Blossom Valley
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Great for
- Peace & Quiet
- Clean & Green
- Neighborly Spirit
- Safe & Sound
- Shopping Options
Not great for
- Nightlife
- Public Transport
- Cost of Living
- Gym & Fitness
- Lack of Traffic
Who lives here?
- Professionals
- Families with kids
- Retirees
- Students
Got a burning question? Why not ask the locals! Simply ask your question below
Reviews
Blossom Valley
rating details
2yrs+
- Neighborly Spirit
- Safe & Sound
- Clean & Green
- Peace & Quiet
- Eating Out
- Shopping Options
- Cost of Living
- Schools
"The Armpit of Mountain View"
One of the smallest neighborhoods within Mountain View, Castro City is an unattractive community with a lower middle-class appeal. Or its just easier to say that its the armpit of the city. As a result, the area only affords ugly, substandard homes and dilapidated community spaces. Its one draw is the enormous Rengstorff Park adjacent to the neighborhood. It offers lush, green aesthetics, a couple tennis courts, a youth baseball field and a fully equipped aquatics community center. Demographically speaking, there is a large hispanic and mixed race population within the district.
While only encompasses about a half dozen flat, suburban streets, Castro City’s residential terrain is a mixed bag of ugly. While the neighborhood is dotted with trees (planted on every other property), the community has its fair share of community spaces that are very seldom attended to. The area is also overrun with small, single-story cottages blemished with age. These homes usually don’t have garages, just long, narrow driveways that skirt the sides of houses. As you might expect, lots are also pretty petite and rarely well-maintained. For the prospective resident, medium home prices are around a cheap $450,000, but you get what you pay for.
For your shopping needs, there is a large commercial plaza located along West El Camino Real and north San Antonio Road. The area provides a Kohl’s retail store, a Chili’s, a Target, a 24-Hour Fitness and a Trader Joe’s, among other stores. There is also an ethnic market on the corner that adds a little spice to an otherwise dull and dreary commercial area. If you’re looking for public transportation, you can find the San Antonio Caltrain located just a couple blocks northwest of the district’s limits. The rail connects residents to other parts of Silicon Valley as well as the busy job hub of San Francisco.
While only encompasses about a half dozen flat, suburban streets, Castro City’s residential terrain is a mixed bag of ugly. While the neighborhood is dotted with trees (planted on every other property), the community has its fair share of community spaces that are very seldom attended to. The area is also overrun with small, single-story cottages blemished with age. These homes usually don’t have garages, just long, narrow driveways that skirt the sides of houses. As you might expect, lots are also pretty petite and rarely well-maintained. For the prospective resident, medium home prices are around a cheap $450,000, but you get what you pay for.
For your shopping needs, there is a large commercial plaza located along West El Camino Real and north San Antonio Road. The area provides a Kohl’s retail store, a Chili’s, a Target, a 24-Hour Fitness and a Trader Joe’s, among other stores. There is also an ethnic market on the corner that adds a little spice to an otherwise dull and dreary commercial area. If you’re looking for public transportation, you can find the San Antonio Caltrain located just a couple blocks northwest of the district’s limits. The rail connects residents to other parts of Silicon Valley as well as the busy job hub of San Francisco.
Cons
- Boredom of Suburban Living
- No Nightlife
Recommended for
- Professionals
Blossom Valley
rating details
2yrs+
- Neighborly Spirit
- Safe & Sound
- Clean & Green
- Peace & Quiet
- Eating Out
- Nightlife
- Parks & Recreation
- Shopping Options
- Parking
"All-too-ordinary Middle-class community"
Loosely bounded by South Spring Road, Covington Road, Miramonte Avenue and Marilyn Drive, Blossom Valley is a pleasant, but all-too-ordinary Mountain View community. It is almost exclusively residential and built/organized in a flat, grid-like arrangement, where streets run parallel and perpendicular to each other. For the prospective resident, there are a mixture of one and two-story homes while your shopping options are left to the Blossom Valley Shopping Center and Rancho Shopping Center, both of which are within walking distance.
