Cupertino Multifamily Prices Lag While Single-Family Soar

Cupertino’s detached-house market is still climbing fast, but the city’s condos and townhomes have not kept pace. (redfin.com) Redfin says Cupertino’s median sale price for all home types reached $3.359 million in March 2026, up 16.2% from a year earlier, with homes selling in about nine days. Juliana Lee’s Cupertino market data, updated March 31, put the median single-family sale price even higher at $3.45 million in the first quarter. (redfin.com) (julianalee.com) That same local data source tracks separate house, townhouse, and condo trends for Cupertino and shows a flatter path for attached housing than for single-family houses over recent years. In March 2026 closings listed on the site, Cupertino recorded far fewer townhouse and condo sales than house sales, a sign of how thin that segment can be month to month. (julianalee.com 1) (julianalee.com 2) Cupertino’s housing debate has shifted from whether to plan for more multifamily homes to where they can go and how fast they can be approved. The city’s Housing Element, adopted May 14, 2024 and certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development in September 2024, requires planning for 4,588 homes through 2031. (cupertino.gov 1) (cupertino.gov 2) City staff told the council on January 30, 2026 that Cupertino identified capacity for 5,881 units, a 28% buffer above its state target, but that cushion was much thinner in the lower-income categories. Staff also said four high-density sites were removed just before adoption, cutting capacity by 141 very low- and low-income units, 62 moderate-income units, and 169 market-rate units. (cupertino.gov) The city’s own planning pages show why attached housing is central to that effort. Cupertino’s multifamily rules govern development in R-3 and R-4 zones, and the planning department says zoning sets unit counts, height, setbacks, and other design limits before a project can move forward. (cupertino.gov) (cupertino.gov) Several large projects are now part of that pipeline, but they are moving through different state and local tracks. Cupertino’s Vallco redevelopment page says the amended Rise project includes 2,669 housing units, while the city’s Mary Avenue Villas page lists a separate 40-unit affordable project on a city-owned Housing Element site. (cupertino.gov) (cupertino.gov) Other projects are still inching ahead one hearing at a time. Cupertino’s Evulich Court page says the City Council approved that project on April 1, 2026 after a 4-1 vote, following a 3-2 Planning Commission recommendation in February. (cupertino.gov) The result is a split market: scarce single-family houses keep drawing aggressive bids, while the attached-home segment depends more on a small number of listings, approvals, and projects that can take years to deliver. Cupertino’s next fights are likely to keep happening at City Hall, where the city is now tracking whether enough multifamily capacity remains to meet state housing law. (redfin.com) (cupertino.gov)