Monta Loma, Mountain View

Unlike Palo Alto, Mountain View is not as well known for Eichlers. In fact, in most Mountain View neighborhoods you are unlikely to find these homes named after that iconic Bay Area architect. Not Monte Loma, however. This big neighborhood is filled with those low flat roofed creations, based on a modernist sensibility and a feeling openness on the inside.

Eichler homes, for all there seeming conformity allow for an amazing amount of individuality in everything from the colors these homes allow one to choose to the types of front lawns these types of homes allow. In a sense these really are throwbacks to an earlier time, when there was less emphasis on work and more time spent at home entertaining.

I was recently listening to an interview with John Updike—the American author known for his domestic tales of middle class suburban life. In it he mentioned how the 60s was a time when people focused on the domestic and not as much on their jobs (like we do now). If we might perhaps think of the Ranch home as the house of the 50’s and the Town Home as the iconic dwelling of the 1980s, then the Eichler is probably the house of the 60’s.

This is the home of life after the Bomb, during the period when house parties and the cultivating of your personal life was in vogue. It is all about expressing your individuality rather than conforming to societal expectations. But perhaps I am reading too much into it.

When it comes to this specific neighborhood, these are really nicely kept Eichlers for the most part. They aren’t as colorful as in some neighborhoods in Palo Alto, but you definitely do get the sense that you are in the same vicinity as those neighborhoods.

There are also some apartment complexes in this neighborhood (on the western end mostly).

So what does it cost to live here?

Most of these Eichlers go for around $850K or so. But there are a number of foreclosures in this area right now and they go for around $600K. Obviously a pretty big difference.

Either way, you will have to focus on your career to afford them.