A listing that hit the market in Santa Clara's Old Quad this year spent more words describing its lot than its house. The parcel ran 9,375 square feet, well above what you'd expect this close to Santa Clara University, and the listing noted the seller already had a floor plan drawn up to expand the home to four bedrooms, plus a mention that the property might qualify for an SB9 lot split. The house itself, built long before Levi's Stadium existed a few miles north, got a single line.
A few miles away in Rivermark, a townhome priced in a similar range made its case differently: quartz counters, a private patio, walking distance to the grocery store and cafes at Rivermark Village. Same city, comparable price, and two sellers arguing for completely different reasons why a buyer should write a check.
That gap is the whole story. Santa Clara's citywide numbers make it look like one market. It isn't.
The Median Doesn't Explain Either One
Pull three sources on Santa Clara home values this year and you'll get three different answers. Zillow put the average home value at $1,710,119 as of June 30, 2026, down 0.8% over the prior twelve months. Redfin's trailing three-month figure landed near $1.7 million as well, down 3.5% year over year, with homes averaging 12 days on market and drawing about four offers apiece. Houzeo, pulling from a different slice of the data, put the median closer to $1,375,000, down a slight 0.22% from the year before.
None of these sources are wrong. They're measuring a city where a hundred-year-old house near a university and a twenty-year-old HOA townhome both get folded into the same average, even though almost nothing about how they're priced, financed, or bought is the same. A citywide median in Santa Clara isn't a snapshot of the typical home. It's a blend of two products that happen to share a zip code.
What the Old Quad Is Actually Selling
The Old Quad, Santa Clara's original street grid dating back to the 1800s and the neighborhood surrounding Santa Clara University, carries a median home value near $1.37 million and a price per square foot around $767, with homes averaging 74 days on market as of late July 2026. The homeownership rate sits at just 38%, meaning most of the housing stock is rented rather than owner-occupied.
That low ownership rate isn't incidental. Back in 2018, city planning staff considered a zoning overlay specifically for the Old Quad after years of single-family homes being converted into informal group housing for students, a use the city was struggling to regulate through its existing code. That conversation predates the current market, but it explains a pattern that's still visible today: a meaningful share of Old Quad listings are pitched to investors and landlords, not to a family looking for a forever house.
None of this cancels out what makes the Old Quad a real neighborhood rather than just an investment zone. The Old Quad Residents' Association, founded in 1979, still runs preservation efforts and historical walking tours. The Santa Clara Historic Home Tour, sponsored by the Historic Preservation Society of Santa Clara with the Association's help, features homes like the 1892 Morse Mansion. The Saturday farmers market at Franklin Mall, on Jackson Street between Homestead and Benton, has been a fixture for residents for years. People live here on purpose, not just as a landlord's line item.
But the pricing tells you something the charm doesn't. At $767 per square foot, the Old Quad actually runs below Santa Clara's broader per-square-foot figure, which Redfin recently put near $1,110. That's the tell. If Old Quad homes were priced the way the rest of the city prices finished square footage, they'd cost less than they do. The gap between what the house is worth as a house and what it's actually selling for is the market pricing in the lot's future, whether that's an SB9 split, an ADU, or steady rental income from a university with a captive tenant base. The SB9 note on that listing wasn't a footnote. It was half the price.
What Rivermark Is Actually Selling
Rivermark tells a different story. Built starting in 2003 as one of the city's first master-planned communities of its kind, Rivermark comes with a monthly HOA fee of roughly $314, which covers landscaping, common-area maintenance, and access to a pool and fitness center. The neighborhood is built around Rivermark Village, a retail cluster with a grocery store, banks, cafes, and restaurants within walking distance of most homes. Residents also have Thamien Park and Live Oak Park, a branch library, and the Ulistac Natural Area just over a mile away for anyone who wants a quieter walk along the wetlands. Homes fall within the Santa Clara Unified School District, with school-aged children typically attending Don Callejon Elementary and Santa Clara High School.
None of that is an upside bet. It's the opposite. The HOA fee exists precisely so that no single owner has to decide who mows the common lawn or repairs the pool deck. Buying in Rivermark means paying for certainty: a maintained streetscape, a walkable retail core that isn't going anywhere, and a fixed monthly number instead of a mystery repair bill. The tradeoff is that you're not buying a lot with room to grow. You're buying a finished product and a fee to keep it that way.
A hundred-year-old house near a university and a twenty-year-old townhome with a pool are not two versions of the same purchase. They're two different products that happen to share a price tag.
A Third Bet Is Under Construction Nearby
Both of these calculations are about to sit closer to a third option. In mid-July 2026, Ensemble Real Estate Investments broke ground on Parkside, a 301-apartment community in the Clara District near Levi's Stadium, expected to open in fall 2028. It's Ensemble's second residential project in the district, joining The Clara, an already-completed 508-unit tower that at 22 stories is Santa Clara's tallest building. Across its full footprint, the Clara District is planned for up to 4,500 residences and 65,000 square feet of retail, most of it rental rather than for-sale housing. The larger 240-acre Related Santa Clara project next door, first approved back in 2016, has moved on a slower timeline, working through revised city land-use approvals in recent years.
The city has real reasons to keep approving this pace of building. Santa Clara's state-mandated housing plan requires the city to plan for 11,632 homes by 2031, with 6,506 of those below market rate, and officials have pointed to projects like Parkside as part of meeting that number.
For a buyer weighing the Old Quad against Rivermark, this matters in different ways for each. If part of the Old Quad's appeal is rental income from a tenant base near campus, a growing supply of amenity-heavy apartments a couple of miles away is worth watching over the next few years, since it's new competition for the same renters. For Rivermark, more density and retail nearby likely reinforces the case that's already being sold: a self-contained community rather than a commute to one.
What This Means If You're Comparing the Two
If you're looking at the Old Quad, ask your lender early how they'll handle appraisal comps that mix owner-occupied sales with multi-unit or investor sales, since that 74-day average time on market likely reflects financing complexity as much as anything about demand. If your own plan involves a future lot split or added unit, verify the specific eligibility with the city directly. SB9 provisions carry parcel size, zoning, and owner-occupancy conditions that vary property by property, and a listing's mention of potential isn't the same as confirmed approval.
If you're looking at Rivermark or a similar HOA community, ask for the reserve study and recent board minutes before writing an offer. The monthly fee quoted in a listing only tells you the maintenance side of the deal. Whether that reserve fund can actually cover a future roof or pool repair without a special assessment is the other half of what you're paying for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Rivermark homes zoned for Santa Clara Unified School District? Yes. Rivermark falls within Santa Clara Unified, with school-aged children typically attending Don Callejon Elementary and Santa Clara High School.
Can any Old Quad property split its lot under SB9? Not automatically. Eligibility depends on lot size, existing structures, and owner-occupancy requirements that vary by parcel, so confirm directly with the city before assuming a listing's stated potential applies to a specific property.
Comparing neighborhoods on price alone will always miss what's actually being sold. If you're weighing a purchase in the Old Quad, Rivermark, or anywhere else across Santa Clara County, Naoko Amaya can help you read past the median and understand what you're really buying. Let's Connect.
