The list price was a starting line, not a ceiling. If you are buying, budget for the premium; if you are selling, price to invite competition rather than to capture the last dollar up front.

Inventory stayed thin. San Mateo, Burlingame, and Millbrae each held around 0.7 months of supply, and San Carlos 0.8. Anything under roughly two months favors sellers, so most of these markets weren’t close. Foster City, at 2.3 months on just seven closings, was the one loosening at the edges.

Speed held. Burlingame’s median single-family home went in an average of eight days. Millbrae took 12, San Carlos 13, San Mateo 14. Well-prepared, well-priced homes were still moving in about two weeks.

Condos and townhomes

The story flips. Where single-family homes closed over ask, condos and townhomes mostly settled around or just under list — Belmont at 96.9%, Redwood City at 97.4%, Millbrae at 97.8%. A handful still cleared asking, but the fever pitch was gone.

More room, more time. Condo inventory ran two to five times higher than single-family in the same city, and homes sat longer — Daly City averaged 54 days, Millbrae 42, Belmont and San Mateo 40. For a patient buyer, that is the corner of the Peninsula where negotiating leverage actually exists this month.

What it means, depending on where you stand

If you are shopping single-family, the June-into-July math hasn’t softened: come pre-approved, expect competition, and don’t let the list price anchor your budget. If you are open to a condo or townhome, you have more selection and more time — and, in several cities, the ability to negotiate rather than just react.

A note on small samples

Several of these cities closed only a handful of homes — Belmont had three condo sales, Foster City seven single-family. With counts that low, one unusual transaction can swing a median or a sale-to-list ratio noticeably. Treat one month as a data point, not a verdict, and lean on the direction more than the decimal.

Numbers tell you what happened. They do not tell you whether it was the right house. That part is still a conversation.

If you want to know what these trends mean for a specific street, price band, or timeline, that is exactly the kind of question I like to dig into. Tell me which city is yours and I will pull the numbers that actually matter for your block.

Data from San Mateo County MLS, July 2026. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

“Summer’s slow, we’ll list in the fall.” I hear it every July. On the Peninsula, it usually costs the seller money.

Summer isn’t what’s slow. Mispricing is.

The numbers, this morning

I pulled inventory across the mid-Peninsula — San Bruno through Menlo Park. It’s still relatively limited: well under 300 single-family homes for sale, at a median ask around $2.2 million. This is not a market drowning in choices.

And about two-thirds of those listings have been on the market under a month. The homes piling up past 90 days aren’t victims of the season. They’re the overpriced ones.

The buyers still here in July are the serious ones

The people touring in July aren’t browsing. They’re relocating, pre-approved, and they need to be in before the school year starts. Fewer homes competing for motivated buyers is the exact setup sellers say they want.

It’s sitting right here in July.

“Slow market” and “selective market” are not the same thing — and they call for very different game plans.

So the real question isn’t “now or fall”

It’s whether your home is priced to the buyers who are actually shopping right now.

Wait until September and you list into the wave of everyone else who waited too. That means more competition, not less.

If you’re weighing now vs. later

It’s worth knowing what your home would actually do in today’s market — not in the version of the market everyone repeats at backyard barbecues. I live and work these mid-Peninsula towns, and I’m happy to share what I’m seeing in your neighborhood.

Just tell me the area you’re in.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Everyone treats the July 4 week as a dead zone for homebuying. For buyers, it’s the opposite — and I pulled the numbers this morning to show you why.

Right now there are 296 single-family homes for sale across the mid-Peninsula — San Bruno down through Menlo Park. About a third of them have been sitting on the market for a month or more. More than one in eight have sat past 60 days.

The slow listings aren’t where you’d guess

Here’s the part that matters: the slow listings aren’t the $900,000 starter homes — those still move in a week or two. They’re concentrated above $2 million, exactly the range where buyers got buried in bidding wars this spring. The house is the same. The crowd around it isn’t.

A home that’s been listed 90 days heading into a holiday week is a seller doing math.

That’s where a prepared buyer asks for a price cut, a repair credit, a longer close — and actually gets it. I see this every summer in towns like San Carlos and Belmont.