There is a good sense of traditional, middle-class community within Blossom Valley. If you’re driving through the neighborhood, you’ll notice the wide, orderly streets good for street parking and the lush, green suburban foliage that lines almost every block. The area is overrun by 1950’s ranch homes and tract style developments. While some of these homes have been added onto or remodeled in one way or another, the vast majority of homes still have that outdated look that annoys younger home shoppers. For those who live here, they are afforded the typical middle-class amenities: two-car garages, moderate lot space for a small front yards and good sized driveways. House listings for the majority of these homes tend to be in the range of $900,000 to $1.2 million.
Blossom Valley is a very family-friendly neighborhood. Most families send their children to either one of the two overlapping school districts, Los Altos School District and CA-Whisman School District. The earlier consists of Springer Elementary School and Blach Middle School, which are somewhat both more respected than the Mountain View-Whisman schools of Bubb Elementary School and Graham Middle School (which skirts the northeastern corner). Older students attend Los Altos or Mountain View High School.
There is a good sense of traditional, middle-class community within Blossom Valley. If you’re driving through the neighborhood, you’ll notice the wide, orderly streets good for street parking and the lush, green suburban foliage that lines almost every block. The area is overrun by 1950’s ranch homes and tract style developments. While some of these homes have been added onto or remodeled in one way or another, the vast majority of homes still have that outdated look that annoys younger home shoppers. For those who live here, they are afforded the typical middle-class amenities: two-car garages, moderate lot space for a small front yards and good sized driveways. House listings for the majority of these homes tend to be in the range of $900,000 to $1.2 million.
Blossom Valley is a very family-friendly neighborhood. Most families send their children to either one of the two overlapping school districts, Los Altos School District and CA-Whisman School District. The earlier consists of Springer Elementary School and Blach Middle School, which are somewhat both more respected than the Mountain View-Whisman schools of Bubb Elementary School and Graham Middle School (which skirts the northeastern corner). Older students attend Los Altos or Mountain View High School.
Pros
- Comforts of Suburban Living
- Great Schools
- Quiet and Safe
Cons
- Boredom of Suburban Living
- No Nightlife
Recommended for
- Professionals
- Families with kids
- Retirees
- Students
Blossom Valley
rating details
2yrs+
- Neighborly Spirit
- Safe & Sound
- Clean & Green
- Pest Free
- Peace & Quiet
- Eating Out
- Nightlife
- Parks & Recreation
- Shopping Options
- Gym & Fitness
- Internet Access
- Lack of Traffic
- Parking
- Cost of Living
- Resale or Rental Value
- Public Transport
- Medical Facilities
- Schools
- Childcare
"The Millionaires Next Door"
My younger brother lives here, so I often find myself here visiting him. The Blossom Valley neighborhood is probably best described as a nice, somewhat upscale version of the typical California neighborhood. Put another way, there are Ranch houses galore here. Really nicely kept Ranch houses, but Ranch houses nevertheless.
But don’t be fooled. This is not a middle class neighborhood. Let’s take my brother’s house. It looks like a fairly typical Ranch home from the outside, where it sits right at the soft turn of a quiet residential street. It looks pretty much like a billion other ranch homes in California—you know the look: brown shingled roof, adobe walls (in this particular case, painted a grapish purple that I my brother keeps telling me he is going to paint over but keeps putting off).
It has 4 bedrooms and a 2 car garage and backyard that is mostly cement with a canopy roof to provide shade. It is just over 2000 feet total and does have a nice interior with recessed lighting in the ceiling, a beautiful kitchen and a classic sort of stylish shelving in the living room. The inside really adds a lot of value.
Given the great local schools and the proximity to his work, I could definitely see maybe paying $750K for it. That’s what it would cost say, in Pleasanton or Dublin, I’m guessing.
What did little bro pay for it?
Just shy of $1.5 million.
That’s right. And this was after the Housing Bubble Burst. Little bro is doing pretty well for himself but a million dollar home without a pool? In the middle of the suburbs? A house that 50 miles in any direction would not break a million dollars? I think its nuts.
But it brings me to the point about this neighborhood. It looks like a middle class neighborhood but its not. It’s actually neighborhood for the really well off disguised as a middle class neighborhood. You remember that book The Millionaire Next Door? Well this must have been the neighborhood where that author lived, except that I don’t think most authors can afford to live here.
As they say, real estate is all about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. So, I guess if you are one of Google’s 10,000 employees (Mountain View’s biggest employer) then you are willing to pay the huge costs to not have to have a long commute.
