The San Jose Commercial Real Estate Market

Shanti Ryle

February 13, 2026

San Jose's downtown business district during a pink-colored sunset

San Jose is one of the most influential commercial real estate markets in the country, driven by its flourishing tech ecosystem, global connectivity, and sustained demand for space tied to long-term economic activity.
Industrial fundamentals are adjusting after a wave of new deliveries, but leasing interest from advanced manufacturing, logistics, and tech-adjacent users continues to support the sector’s long-term outlook.
The office market is showing early signs of stabilization, with high-quality space in submarkets like Santa Clara and Sunnyvale attracting renewed tenant and investor attention.
Retail performance varies by location, with well-positioned centers and experiential concepts drawing demand even as some submarkets work through elevated vacancy.
Multifamily demand remains steady despite high rents, supported by strong employment, limited homeownership affordability, and continued interest in well-located properties.

San Jose sits at the center of Silicon Valley, where innovation, capital, and talent intersect, making it one of the most closely watched commercial real estate markets in the country. Investors, tenants, and brokers are drawn to the region for its global connectivity and steady demand tied to technology-driven growth.

Crexi helps commercial real estate professionals navigate the San Jose CRE market with confidence. From identifying investment opportunities to marketing listings and managing leads, our platform gives users access to a wide range of properties across the region, along with tools designed to move deals forward efficiently. Whether you’re active in downtown San Jose or working in surrounding communities like Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Gatos, or Campbell, Crexi connects you with serious buyers and tenants already focused on the area.

To date, Crexi has supported more than $615 billion in closed transactions and helped market over $7 trillion in commercial property value nationwide. We’re proud to serve San Jose and the greater Silicon Valley as a modern, digital marketplace built for today’s commercial real estate professionals.

Nearby mountains to San Jose are in the background and frame the city with orange poppies in the foreground

San Jose Commercial Real Estate Overview

San Jose continues to anchor Silicon Valley as both an economic engine and a place where creative ideas turn into real-world businesses. As the largest city in the region, it combines a strong employment base with an established urban core, offering a mix of office campuses, research facilities, industrial hubs, and mixed-use environments that support a wide range of commercial activity.

The city’s economy remains closely tied to technology, but it’s the depth of that ecosystem that sets San Jose apart. From legacy tech leaders to emerging innovators, the concentration of companies fuels consistent demand for space, even as businesses reassess how and where they operate. That recalibration has shaped today’s CRE landscape - one defined less by rapid expansion and more by thoughtful repositioning, selective investment, and long-term planning.

Beyond the business climate, San Jose offers the kind of livability that continues to matter to employers and employees alike. Access to top-tier education, proximity to venture capital, and a location framed by the Santa Clara Valley’s natural amenities all contribute to the region’s appeal. For commercial real estate stakeholders, this combination supports resilience: demand may shift, but it rarely disappears.

In the big picture, San Jose’s commercial real estate market reflects a mature, globally relevant city adapting to change while maintaining its role at the center of innovation and investment.

San Jose Regional Context

San Jose shines in a region known for its skilled workforce, high quality of life, and economic strength. With nearly two million residents across the metro, the area attracts talent from across the globe, and keeps it with competitive incomes, respected universities, and well-connected communities.

A high percentage of college graduates and a strong mid-career population support both business activity and residential stability. While the cost of living is steep, San Jose continues to earn national recognition for its livability, sustainability, and business-friendly environment.

The metropolitan area is home to over 1.9 million people, with nearly a million residents living within San Jose city limits.
Santa Clara County includes the cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Gatos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale.
Over 55% of the San Jose metro area residents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, about 1.5 times the rate in California and the US.
The median age is 38.2, with 30% of the population between the ages 20 and 49.
Per capita income is $76,793, while median household income is $153,202 (about double the amount in the US overall).
Although the cost of living in San Jose, CA is over 80% higher than the national average - largely due to the high expense of housing - above-average income levels still support a high quality of life.
The city of San Jose has been recognized with a broad range of awards, including #1 Greenest City in the US (2025), #1 Digital City in the US (2025), and the #1 Place to Live in California (U.S. News & World Report). Other accolades include those celebrating the city’s business-friendly climate, highly-educated population, and cultural diversity.

The interior of an office building bullpen in San Jose, looking out on to the city through its windows

San Jose Job Market

San Jose’s job market stands at the crossroads of deep technical expertise and forward-thinking infrastructure. Long known as a magnet for STEM talent, the region continues to lead in high-tech employment, from hardware design and software engineering to AI, logistics, and cloud services.

In mid-2025, a landmark agreement between the City of San José and PG&E further cemented the city’s role as a next-gen data center hub, streamlining access to power for large-scale users and laying the groundwork for energy-hungry industries to grow. With an exceptional university pipeline and unmatched proximity to tech headquarters, San Jose offers a rare combination of workforce depth, business opportunity, and scalable infrastructure that few markets can match.

GDP for the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA is over $422.8 billion, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve.
Over the past 20 years, total gross domestic product has soared by over 250%.
The unemployment rate is 4.3% (February 2026 BLS).
Computer hardware design and manufacturing, software production, and internet-related businesses are some of the area's major business sectors.
The city is a thriving economic hub, home to over 200 high-tech firms and renowned names such as Adobe, Zoom, Oracle, and Ernst & Young.
The San Jose metro area is home to over 65,000 businesses, including more than 6,600 tech companies.
A number of globally-recognized tech businesses have operations in San Jose, including Adobe, Brocade, Netflix, eBay, TiVo, Apple, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Intel.
WalletHub ranks San Jose among the top 15 best cities for STEM jobs, while the San Jose Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs states that the city has more MBA jobs per capita than any other US city.
Top colleges and universities in the region include Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and San Jose State University.
The region’s transportation infrastructure is a complex multimodal system that includes the Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), major highways like US Route 101 and Interstate 280, and an extensive public transit system.