The catch is “prepared”

That leverage only works if your financing is locked and you can move the week everyone else is offline. That’s the part to set up now, not after you’ve found the place.

If you’ve been frustrated by the spring bidding wars here on the Peninsula, the next three weeks are the quietest window you’ll get before fall. The crowd thins out. The math gets friendlier. And the buyers who did their homework in June are the ones who quietly close in July.

Curious whether this applies to your search?

Wondering whether this holds in the neighborhoods you’re watching? I’d be happy to share what I’m seeing locally — just send me a message and tell me the towns and price range you’re tracking.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Everyone told you summer would be slow. Then, last week, a Belmont home went pending at around $500,000 over asking.

Listed at $1.7 million. Pending at $2.2 million. No contingencies.

The interesting part isn’t the number. It’s that the winning buyer waived everything — no contingencies, no safety net — in the same market everyone keeps calling “cautious.”

The house everyone wanted

It was a well-kept three-bedroom, two-bath, about 1,700 square feet — the kind of house a family moves into and just starts living in. A flat backyard the kids can run around. Big windows that catch the afternoon light. Kitchen and baths already done.

Two weekends of open houses. Then a stack of offers. The winning one came in clean — nothing for the seller to lose sleep over.

A lot of that demand came from what the neighborhood offers: strong schools, K through 12, and the walkable, family-first feel people move to the Peninsula for.

Demand didn’t disappear. It got selective.

Buyers are more careful than they were a few years ago. But for the right house in the right spot, they’ll still compete hard.

So much for the summer slowdown. The demand everyone expected to cool off didn’t vanish — it just got pickier about where it shows up. Off-market guesses and tired listings still sit. The well-prepared house in a strong location still draws a crowd.

That’s the part worth holding onto if you’re thinking about buying or selling this summer: “slow market” and “selective market” are not the same thing, and they call for very different game plans.

Thinking about your own move?

I live and work these Mid-Peninsula towns. If you’re wondering what your home would actually do in this market — or what it really takes to win one right now — just send me a message. Happy summer.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Every agent calls their town a "hidden gem." San Carlos isn't hidden, and it's not cheap. So let me skip the brochure language and tell you why people pay anyway.

The clearest signal is the one nobody puts in a listing: it barely turns over. People buy here and just stay — 10, 15, 20 years. In a place where companies, job titles, and zip codes change every other Tuesday, that kind of permanence is rare. And it's the most honest evidence there is that a town is actually good to live in. You can stage a house. You can't fake a street where families have stayed for two decades.

You feel it before you can explain it

You feel it on Laurel Street, where downtown actually gets used — a Friday-night-with-your-neighbors kind of place, not a strip you drive past on the way to somewhere better. People walk to dinner. They run into people they know. That's not an amenity you can quantify, but it's the thing buyers describe when they say a place "feels right."

You see it from Crestview — top of the hill, top of the world. Watch the sunset up there and try not to open Zillow on the drive home. That's not something you get from listing photos. It's the part of a town you only understand by standing in it.

Low turnover isn't a number on a flyer. It's the quiet proof that the people who live here already made the call you're trying to make.

I live here, so this isn't a pitch from across the bridge. I wanted to share eight honest things about San Carlos — the kind of details I'd tell a friend, not a client. Swipe through the cards above.

Thinking about the Peninsula?

Tell me what you're looking for. I'll tell you honestly if it's San Carlos — or if it's Belmont, San Mateo, or somewhere else entirely. The right answer is the one that fits your life, not the one that closes fastest.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Six cities, one month of closed sales. Here is how the mid-Peninsula single-family market looked in May 2026, pulled straight from MLSListings. I read these reports the way I used to read dashboards — looking for the number that contradicts the headline.

The one-line version

Prices held firm to higher almost everywhere, homes still sold fast, and buyers kept paying over ask. Of the six cities, five posted higher median sale prices than a year ago. Every market closed above list price.

The numbers

What stands out

Everything sold over asking. The “% of list received” column never dipped below 105%. San Mateo led at 110%, with Burlingame close behind at 109%. In plain terms: the list price is a starting line, not a ceiling. If you are buying, budget for the premium; if you are selling, price to invite competition rather than to capture the last dollar up front.

