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This is a short MK Group syndication summary of a guest opinion column Marie Wang and Kevin Mo, Founders of MK Group, published on Palo Alto Online (the website of the Palo Alto Weekly, Embarcadero Media's community newspaper for Palo Alto) on November 11, 2026. Palo Alto Online holds the canonical English version. Read the full column on Palo Alto Online →
The argument in one line: Palo Alto owners who qualify can carry their property tax assessment to a smaller home in town; what the city has relatively few of is smaller homes to buy. That mismatch may help explain why so few houses come up for sale.
The data anchors: about 414 single-family homes sold through the MLS in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2026, against about 16,800 detached houses, or roughly one in 40 a year (MLSListings closed-sale records; U.S. Census Bureau). Of roughly 14,200 owner-occupied homes, 86% are detached houses. In the city's 2025 community survey, conducted by Polco, about one in four residents rated the variety of housing options positively, and about eight in 10 said they were likely to stay for the next five years.
How Propositions 13 and 19 shape a longtime owner's decision to move, and what the column asks of the city, are the substance of the full column.
Read the full column on Palo Alto Online →
Marie Wang (DRE# 02110980) and Kevin Mo (DRE# 02127623) are Founders of MK Group at Keller Williams, a brokerage team focused on the Peninsula and South Bay luxury market. The Palo Alto Online column is the canonical English version of this analysis.