Burlingame vs Hillsborough
How do you decide whether to live in Burlingame or Hillsborough? I'll show you how they compare in terms of housing costs, amenities, and lifestyle. Hillsborough is known for its beautiful landscapes and prestigious, super exclusive neighborhoods, with a ton of larger homes set behind gates or farther from the street. Hillsborough is the second most expensive town in San Mateo County. It's 100% residential, so there are no businesses and no downtown. Hillsborough has the best of both worlds - privacy and close proximity to a ton of amenities in downtown Burlingame and other areas in San Mateo County. It's also pretty low density, too.
Burlingame, on the other hand, is super walkable. A lot of the town is flat. Of course, you have the hillier areas. It has a unique community feel, fantastic parks, and facilities. There are tree-lined streets everywhere that are also very close and walkable to shops, restaurants, and schools. Actually, every neighborhood practically has its own park too. There are more parks than neighborhoods in Burlingame. We also have two vibrant downtown areas, and it's super conveniently located within the heart of Silicon Valley. In Burlingame, if you move here, a lot of your community will be through your neighbors on your block. And when your kids are in school, you'll have a whole second set of friends that way. In Hillsborough, because homes are so spread out from each other, your community is more through your school and less through your neighbors.
When it comes to Halloween, most of Burlingame is pretty “trick-or-treat-able,” like Easton Addition, which is at the top of a lot of people's lists, like Cabrillo, Cortez, right around there, and less so for Hillsborough. Burlingame has sidewalks everywhere, which is common in almost all other towns on the Peninsula, but Hillsborough has very few sidewalks. There's even a coffee table book about Hillsborough called “No Sidewalks Here.” Hillsborough is more spread out with minimal street lighting, and sometimes the streets could be a little windier, too. And that's kind of the name of the town, “Hills-borough.” So no surprise there. Because a lot of Burlingame is so flat, it's more bike-friendly, and you'll see more kids walking to school in Burlingame than in Hillsborough.
From an average price point, Hillsborough is a much more expensive housing market than Burlingame at the top end of the market. However, many people might be surprised to hear that there's a significant overlap in both markets in the $3 million to $8 million range, which is pretty much most of the market. So if that's your price range, you're going to have a lot of fun choices to make. If you're looking for a small and cute bungalow, that's going to be unique to Burlingame, and you can't really get that in Hillsborough. Most lots in Hillsborough are at least half an acre, whereas in Burlingame, most are 5,000 to 6,000 square feet, unless you're in the Burlingame Hills neighborhood or Mills Estates, which is up by 280.
I'm Raziel Ungar. I've ranked in the top five agents in San Mateo County. I've also been the number one agent in Burlingame for eight years. Every day, my team and I help buyers and sellers like you looking to make a smooth move into or within San Mateo County, and I'd love to be your Peninsula real estate resource. So in terms of location, Burlingame and Hillsborough are right next to each other. Burlingame is a little bit more to the east, and Hillsborough is a little bit more to the west. But they overlap borders in so many different places, and you can't really tell that you're going from Burlingame to Hillsborough or Hillsborough to Burlingame because it's so beautiful in all of these locations.
Now for freeway access, you have the Broadway exit at 101 and then Peninsula Ave at the south of Burlingame. For Hillsborough, you can also go through those two exits, but you also have Trousdale, Black Mountain, and Hayne up at the top as well, just in the southern, west part of town. So Burlingame and Hillsborough price-wise overlap quite a bit between about $3.5 million and $7 million for both towns. Let me give you an idea of pricing in Hillsborough. Last year, the least expensive homes sold in Hillsborough was $2.7 million, and the most expensive was $17 million. But starting, you're going to be about three and a half to $4 million. The median home price last year was $5,250,000. In Burlingame last year, the lowest sales price was about $1 million, and the most was $6 million.
I want to share with you what you can get at several different price points in Burlingame: at $3.5 million, $5 million, $6 million, and $8 million on up. For up to $3 million in Burlingame, you can get one of the best three-bedroom homes, even in a flat, walkable location, probably about 1,700 square feet, or in Mills Estates for around $3 million, you can get a 2,000 square foot home on a flat lot with an attached two-car garage. So, you're going to get a lot more value up in the hills. Now in Hillsborough, between three and a half and $4 million, but probably closer to $4 million, you will be getting a house, but it would have minimal or no yard, could need a ton of work, or could be a teardown. However, there are some good options there, and I've done a few transactions in the mid threes and low fours. In the flats of Hillsborough, a half-acre teardown could be in the mid to high $5 million range. In the hills of Hillsborough, closer to Skyline, like in the Carolands neighborhood, you could get an older but clean, one-level ranch-style home, sometimes in the low to mid $4 million range. Although those can get up to the mid $6 million range for a rancher in the Carolands on a flat half acre. You might be able to hear the freeway in your backyard, so it just kind of depends on where you are, and that obviously affects value too.
In Burlingame, at $5 million, you'd be getting pretty close to a new construction home in Easton Addition or Burlingame Park at around 3,000 square feet. You get an open floor plan in what I consider an A-location. Now that I think about it, that probably would be a little bit closer to $5.5 million, maybe even $6 million, but probably around there. If you were to get a slightly larger lot, like 7,000 square feet, that would get you closer to $6 million for new construction. If it's a new house, it would likely have an ADU. Most people who are doing new homes on their own are also putting in ADUs. Now in Hillsborough, once we get to $6 million on up, you can get an older home in a flatter area or halfway up the hill. It might need some work, but some will still have pretty good square footage.
In Burlingame, we don't really see a lot of homes over $6 million. Though, I've done a couple of off-market transactions in the mid $6 million and $7 million range, which were record prices at the time in Burlingame Park. The most expensive home ever sold in Burlingame was on Pepper in the last couple of months. That was on a pancake-flat three-quarters of an acre lot. That was about $8.5 million, and it backed up to Hillsborough. Now there are homes in Burlingame that are actually worth more than $8 million. Those just haven't come on the market. In Hillsborough, if you want more than five bedrooms, like a six or seven-bedroom, there's a lot fewer of those pretty much at all price points. But if you want one that's remodeled, you're going to kind of need to start in the $8 million on up range, but probably even $10 million if you're wanting something that's totally remodeled.
Alright. So now I want to talk to you about who lives in these towns and what some of the prices are like. In Burlingame, we have a population of about 30,000 people and 6,200 houses. The median sales price in Burlingame last year was $2.7 million. The average sales price was $2,850,000, with a price range of about $1.9 to $5.5 million. Burlingame is the perfect place for pretty much anyone, especially families, older couples, empty nesters, and folks who are retired. It's probably not a great place if you're a young professional in your 20s looking for nightlife; you'd probably want to live in San Francisco instead of “Boring-game.” A majority of people who are buying homes in Burlingame are a mix of professionals typically working in high tech, biotech, finance, and healthcare, which are our four biggest industries around here. In Hillsborough, a majority of buyers will be more in tech and finance, but there are also many families with multi-generational wealth who have been here for a long time.
I was born in Burlingame, and I love living here for so many reasons. The quality of life, the walkability, how friendly everyone is, access to amazing food, and everyone you meet pretty much has an interesting story. The same can be said about Hillsborough too. In Hillsborough, the population is about 11,000 people, and there are about 3,900 homes with a median sales price last year of $5,