Speed has not let up. Palo Alto’s median home went pending in eight days. Burlingame took nine. Even the “slowest” city here, Belmont at 14 days, is fast by any normal standard. Well-prepared, well-priced homes are still moving in under two weeks.

Year-over-year, the trend is up. Compared with May 2025, Menlo Park rose the most — roughly 16% (from $3.4 million to $3.95 million) — followed by Belmont near 13% and Burlingame around 9%. Palo Alto and Redwood City posted smaller single-digit gains. San Mateo was the one exception, down about 3% from a year ago ($2.25 million to $2.19 million).

Price per square foot tells the quality story. Palo Alto stands alone at $2,305 per square foot, well above Menlo Park’s $1,700. The entry tier — San Mateo, Belmont, and Redwood City — clusters tightly between roughly $1,300 and $1,330. That spread is a useful map if you are weighing how far your budget stretches across city lines.

A note on small samples

A few of these cities closed only a handful of homes in May — Belmont recorded 16 sales, Burlingame 22. With counts that low, a couple of unusual transactions can swing a median noticeably. Treat one month as a data point, not a verdict. The year-over-year direction is the more reliable signal.

Numbers tell you what happened. They do not tell you whether it was the right house. That part is still a conversation.

If you want to know what these trends mean for a specific street, price band, or timeline, that is exactly the kind of question I like to dig into. Reach out and we will look at your situation with the same data lens.

Data from MLSListings, produced 06/03/2026. Single-family homes only. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Almost every family I meet who is relocating to the Peninsula tells me some version of the same thing: “We’re moving for the schools.”

I understand the instinct. For many families, the school question is the whole reason for the move — and it deserves a clearer answer than a district ranking or a neighbor’s rule of thumb. Some of the choices parents agonize over end up mattering a great deal. Others quietly don’t.

So let me start with the thing no one selling you a house will say out loud: the home does not get your child into Stanford. The right environment, sustained for years, gives a motivated kid room to become the person an admissions office wants to admit. That is a real advantage — and it is worth buying for. But only if you choose with clear eyes rather than a brochure.

Here is how I’d think it through.

First decide what “the schools” actually means to you

“Good schools” is not one thing on the Peninsula. There are three different decisions hiding inside that phrase, and they lead to very different houses.

The first is strong public districts — you’re buying the attendance zone, so the home is the tuition. The second is access to elite private day schools, where you can live a bit farther out because admission, not geography, is the gate. The third is a bilingual or values-based fit — language immersion, faith-based, or progressive programs that matter more to your family than a ranking.

Families who skip this step often overpay for a public district their child will never attend, because they enrolled privately anyway. Decide the lane first. Then we shop.

A field guide to the towns — through a school lens

Every town on the Peninsula has a personality. Here is how I describe the four areas families ask about most, and what each one really gives you.

Belmont and San Carlos — the value sweet spot

This is my home turf, and it’s where I send a lot of families who want strong schools without an Atherton price. The draw here is Carlmont High School in Belmont — a public high school with a strong academic reputation, serving both Belmont and San Carlos, no private-school tuition required. The commute is central, the districts are well-regarded, and for many dual-income tech families, this combination — a home you can actually afford plus a genuinely good public school — is the most rational play on the Peninsula. See what’s realistic in Belmont and San Carlos.

Hillsborough and Burlingame — prestige with a yard

Hillsborough is large lots, quiet streets, and proximity to two of the most academically serious schools in the country: The Nueva School (repeatedly ranked the top STEM high school in America) and Crystal Springs Uplands, whose graduates land at the full sweep of the Ivy League and Stanford each year. Day-school tuition here runs roughly $63,000–$65,000. But the two towns also share one public high school — Burlingame High, serving both Hillsborough and Burlingame — so a strong education here doesn’t require private-school tuition. Burlingame next door gives you a walkable downtown and a softer entry price while keeping you in the same orbit.

Atherton and Menlo Park — the top tier

This is the luxury end, and the schools match. Menlo School and Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton are destination day schools; families relocate across the country for them. Menlo Park itself blends excellent publics with quick access to everything in Atherton. If your search is at the high end and education is the organizing principle, this is where the deepest concentration of options sits.

