Ever wonder which school a property is assigned to for the students that live here?  The boundaries, especially in larger districts such as San Jose Unified, can be hard to figure out.   In the Almaden Valley area of San Jose, for instance, some parents really want to make sure that their kids attend Leland High School rather than Pioneer (or Leigh or Branham or Los Gatos High – there are so many schools represented in Almaden!), for instance.

Until recently, you had to go to the Santa Clara County Office of Education’s website to see which high school and elementary/middle school district you would be in.  I will post many of those below. From there you had to enter your address to see the specific schools. After that, you had to go to another site entirely to get the API scores.

Now, however, some smart people have done a mashup of addresses, school scores and API scores.  I like this site so well that I’m advertising in a couple of zip codes (that’s my disclaimer).  Check it out:

www.SchoolAndHousing.com

Or you can do it the slower way – visit the school district sites below! (more…)

Which Los Altos homes for sale go to which elementary, middle or high school? Luckily a lot of resources are now available online.  Today I found a fabulous 10 page PDF of the Los Altos school boundary areas and wanted to share it here – it includes all three school grade levels:

Attendance mps for Los Altos Elementary, Middle & High School areas

One of the many reasons the Almaden Valley of San Jose is so popular is the wonderful public schools.  Almaden, like the rest of the county, does not have “easy” school district boundaries.  Instead, it’s complicated – Almaden is served by several different public school districts and various schools within one of them.  It can be very confusing for home buyers to figure out which areas belong to which elementary, middle and high schools. Today we’ll address this broad topic, looking at both the districts and the individual schools, providing links to both.  We’ll include API scores and maps of district and school boundaries too.

Disclaimers about schools of attendance:

First, schools – especially the most popular ones – are sometimes impacted, or full.  If you move into an area it is likely that you can have your students attend the neighborhood school but it is NOT GUARANTEED.  For example, if your nearest or assigned school is Williams but it’s full, your child may be assigned to Simonds or some other elementary school.  You will remain in the same district but may not have the nearest school.  This is particularly a problem when moves happen in the middle of the school year.

Second, sometimes boundaries change between schools in the same district.  This usually only happens after a lot of public debate and discussion, but it can happen. (This is also true for some designated natural hazard zones such as flood plains – those maps can and do sometimes change!)

Third, the San Jose Unified Schools in the Almaden Valley did have court-ordered busing from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s to help with desegregation. This practice ended in 1996 and the court order was lifted in 2003.  You can read about the history of the San Jose Unified School District online.  Although it appears unlikely that busing will happen again, I cannot guarantee that it won’t.

These are the three broad regions and their schools: (more…)

Sometimes the list price on a Silicon Valley home for sale isn’t at all what the listing agent or the seller is expecting in terms of a sales price.

Sometimes it’s closer to a lost leader – that is, it’s really only intended to get home buyers into the door. Lots of them. The idea is to create excitement, and hopefully a feeding frenzy with multiple offers.

Other times, of course, a house or condo in the San Jose area may be an overpriced listing. In those cases, it’s more like a “fishing expedition”. More like, “let’s see if anyone bites”. There are always a percentage of these on the market. When you see homes listed for 60, 90 or more days on the valley floor, most often the culprit is an inappropriately high price – and most buyers aren’t biting at that bait.

Right now, it’s a mixed market in Santa Clara County real estate. If you find a home you like, the next question is this: what’s it worth? And finally, what’s it worth to you? Many times, the best advice is to ignore the list price, if it’s a new home, and just do your homework on what the current competition is and what’s been selling.

You may find that the home you love is priced high, on the mark, a little low, or crazy low.

While it’s helpful to know what the average ratio is between list prices and sales price, that information can never substitute for market knowledge.  The most powerful figure to understand is the absorption rate or months of inventory (or days or weeks of inventory).  Six months of inventory is considered a balanced market.  The smaller the months of inventory is, the quicker the pace of the market, and the bigger a frenzy there is over good inventory. 
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Cambrian Park is a highly desirable district of San Jose. With close proximity to Los Gatos, Campbell, Willow Glen and Blossom Valley, there’s lots to do within Cambrian itself or very nearby.  Cambrian also enjoys good schools, low crime,  two new libraries, two Farmer’s Markets, and a fabulous rec center, the Camden Community Center.

Where is Cambrian Park and how big is it? The 2000 census reported Cambrian Park as having less than 4000 people.  In contemporary useage, though, Cambrian consists of much more than the area known as “Cambrian Village” (which has this small population), and now includes about 75,000 residents in all.  The area includes most of the 95124 zip code plus the 95118 zip code (and a little sliver of 95008).  (To see a very approximate map of Cambrian Park boundaries, click on this link.) The local Realtor association had something to do with this shift in perception as it mapped out boundaries for Cambrian Park, roughly known in the industry as “area 14″ that expanded the original area. Historically, though, Cambrian was really a very vast area including much of Campbell and many areas now falling under different district names.  The area is alternately known as Cambrian, Cambrian Park, and Cambrian Village – the latter referring to the area near Union & Camden Avenues.
Related post on Cambrian’s history, areas and map: please also see
Cambrian Park: Good Schools, Low Crime, Close to Los Gatos and Campbell

How do you decide where in Cambrian to live?   Many aspects of home buying will likely come into play, from schools desired and budget available to the ambiance and practical things you desire such as RV parking, an extra large garage, family room, guest suite, ommute issues (proximity to freeways),  etc.

I. School Districts of Cambrian Park

Your decision might be influenced by the school district you want; Cambrian Park has three elementary school districts. All are good – Cambrian Park truly has no bad schools – but some are exceptionally high. Some districts may have more offerings for special needs kids or gifted kids – if you have children and are looking at placing them in the local public schools, do your research before you househunt!

1. The north side of Cambrian Park (going into Campbell and Willow Glen) has schools belonging to the Cambrian School District (see map).
2. The east side of Cambrian Park (going toward Blossom Valley) is part of the territory of the San Jose Unified School District.  Schools for all of San Jose are beautifully mapped out by the district – you have to zoom in to see the boundaries around Cambrian but it includes all three local districts so is worth the extra steps!
3. The southwest side of Cambrian (and east Los Gatos) is within the boundaries of the Union School District, which also has a helpful map of the borders. The map is a pdf you’ll download and it is very detailed.
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Silicon Valley real estate values are driven by many factors, possibly the greatest of which is the quality of the public schools.

A Word About Silicon Valley School District Boundaries

The school boundaries in Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley includes all of Santa Clara County plus a bit of Santa Cruz County, San Mateo County, and Alameda County) are not defined by the city or town boundaries. The reason for this is that the school district boundaries were formed before all of the current city or town limits were finalized. This makes it confusing for everyone, but especially people relocating to the San Jose area.

As an example, let’s look at the Town of Los Gatos and its schools. It would seem that the Los Gatos School District should include all of the Town of Los Gatos and everything within the town limits, but that isn’t the case. Some residents of Los Gatos belong to the Los Gatos School District, others to the Moreland School District (which includes some of Saratoga and San Jose too), and still others to the Union School District (which includes part of the Cambrian Park area of San Jose). Even more complicating is the fact that a small part of Almaden Valley (a district in San Jose) has “Los Gatos Schools”. So you could possibly be in San Jose and attend Los Gatos Schools. That isn’t convenient, either. The people living in that part of Almaden, just off Guadalupe Mines Road, must drive through a section with Union Schools to arrive, some 15 minutes later, at the nearest school in their district!

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