SANTA CLARA

It’s “The Center of What’s Possible,” in Silicon Valley and, when you move to Santa Clara you’ll understand just what that means. Please read on to learn more about this central Silicon Valley city and why it’s worth buying a home here.

Santa Clara quick facts

• Santa Clara was founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852.
• The city’s population was 116,468 at the last census.
• Santa Clara is located about 6 miles northwest of San Jose, 45 miles southeast of San Francisco and 345 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
• The city covers an area of 18.4 square miles
• Santa Clara has three sister cities: Coimbra, Portugal; Izumo, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
• Limerick, Republic of Ireland.

Santa Clara’s schools

Unified School District serves Santa Clara’s public-school students. In all, the district serves more than 15,000 students in grades Kindergarten through 12 with 17 elementary schools, one Kindergarten through 8^th grade school, three middle schools and two comprehensive high schools. The district also offers four alternative high schools.

Santa Clara Unified School District ranks 250 of 865 California public school districts according to schooldigger.com. The highest ranked school within the district is Millikin Elementary, 25th of 5,621 California public elementary schools. In fact, Millikin students performed better than 99.6 percent of public elementary school students in the state.

Private schools include:

• Granada Islamic is a private Islamic school serving students in grades Kindergarten through 10.
• Live Oak Academy, a private Christian school serving students in grades 1 through 12.
• Monticello Academy, serves students in grades pre-school through 8.
• North Valley Baptist School, serves students in grades Kindergarten through 12.
• Pacific Autism Center for Education (PACE School) is a non-profit, non-public school, certified by the California Department of Education, serving students ages 6 to 22 who live with moderate to severe Autism.
• Santa Clara Christian serves students in grades Kindergarten through 5.
• Sierra School, a private, non-sectarian school serving students in grades Kindergarten through 12.
• Clare School, a Catholic, Kindergarten through 8^th grade school.
• Justin, a Catholic school serving students in grades Kindergarten through 8.
• Lawrence Elementary and Middle School, a Catholic school.
• Stratford School, serves students in grades Kindergarten through 8.

Higher education is available at Santa Clara University (a Jesuit college), Mission College (a junior college) and Golden State Baptist College.

Getting around in Santa Clara

Although only 2.9 percent of the city’s population uses public transportation to commute to work, the city has a wealth of public transportation options. These include two train stations. While the Altamont Commuter Express and Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor train serve both stations, Caltrain serves the Santa Clara Station. Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) offers bus service in the city.

Most commuters, however, use their own cars to get to work and the average commute time is 22 minutes.

Business and industry in Santa Clara

From the mid-19^th to mid-20^th century, Santa Clara’s economy centered on agriculture. That all changed, however, in 1960, with the ushering in of the semiconductor industry. Today, the city is home to some of the biggest names in the high-tech industry, including the world headquarters of Agilent Technologies, Intel, Atheros, McAfee, National Semiconductor, Synaptics, and others.

The three largest employers are:

• Applied Materials
• Intel
• California’s Great America

Santa Clara arts, entertainment and events

You’ll never be at a loss for things to do in your leisure time when you buy a home in Santa Clara. The city boasts two performing arts theatres and a plethora of art galleries and museums.

The gorgeous convention Center hosts major trade shows and conventions, weddings, theatrical performances and more.

Catch a Niners, Warriors or soccer game or attend a concert at Levi’s® Stadium or let the kids go wild at California’s Great America, a 100-acre amusement park.
Santa Clara also knows how to throw a party and proves it with several annual events:

• Annual Arbor Day/Earth Day Celebration
• Concerts in the Park
• July 4th All-City Picnic & fireworks spectacular
• Santa Clara Art & Wine Festival
• Tree Lighting and Ice Rink

Shopping and dining in Santa Clara

The re-imagined Westfield Valley Fair Mall is the first stop for most serious Santa Clara shoppers with more than 150 shops, services, a dining district and a ShowPlace ICON cinema.

Rivermark Village is the ideal stop for groceries, banking, an after-work cocktail, dinner and more.

Downtown’s Franklin Square offers a few eateries and plenty of services and Santa Clara Town Centre offers restaurants, national department store an organic grocer and more.

Locals love their city’s dining options and the most popular restaurants serve Asian fusion, Mexican, Mediterranean, Hawaiian, Korean and Italian cuisine.

Getting Outdoors

With 33 parks covering 247 acres, residents have plenty of ways to get outdoors and be active. The city also offers the George F. Haines International Swim Center with an Olympic-sized pool and three community swimming pools, a teen center, senior center a youth soccer park and:

• 27 public tennis courts
• 7 softball fields
• A lawn bowling green
• An 18-hole municipal golf course
• Tennis center

Homes in Santa Clara

Santa Clara is home to more than 45,000 housing units, 44.4 percent of which are owner-occupied, according to the United States Census Bureau.

The largest share (41.2 percent) of homes are valued between $2 million and $2.5 million. The next largest share – 26.1 percent — are valued between $1 million and $1.5 million and slightly more than 11 percent of the homes here are valued at more than $3 million.

The least expensive homes for sale include condos and townhomes. You’ll sometimes find one-bedroom, one-bathroom condos starting at around $425,000, but they sell quickly.

Detached, single-family homes typically start in the high-$1.5 million and top out at more than $3 million.

Real estate prices fluctuate so feel free to contact us  if you’re interested in current prices of homes for sale.