Palo Alto and Los Altos — public-school gravity

Palo Alto and Los Altos have public schools so strong that, for many families, they are the private-school alternative — which is exactly why the home prices already have that quality baked in. You’re paying tuition through the mortgage. For families who still want private options, Castilleja (girls, grades 6-12, about $65,000) in Palo Alto and Pinewood in Los Altos are anchors. Buy the attendance zone deliberately here; boundary lines move, and the wrong side of a street is a real cost.

Five things I tell every relocating family

These are the points that change a house search — and that a listing rarely mentions.

1. Private admission is not guaranteed by your address

The top day schools admit from across the whole Peninsula. Buying in Hillsborough does not move your child to the front of Nueva’s line. If private is the plan, do not overpay for a zip code you don’t need — put that money toward a home you’ll be happy in for a decade.

2. If you’re betting on public, buy the boundary, not the town

Attendance zones cut through neighborhoods and occasionally through individual blocks. I verify the exact zone for any home before you fall in love with it, because the difference can be six figures of value and four years of your child’s education.

3. Commute is part of the education

A 45-minute each-way school run quietly erodes the homework hours, the sleep, and the family dinners that actually shape a strong applicant. Proximity is not a luxury here; it’s an academic input. We map your real daily triangle — home, school, work — before we tour anything.

4. Plan for the full arc, not next September

A home that suits a second-grader can be wrong for a high-schooler who needs quiet, independence, and a place to host a robotics team. Buy for the child your child is becoming.

5. Hold for the long game

The families who win at both housing and admissions are the ones who can stay put for seven-plus years without financial stress. Stability — same school, same friends, same desk — is one of the most underrated advantages in a college application. Don’t stretch so far that you’re forced to move mid-stream.

The best thing you can give an ambitious kid isn’t a famous address. It’s a stable home, near the right school, that you can comfortably keep.

Where I come in

I work with a lot of bilingual families relocating from out of state and overseas — often in tech, often weighing public versus private for the first time, and often doing it in English and 中文 at the same kitchen table. I can’t write your child’s application. But I can make sure the home underneath all of it is the right one: correct attendance zone, sane commute, room to grow, and a price that lets you stay for the long haul.

If you’re moving to the Peninsula and the schools are driving the decision, send me a note before you start touring. We’ll map your priorities first — the house comes after.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

In go-to-market strategy, we always knew the launch window mattered. Get it right and the product carries its own momentum. Get it wrong and you spend months trying to recover. The same is true in real estate — and most sellers don’t realize it until the window has already closed.

What is a listing’s “launch window”?

For a home, the launch window is the first two weeks on the market. That is when the listing gets the most attention, when serious buyers are watching closely, and when agents are actively sharing it with their clients. It is also when your pricing, photos, preparation, and positioning either build momentum — or quietly create doubt.

Why do the first two weeks matter so much?

In the Bay Area, buyers are informed. They compare quickly, and they compare on everything: condition, layout, location, pricing, presentation. A well-prepared home that lands cleanly in that first window draws competing attention while interest is highest. Momentum, once it starts, tends to compound.

That early attention is the scarcest resource a listing has. It does not come back later at the same intensity. A price cut three weeks in reaches a smaller, more skeptical audience than a sharp launch reached on day one.

What happens if a home sits too long?

This is the part sellers underestimate. When a home lingers, the buyer’s internal question changes from “Should we compete for this?” to “What’s wrong with it?”

Nothing about the house has changed. Only the story has. Days on market becomes its own signal, and in an informed market that signal does real damage to price and negotiating leverage.

A strong listing does not just appear on the MLS. It is built before the market ever sees it.

How do you prepare a home before it hits the market?

This is why our team treats listing preparation as a serious strategy — not a last-minute checklist. Before a home ever reaches the market, the real work has already started. Not just “getting it listed,” but deciding:

• How the home should be positioned against what buyers are comparing it to
• What buyers need to feel confident about before they’ll compete
• Which objections to address early, before they become hesitation
• How to create the strongest possible first impression in photos, online, and in person

Many of our recent listings have moved quickly — often within one to two open-house weekends. That kind of momentum does not happen by accident. It comes from preparation, experience, teamwork, and a clear read on how today’s buyers actually make decisions.

