In my last column, I talked about how I grew up in Saratoga and that my family still lives here. I said it then and I’ll say it again now: I love this city. I also think we’re at a turning point.
Change is hard—and inevitable. Our bodies age, jobs shift, no two days look the same. Change can be beautiful when we understand it and frightening when we don’t. Saratoga itself is proof: This place was once orchards. Generations before us chose to allow homes, and that choice is why most of us—my family, yours—can live here at all. Now it’s our turn.
Saratoga is beautiful—and expensive. That’s not new. But it used to be more accessible. I grew up playing with neighbors whose parents were police officers, teachers and small business owners. Today, many of those same workers—who protect our homes, teach our kids and care for our families—live in Tracy, Hollister or farther. They’ll still sprint into your burning house, then drive over the hill to tuck in their own kids. A community is safest when the people who serve it also coach its soccer teams and shop at its farmers market.
Let’s talk prices plainly. The median cost of a home in Saratoga is roughly $4 million—among the highest in the region and the country. By contrast, many of our neighboring cities sit closer to $1.8 million to $2.8 million, in part because they’ve built more types of housing than just single-family homes. More variety creates more points of entry for young families, public servants and early-career professionals. That’s exactly what we need to do here. We’re not talking about dragging down anyone’s home value; we’re talking about adding housing stock at a range of price points so more people who contribute to Saratoga can actually live here.
The numbers tell a story. Many of our schools are seeing year-over-year enrollment declines; local administrators now whisper about whether campuses might need to close. Our youth soccer leagues have about a third as many players as when I was a kid. West Valley College—the best community college in the state—sits in our backyard, yet two out of three students there are housing- or food-insecure.
And yet we have some of the best schools in the country. Imagine Saratoga being known not only as beautiful and kind but as a place where people have a real chance to advance because our best-in-class schools are within reach. All too often in America, the ZIP code you grow up in predicts your life outcomes. Let’s be the city that bends that curve in the right direction by making room for more families who want to learn, work and belong here. We need to build more housing.
We’ve largely stopped building. After Saratoga’s population nearly doubled in the 1960s, it has hovered around 30,000 ever since. Meanwhile, household sizes shrank—from 3.7 people in 1970 to about 2.8 today. Demand outpaces supply, and prices soar. When homes are scarce and costly, people leave—or never arrive. Families (my own included) are aging in place in homes they purchased decades ago.
There’s also risk in doing nothing. Saratoga’s Housing Element wasn’t certified until July 8, 2024, over 17 months after the state’s Jan. 31, 2023 deadline. In that window, developers filed 25 builder’s remedy applications (22 of which are still in process)—projects that can bypass local zoning. The state could determine that Saratoga is out of compliance again in the coming years if we don’t meet our Housing Element obligations. I’d rather we manage change on our own terms than have it decided for us.
I don’t believe that modestly increasing our housing supply will make Saratoga “cheap.” Demand for living in a safe, beautiful city with great schools is simply too strong. More homes bring back public servants and young families and give our own grown children a fighting chance to return.
I know that makes some neighbors uneasy. They point out that only a portion of new units are officially “affordable,” that traffic might worsen and that not every parcel is right for more density. Those concerns are real. But we’ve already seen what thoughtful, compassionate housing can look like here. Local faith institutions have quietly supported those in need for years, with no disruption to their neighbors.
I’m not calling for glass towers or overnight transformation. I’m calling for balance: sites spread across the city, not concentrated in one neighborhood; mixed-income projects that give firefighters, early-career engineers and West Valley students a foothold; design standards that protect our hillsides and heritage oaks; partnerships that build safety into plans while keeping Saratoga special.
Future residents—maybe even our grandchildren—will look back and ask what we chose. Did we reach for generosity or retreat to fear? Our forebears turned orchards into neighborhoods that welcomed us. Let’s honor that gift by saying yes, carefully and thoughtfully, to the homes that let a community endure.