Now, this is not to say that Mountain View doesn’t definitely have a lot advantages over most neighborhoods in California. The schools here as throughout most of the Peninsula are just fantastic. Even if they weren’t you have several private choices here as well. For Blossom Valley your kids would go from Springer Elementary in Blossom Valley to Blach Intermediate at the southern end of neighboring Cuesta Park to Mountain View High in Waverly Park—all within a mile and all outstanding. Some of the best schools in all of California. (Probably in the country.)
Just to the east you have El Camino Hospital, so I would imagine this would make for a great spot for nurses to live (though I think only the doctors would be able to afford it here).
This is a quiet, very safe neighborhood. (Mountain Views crime rates though they don’t compare favorably to Palo Alto’s or Los
Altos are half the national average year after year with barely one murder per year for its 72,000+ residents.)
At the eastern end of Blossom Valley you have a strip mall and a Safeway Shopping center. You can go to Starbucks there and get some Mountain Mike’s Pizza, but it is otherwise a pretty unremarkable location.
So what am I saying with all this?
I guess I am saying that this is definitely a nice neighborhood, but that I just can see how to justify spending more than a million dollars on a home here when that money can go so much farther just 30 miles from here, even if that means spending an extra hour commuting every day.
But don’t be fooled. This is not a middle class neighborhood. Let’s take my brother’s house. It looks like a fairly typical Ranch home from the outside, where it sits right at the soft turn of a quiet residential street. It looks pretty much like a billion other ranch homes in California—you know the look: brown shingled roof, adobe walls (in this particular case, painted a grapish purple that I my brother keeps telling me he is going to paint over but keeps putting off).
It has 4 bedrooms and a 2 car garage and backyard that is mostly cement with a canopy roof to provide shade. It is just over 2000 feet total and does have a nice interior with recessed lighting in the ceiling, a beautiful kitchen and a classic sort of stylish shelving in the living room. The inside really adds a lot of value.
Given the great local schools and the proximity to his work, I could definitely see maybe paying $750K for it. That’s what it would cost say, in Pleasanton or Dublin, I’m guessing.
What did little bro pay for it?
Just shy of $1.5 million.
That’s right. And this was after the Housing Bubble Burst. Little bro is doing pretty well for himself but a million dollar home without a pool? In the middle of the suburbs? A house that 50 miles in any direction would not break a million dollars? I think its nuts.
But it brings me to the point about this neighborhood. It looks like a middle class neighborhood but its not. It’s actually neighborhood for the really well off disguised as a middle class neighborhood. You remember that book The Millionaire Next Door? Well this must have been the neighborhood where that author lived, except that I don’t think most authors can afford to live here.
As they say, real estate is all about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. So, I guess if you are one of Google’s 10,000 employees (Mountain View’s biggest employer) then you are willing to pay the huge costs to not have to have a long commute.
Now, this is not to say that Mountain View doesn’t definitely have a lot advantages over most neighborhoods in California. The schools here as throughout most of the Peninsula are just fantastic. Even if they weren’t you have several private choices here as well. For Blossom Valley your kids would go from Springer Elementary in Blossom Valley to Blach Intermediate at the southern end of neighboring Cuesta Park to Mountain View High in Waverly Park—all within a mile and all outstanding. Some of the best schools in all of California. (Probably in the country.)
Just to the east you have El Camino Hospital, so I would imagine this would make for a great spot for nurses to live (though I think only the doctors would be able to afford it here).
This is a quiet, very safe neighborhood. (Mountain Views crime rates though they don’t compare favorably to Palo Alto’s or Los
Altos are half the national average year after year with barely one murder per year for its 72,000+ residents.)
At the eastern end of Blossom Valley you have a strip mall and a Safeway Shopping center. You can go to Starbucks there and get some Mountain Mike’s Pizza, but it is otherwise a pretty unremarkable location.
So what am I saying with all this?
I guess I am saying that this is definitely a nice neighborhood, but that I just can see how to justify spending more than a million dollars on a home here when that money can go so much farther just 30 miles from here, even if that means spending an extra hour commuting every day.
Pros
- Great Schools
- Quiet and Safe
- Comforts of Suburban Living
Cons
- Very, Very, Very Expensive
- No Nightlife
- Boredom of Suburban Living
Recommended for
- Professionals
- Families with kids