It is also one of the reasons Disen Cai Real Estate Group ranked #1 in Millbrae and Burlingame by year-to-date sales volume within our Bay Area and Hawaii network.

When should you start preparing to sell?

Earlier than feels necessary. If you are thinking about selling in the next six to 12 months, the best time to start preparing is before you feel ready. The decisions that shape your launch window — repairs, staging, timing, pricing — are far easier to get right with runway than under deadline.

You can see how I approach the full process on my sellers page, or reach out below and we’ll map your timeline together.

Frequently asked questions

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

New role. New company. IPO. Acquisition. Remote work policy change. Growing family. Aging parents. School decisions.

For many tech professionals, life can change every few years — sometimes every few months.

But once people buy a home in the Bay Area, they often stay much longer than expected.

The numbers surprised me at first

Recent Redfin data shows the typical U.S. homeowner stays in their home about 12 years.

In San Jose, it’s closer to 19 years. In San Francisco, about 16.5 years.

That surprised me at first. Then it made perfect sense.

In the Bay Area, people do not always stay because life is predictable. They stay because moving is expensive.

• Prop 13.
• Low mortgage-rate lock-in.
• Limited inventory.
• High replacement cost.
• The emotional weight of starting over.

What I ask buyers instead

So when buyers tell me, “I don’t know if this is my forever home,” I usually ask a different question:

Can this be the right home for your next five to seven years?

Because the winning move is not always buying the perfect home.

It is buying the right home with strong fundamentals:

• A home you can enjoy now.
• A home other buyers will still want later.
• A home that may become a rental someday.
• A home that gives you options if life changes.

Forever sounds romantic. But in the Bay Area, optionality is often the real luxury.

Your forever home may not exist. Your next smart move might.

If you’re deciding whether buying in the Bay Area makes sense for your next chapter, I’m happy to help you think it through. Send me a note.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Before you head into open houses this weekend — a quick read on where the Peninsula actually stands.

San Mateo County, April 2026 (single family)

• 565 new listings · 415 sold
• 1.4 months of inventory
• 106.5% of list price
• 18 days on market

The “market is cooling” headline doesn’t match what’s closing. Well-priced single-family homes are still going over ask, often with multiple offers, and they’re moving in under three weeks. If you’re a buyer waiting for prices to break, that break isn’t showing up in the data.

What is showing up: a real split between single-family and condos/townhomes. Condo inventory is sitting longer and selling closer to list — which means there’s actually negotiating room there, even while SFH stays competitive. Same county, two very different conversations.

If you’ve been sitting on RSUs or a vest cliff waiting for the “right time,” the right time depends entirely on what you’re buying, not when you’re buying. Or read more on the For Buyers page if you want to talk through your specifics.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

I hear some version of this all the time.

Buyers worry about overpaying. They worry about losing another offer. They wonder if now is even the right time.

But in the Peninsula market, the buyers who win are not always the ones with the highest offer.

Often, they are the ones with the clearest plan.

In my startup career, I learned that great outcomes rarely come from one heroic move. They come from preparation, timing, and a strong system behind the scenes.

Real estate is the same.

A strong buyer is not just someone with a pre-approval letter

A strong buyer has:

• A lender who can move fast
• A clear budget ceiling before emotions take over
• A real understanding of comps, not just online estimates
• An agent who knows when to push, when to pause, and when the house is not worth chasing
• A plan for inspections, disclosures, contingencies, and offer strategy before the dream home appears

The best buyers are not winging it. They are prepared before the right house comes up.

And in a competitive Peninsula market, preparation is not optional. It is often the difference between writing offers and actually getting one accepted.

The right home can appear quickly. The buyers who are ready don’t have to scramble. They know their numbers, their strategy, and their next move.

If you’re thinking about buying or selling in the Peninsula this year, send me a note. I’ll help you think through the process before the pressure starts.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

A Salesforce PM friend asked me last week if she should buy or keep renting in the Bay Area.

The real question turned out to be different: What am I actually building?