The side of an industrial building in San Jose decorated with graffiti

San Jose Industrial Market

San Jose’s industrial market is in a period of transition, with new space hitting the market and developers closely watching demand. The recent completion of Bridge Point San Jose, a 715,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, was a standout moment in late 2025, marking one of the largest speculative deliveries in years.

While that and other completions have pushed vacancy higher for now, leasing activity is still healthy in core submarkets like Fremont and North San Jose. With more projects in the pipeline and steady interest from advanced manufacturing and logistics users, the sector is still positioned for long-term strength.

Market overview (Cushman & Wakefield Silicon Valley Industrial Report Q4 2025)

Inventory: 121,751,948 SF
Vacancy rate: 6.5%
Absorption: -246,931 SF (YTD)
Key leases by tenant: MiTAC (258,059 SF), Confidential tenant (225,679 SF), Quanta (178,910 SF)
Under construction: 1,623,639 SF
Largest submarkets: South San Jose, Fremont, North San Jose, Santa Clara

Crexi Insights

These are the most recent industrial lease and sales trends from Crexi Insights (as of February 2026):

For Lease (active)

Asking rate/SqFt (median): $24 per year
Median SqFt/listing: 2,768
Days on market: 216
Total listings on Crexi: 73 spaces

For Sale (active)

Median asking price: $3 million
Price/SqFt: $355
Asking cap rate: 6.7%
Days on market: 220
Total listings on Crexi: 29 listings for a total of 876,300 SF

Sales Comps (past 12 months)

Median sold price: $2 million
Sold price/SqFt: $368
Total sales volume: $584.6 million
Median SqFt sold/transaction: 6,000
Total SqFt sold: 2.3 million
Days on market (median): 435

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Apple's famous Cupertino Apple Loop office is near San Jose

San Jose Office Market

The San Jose office market is showing early signs of stabilization as sublease space begins to taper and tenant interest picks up. Recent activity from major players like xAI and the fully leased completion at 1410 South Bascom Avenue signal a slow but steady return of demand, especially for high-quality, well-located space.

While there are still challenges across older inventory, competitive submarkets like Santa Clara and Sunnyvale continue to outperform. As AI and tech firms reassess their space needs, San Jose is positioning itself as a market to watch.

Market overview (Cushman & Wakefield Silicon Valley Office Report Q4 2025)

Inventory: 95,066,928 SF
Vacancy rate: 19.4%
Absorption: 2,560,524 SF (YTD)
Key leases by tenant: xAI (105,536 SF), Coreweave (39,314 SF), Robinhood (38,667 SF)
Under construction: 0 SF
Largest submarkets: Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Palo Alto, Downtown San Jose

Crexi Insights

Crexi provides up-to-date data on the San Jose office market. Here are the most recent lease and sales trends (as of February 2026):

For Lease (active)

Asking rate/SqFt (median): $36 per year
Median SqFt/listing: 1,407 SF
Days on market: 244
Total listings on Crexi: 379 spaces

For Sale (active)

Median asking price: $2 million
Price/SqFt: $521
Asking cap rate: 7.3%
Days on market: 162
Total listings on Crexi: 35 listings totaling 1.2 million SF

Sales Comps (past 12 months)

Median sold price: $2.3 million
Sold price/SqFt: $368
Total sales volume: $135.9 million
Median SqFt sold/transaction: 5,235 SF
Days on market (median): 377

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San Jose Retail Market

Despite some mid-year turbulence, the retail sector across Silicon Valley ended 2025 on relatively steady footing. Leasing activity picked up in high-traffic corridors like Cupertino and South San Jose, with brands such as Altitude Trampoline Park and Blick Art Materials securing space. While vacancy rates remain higher in pockets like Milpitas, well-located centers in tight submarkets are still seeing demand. Overall, tenant mix is shifting, but the region’s retail footprint continues to show signs of resilience.

Market overview (Cushman & Wakefield Silicon Valley Retail Report Q4 2025)

Inventory: 36,932,507 SF
Vacancy rate: 5.2%
Absorption: -162,014 SF (YTD)
Key leases by tenant: Altitude Trampoline Park (20,000 SF), DuoDuo Cupertino LLC (17,600 SF), Blick Art Materials (12,000 SF)
Under construction: 6,000 SF
Largest submarkets: San Jose (Downtown/South)/Campbell/Los Gatos, Milpitas/North San Jose, Sunnyvale/Cupertino

Crexi Insights

Retail lease and sales trends from Crexi Insights (as of February 2026):

For Lease (active)

Asking rate/SqFt (median): $27 per year
Median SqFt/listing: 1,275 SF
Days on market: 283
Total listings on Crexi: 84 spaces

For Sale (active)

Median asking price: $1.5 million
Price/SqFt: $550
Asking cap rate: 6%
Days on market: 215
Total listings on Crexi: 43 listings for a total of 657,500 SF

Sales Comps (past 12 months)

Median sold price: $2 million
Sold price/SqFt: $517
Total sales volume: $457.3 billion
Median SqFt sold/transaction: 2,831 SF
Days on market (median): 141

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A valley with San Jose single family and multifamily homes nestled in the background

San Jose Multifamily Market

The multifamily housing market in Silicon Valley remained stable through the end of 2025, with modest rent growth and steady demand. While new construction continued at a healthy pace, overall vacancy held in a balanced range, suggesting that new units are being absorbed at a manageable rate.

Developers appear cautiously optimistic, moving forward with projects while keeping a close eye on shifting renter preferences. As more residents return to urban centers and employers solidify hybrid work models, leasing activity is expected to stay consistent through 2026.