Today I visited a friend in the convenient National and Los Gatos-Almaden neighborhood and wanted to write about it as it is super convenient, particularly for medical workers wanting a short commute to Good Samaritan Hospital or the many offices nearby.
Honestly I didn’t know what to call that residential area (and not every part of town has a name). Often we Realtors refer to neighborhoods by their major roads or cross streets, so when I saw it named Los Gatos-Almaden neighborhood on the Nextdoor site, I thought it was as good a name as could be found.
There are a lot of things to love about this area. First, it has highly prized schools (more on that below), second it’s a great commute location (both Highway 17 and 880 are easily accessed, and if someone is working in the nearby hospitals or medical offices, it’s pretty quick!), and third, there are loads of wonderful things within a short ride or even by bike or on foot.
Very close by is the Live Oak Manor Park, which can be entered at the end of Blackwell Drive. It’s also a short jaunt to Vasona Lake County Park, downtown Los Gatos, Campbell, and many other areas. Shopping venues abound.
Where is the National and Los Gatos-Almaden neighborhood?
Generally, this area is fairly close to Good Samaritan Hospital and even closer to its branch, Mission Oaks. It’s very close to the border with Cambrian Park (and also abuts against the school district border between Union and Los Gatos School Districts.
The neighborhood is bordered by Los Gatos-Almaden Road, National Avenue, Carlton, and the school district boundary between the Union School District and the Los Gatos Union School District.
The public schools for this area are in the Union School District and the Campbell Union High School District. As of this writing, the elementary school is Carlton, the middle school is Union, and the high school is Leigh. (The boundaries for the elementary school district can be seen on a PDF HERE.)
What are properties like in this area?
This is a single family home neighborhood, and by my count it includes 109 houses (and office, businesses, etc.). Some of the homes were built in the early 1900s, but the vast majority were constructed in the 1960s (or later, in a few cases).
- these are mostly ranch style houses, and mostly single story homes with attached 2 car garages
- 40 of the 109 houses are under 1500 SF and many of them have lot sizes that are on the smaller side, appx 6000 SF
- the average square footage for the houses here is 2142 SF
- the average lot size is 9212 (some of the lots are huge)
- the average year built is 1940 (the oldest houses are said to be built in 1900, which is code for “so old we don’t know – could be 1885”)
- 54 of 109 single family homes were built in 1961 (primarily along Mary Alice Drive and Jo Drive)
- most of this area enjoys sidewalks, but some pockets do not
The National and Los Gatos-Almaden neighborhood subdivisions
This corner of town does not consist of just one builder, tract, or subdivision. While some builders provide subdivision names, many only issue tract numbers to their developments. That’s very much the case here. And as I mentioned above, not every area has a name. Today I dug through the county records to figure out what was what within this community. Welcome to the messy world of real estate!
In this pocket there are only two subdivisions with names: Carleton Manor (15 houses) and Los Gatos Town Manor (with 44 houses). The rest either have tract names or no name from the builder. Part of it is that some homes were built in the early 1900s or before, when they didn’t worry much about naming things.
In the lower left part of the neighborhood, to the left of Tract 5941, there’s an area at Los Gatos-Almaden and Vista Lane. While there are homes which are accessed from Vista, their address is Los Gatos-Almaden.
Two houses there face the street directly, and what’s odd is that the subdivision name there is “LOS GATOS BLVD CONDO”. They aren’t condos and they aren’t on Los Gatos Boulevard. I’d love to know the story there. (This happens. A neighbor of mine in Belwood has a house but it is zoned for a duplex.)
Something to be aware of is that there are high voltage power lines running along the path at Live Oak Manor Park, then following Blackwell Drive, and next cutting through the Mission Oaks campus.
What do homes cost in the National and Los Gatos-Almaden neighborhood?
Here are the recently listed, pending, or sold properties (last 3 months) in the National and Los Gatos-Almaden neighborhood. These will be automatically updated.
- List View
- Map View
- Grid View
See all National and LG-Almaden.
(all data current as of
9/22/2023)
Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.
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