Renting in the Mission for eight years, now paying about $3,800/month for a one-bedroom. RSUs stacking. And that quiet voice at night: “Did I miss the window?”

We didn’t start with Zillow.

We looked at three things:

• What it actually costs her to live (after tax, not the sticker price online)
• How much of her financial life was already tied to one company (salary + stock)
• Whether she could hold a home for 7+ years without stress

Here’s where it got real

Buying at her max budget would have tied her even tighter to her job. Same company → paycheck, stock, and future mortgage.

That’s not diversification. That’s doubling down.

So the answer wasn’t “buy now” or “wait.”

It was: buy something you can afford on one income. Not the version of you after your next promotion.

For her, that meant a smaller place in the city or Peninsula — see what's realistic in San Carlos, Belmont, or Redwood City, somewhere with an easy commute and something stable, not stretched.

Because if your job feels uncertain, your mortgage shouldn’t be.

She left with a 90-day plan. Not a listing.

I’m seeing this pattern a lot, and I feel it deeply because I was exactly where she was five years ago.

People in tech don’t need more data. They need help making decisions they can live with. The cap table and the cap rate. The runway and the down payment. Both at once.

So if any of this sounds like a conversation you’ve been having with yourself — sitting on RSUs and not sure if owning makes sense, renting for years and wondering if you missed your chance, holding too much of one company’s stock and feeling uneasy about it — send me a note. No pitch.

Same operator mindset. New product.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

Everyone in the Bay Area has an opinion about Daly City.

Most of those opinions are wrong.

I hosted an open house there last weekend. Here’s what I actually saw:

Buyers who’d been searching for 18 months finally doing math that worked. Professionals who’d written off homeownership in the Bay Area suddenly reconsidering. People who came in skeptical leaving with their phones out, running numbers.

The uncomfortable truth about Bay Area real estate right now

The people who built wealth in SF real estate didn’t find perfect neighborhoods. They found undervalued ones — before everyone else did. Mission. Outer Sunset. Same story, different decade. Buyer strategy here is the same: do the math before the emotion.

Daly City today has what those neighborhoods had then: proximity, infrastructure, community, and price points that still make sense.

That window doesn’t stay open.

If you’re a buyer sitting on the fence, or a seller wondering if now is the right time, I’d rather you have the real picture than the assumptions.

What’s your current read on the Bay Area market? Send me a note — I’d love to hear it.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.

I just did something that surprised everyone — including me.

I spent 20 years in tech, half in Boston and half in San Francisco. Most recently, that meant six and a half years at Salesforce and then two and a half at Globality, Inc., an AI startup right here in Palo Alto. I led growth, marketing, and GTM strategy.

On paper, it made complete sense to keep going.

But over time, I found myself asking a harder question: Do I want to keep optimizing systems, or do I want to do work that feels more personal?

What I realized surprised me.

The part I loved most was never the dashboards or the funnels. It was the people. Understanding what they care about, helping them navigate big decisions, and earning their trust when it matters most.

That realization kept pulling me toward real estate. Not because it’s easy or predictable. But because it’s deeply human. Every client has a story. Every home is tied to a life transition. And every decision carries real weight.

So I got licensed and joined Keller Williams Peninsula Estates.

Starting over, on purpose

I’m starting over in many ways. Learning, listening, and building from the ground up. I went from presenting pipeline metrics to making cold calls and touring open houses on weekends. The humility is real. (So is the excitement.)

But I also feel something I haven’t felt in a while. A genuine sense of energy, ownership, and purpose.

My path here runs through communities I’m deeply grateful for — Northwestern University Medill School, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Salesforce, Globality, and the Peninsula itself.

To everyone who has been part of this journey: thank you. You shaped how I think, how I work, and how I show up for people.

Where I can help

If you know anyone thinking about buying or selling on the Peninsula, anyone who just moved to the Bay Area and needs to figure out where to land, or anyone who’s been asking ChatGPT “is now a good time to buy?” at midnight — send them my way. I’ll take great care of anyone you send me.

New chapter. Same obsession with doing the work right.

Originally published in The Peninsula Letter by Elaine Li, Realtor® · DRE# 02439552.