Peninsula guide · Tier A · Rank #11 of 28

House hacking in Redwood City (Woodside Plaza / Centennial / Roosevelt).

A spillover-of-downtown-Redwood-City ZIP: strong electrified-Caltrain access plus a moderate in-progress El Camino corridor upzone, at a mid ~$1.73M with a softer condo pocket.

Status check: Verified 2026-07-16: the El Camino corridor plan advanced (the MULW-to-MUT zoning amendment is complete), and the consequential item is risk: Redwood City's rent-control measure formally qualified for the Nov 3, 2026 ballot by unanimous council vote. The tier held at A with that risk logged.

What's actually happening in 94061

Operational
Caltrain electrified downtown Redwood City station about a mile from Roosevelt and northern Centennial, with half-hourly all-day service. Caltrain
In progress
El Camino Real Corridor Plan (in progress): ECR frontage in the mixed-use designation, with active nearby projects 1330 ECR (updated June 2026) and a 2025 State Density Bonus project (26 affordable); the GBI Action Plan was adopted Jan 2026. Grand Boulevard Initiative / SamTrans
Mid-entitlement next door
Sequoia Station TOD (in 94063, abutting the northeast) plus Downtown Precise Plan spillover; adjacent anchors include Sequoia Hospital and Sequoia Union HSD on the 94062 border. Redwood City Pulse

The numbers

Median price: ~$1.73M (Redfin; volatile single-month prints to ~$2.3M)
Market rent: all-bed ~$3,355/mo (Zumper)
Property tax (San Mateo County): 1.26% combined effective average (range 1.08–1.52% by tax-rate area; purchase resets the assessed basis to sale price)
Per-bed rent band: $1,150–1,600/mo per bed
ADU rent band: $2,500–3,100/mo
Whole-home rent band: $4,000–4,900/mo whole-home
Underwriting vacancy: 4–5% underwriting vacancy
Appreciation scenarios: 2.5 / 4.0 / 5.0 %/yr (conservative / base / upside)

Predominantly R-1: Woodside Plaza, Centennial, Roosevelt. Appreciation basis: Downtown-station spillover; the ECR upzone is still in progress. Rent bands are city-level medians; confirm the specific parcel before trusting any of them. Run your own scenario in the calculator.

Buildings we underwrote in 94061

8 buildings in 94061 carry a record. 0 beat renting and index funds, 1 rejected; the rest did not. Every row links to its own page, with the numbers it was scored on.

Property	At our defaults	Status
1440 Valota Rd 2 units · $1,500,000	−$803,740 S&P 500	Underwritten — the index wins at our defaults
1612 Redwood Ave 2 units · $1,325,000	−$819,855 S&P 500	Underwritten — the index wins at our defaults
1557 Ebener St 2 units · $1,575,000	−$913,478 S&P 500	Underwritten — the index wins at our defaults
1460 Kentfield Ave 4 units · $5,400,000	−$1,158,517 S&P 500	Underwritten — the index wins at our defaults
1846-1848 Woodside Rd 2 units · $1,749,900	−$1,169,391 S&P 500	Underwritten — the index wins at our defaults
1128 Ebener St 2 units · $2,149,999	−$1,554,930 S&P 500	Underwritten — the index wins at our defaults
227 Madrone St 3 units · $2,650,000	−$1,711,268 S&P 500	Underwritten — the index wins at our defaults
177 Poplar Ave	— no verdict on file	Rejected — Multi-unit strategy (3 verified units, the listing description) has no comparable rents in our research per our published methodology, and no per-unit or aggregate rent figure is stated anywhere in our listing feed or our own verified listing record (the listing text markets 'abundant rent' with no dollar amount). Cannot price without fabricating a figure the methodology forbids inventing.

The full board shows every region's current week; this table is every record we hold for 94061, newest basis first.

The house-hack angle

The R-1 interior works through ADU and SB 9 only (no blanket rezone); mixed-use pencils on El Camino frontage where the corridor plan and the State Density Bonus stack.

What breaks it

No in-ZIP rail: a walk or short drive to the downtown station
The interior is R-1: density comes from SB 9 and ADUs only
The Nov 2026 Redwood City rent-cap ballot applies here too; single-month price prints run as high as ~$2.3M