West San Jose

Bounded by Santa Clara to the north, West San Jose is a large, underwhelming neighborhood concentrated between Highway 280 and US Route 85. Although this district doesn’t wow you in any way, shape or form, it does offer some moderately priced middle-class housing. Like most San Jose neighborhoods, West San Jose is made up of a number of different micro-neighborhoods, which can make it hard to define in a single breath. There are also a large selection of markets, theaters, restaurants within at least a 5-10 minute drive.

West San Jose’s flat residential terrain is highly suburbanized. Homes are usually small, one-story in size and tightly bounded to their petite properties. They are usually of the California ranch home variety, which just so happens to be San Jose’s staple. Amenities include small grassy front yards and two-car garages (with maybe a family van parked in the driveway). Most of these housing developments were built around the 1950‘s and still maintain its traditional charm. Its largest residences, which were probably remodeled or simply added onto, are situated within the community of Rainbow. These homes typically offer two stories of living space and larger lots for families to play. For the typical asking price, homes are usually priced around $750,000 on average, but some can run you a steep $1 million plus.

While providing an adequate living atmosphere, West San Jose provides the usual modest middle-class residential amenities. For your shopping needs, there are nearby commercial/retail establishments that include Westgate Mall and El Paseo de Saratoga. The mall has a couple chain department stores, furniture outlets and large retail stores with a handful of smaller stores (Sporting goods stores, shoe sources, etc.). But that’s about it.

West San Jose is a pretty standard residential area. It’s got a ton of Ranch homes from the 50’s and 60’s (the big boom period for San Jose) and all the usual things that you expect from the suburbs—from supermarkets to shopping malls.

Generally speaking, the most expensive section is to the west of the Lawrence Expressway. This is where you will find the handful of the million dollar homes that dot the area. Don’t be misled however. These are only million dollar homes because they are here in West San Jose. Move these same houses out of this primo area where you can commute into Apple and Google in no time at all—and the home price drops. As the old saw goes, real estate is all about “location, location, location!”

As far as the rest of the area goes home prices drop quite a bit as you head east. Homes also tend to be a little bit older. The median home price is probably somewhere around $550 k for a home. On the east end is where you find the most affordable homes. Overall, this is where you are most likely to find the homes that drop below $250K.

The outstanding schools on the western end are also one of the big draws of the area—Lynbrook being one of the several truly outstanding schools that characterize this area along the Peninsula and below. As you head farther east the quality drops a bit, with Campbell High being pretty bad.

As to other qualities of the area, this is pretty much just suburbia. If you imagine it has it, it does. If you are looking for amazing nightlife, you will have to take the short trip to Downtown San Jose.