Silver Creek Valley

Silver Creek Valley is a small, but affluent, country club-type neighborhood that stretches along US Route 101. In fact, it is fairly new and is considered one of the nicest areas in San Jose. As a result, the district is firmly gripped in the upper middle-class. To get there, most locals travel through Silver Creek Valley Road, which is a long, uninhabited country road (long stretches of dead grassland and rolling hills). It nicely separates residents from the busy hustle and tussle of downtown San Jose. For prospective residents, there are some beautiful, luxury homes with decorative landscaping, but only for those who can afford it. Its most attractive luxury is the Silver Creek Valley Country Club.

Silver Creek’s residential terrain is separated into two parts, the area for luxury and the area for the simple. If you head towards the southern end of the neighborhood, homes are almost perfect , each with enormous interior living space. In fact, they span more than 4,000-5,000 square feet with 9+ rooms. The architecture is also pretty polished and reminds you of a new, revamped mediterranean style with its tilted red roofs. These properties are magnificently charming, with sculpted foliage, trimmed bushes and well-manicured front lawns. Other, more northern residences, are not as nice. These homes tend to be of San Jose’s norm. They are, however, more affordable and tend to be of the single-story California ranch variety. They offer your basic middle-class amenities with two-car garages, shallow properties and mildly attractive community spaces. If you’re looking to live within either area, house values circle around $1 million, but can go as steep as $2 million around the southern limits.

One of the best attractions of Silver Creek Valley is its prestigious Country Club--aptly named the Silver Creek Valley Country Club. It is a magnificent setting for a golf course, offering scattered lakes and breathtaking views. The course was even picked Golf Digests’ Best New Upscale Golf Course for two consecutive years and is rated 4 1/2 stars out of five on yelp.com. The club also has plenty of other amenities including a complete locker room, three different pools, a handful of lighted tennis courts and a fitness center. You can even take a load off and enjoy some fine dining in their large ball room, to which hosts its fair share of weddings, office meetings and other special events. But it is no wonder why members try to spend all of their free time here.

Nicely tucked away up in the hills, Silver Creek Valley brings a little touch of Orange County right to Silicon Valley. If you are a fan of the O. C. and have always wanted to experience what it is like to live in a gated community built around a golf course, well you should drive right up Silver Creek Road and check out the neighborhoods right up here. (Don’t forget to book an appointment first, they don’t let the riff-raff poke around up here uninvited.)

If you are looking for a single family home up here, however, you should be sure to save up first. Even in this rough market, the median price for a single family home here is $950K. Now the condos are a fair amount less, but they will not get you the amazing Mediterranean style McMansion with the hillside views.

This is one of the areas—again much likes sections of Orange County—where every stone and leaf feels as if it has been planned. Every lawn is perfectly green, ever hedge perfectly trimmed. It is the kind of place that you are afraid to walk with your kid for fear they might run across someone’s lawn and bend some leaves of grass.

It is definitely beautiful, however. And to get to this area you have to go up a road and slip up behind the hills, so you definitely feel as if you are shielded from the rest of San Jose. Just you and all the other members of country club. Paradise?