Crescent Park

With handsome homes situated on large lots but still just a short stroll from happening downtown Palo Alto, quiet Crescent Park is one of the northern Santa Clara County city’s most coveted neighborhoods.squire_house

Separated from neighboring Menlo Park (and San Mateo County) to the north by Grant San Francisquito Creek, Crescent Park is bordered by Newell Road to the east, Channing Avenue to the south, and busy Middlefield Road to the west. University Avenue, which cuts through portions of the neighborhood, takes residents east to U.S. Route 101 in a matter of minutes.

Following University about a mile to the west leads directly into the heart of downtown Palo Alto, which boasts the one of the city’s most concentrated strips of restaurants and shops. Adjacent to downtown is the Palo Alto Caltrain station, where the weekday Baby Bullet train transports commuters to San Francisco in less than 40 minutes.

Although it is situated between freeways and train tracks, Crescent Park is far enough removed from either to feel overly hectic.

Near the neighborhood’s southern border sits Eleanor Pardee Park, popular with families thanks to its pair of playgrounds. The park is also home to the Palo Alto Demonstration Gardens, which features a fruit and vegetable garden, as well as one that highlights native Bay Area flora.

Families are also drawn to the neighborhood because of its excellent public schools. Duveneck Elementary School and Jordan Middle School earned scores of 974 and 947, respectively, on a scale of 1,000 on the state’s 2012 Academic Performance Index.

Many homes in the neighborhood were built before World War II and include Craftsman and Spanish Revival-style houses, as well as bungalows. Of particular note is the palm-tree-encircled, 6,300-square-foot Squire House located at 900 University Ave., one of the few examples of Neo-Classical Revival architecture in California.

According to September MLS data, the median sales price for a single-family home in Crescent Park was $3,350,000, the highest in Palo Alto and tied for No. 6 on the list of the most expensive neighborhoods in Pacific Union’s Silicon Valley region.

The median sales price in the neighborhood has grown steadily over the past 12 months and is now at its yearly peak — 21 percent higher than it was in September 2012. Crescent Park home prices showed their highest quarterly median price levels in the third quarter of 2013 — $3,200,000 – since the fourth quarter of 2011.

As inventory figures suggest, high buyer demand in Crescent Park could be driving the continued price appreciation. The months’ supply of inventory (MSI) was 1.0 in September, the highest it ever got in the third quarter. Inventory remains constrained in Palo Alto overall, where the MSI ranged between 0.7 and 1.2 in the third quarter.

Crescent Park is a quiet, comfortable and family-friendly Palo Alto community situated between US Route 101 and Middlefield Road. It stretches about 0.7 square miles with a population just under 4,000, making for a pretty dense, urban sprawl. However, the community is known for its pricey living quarters, mostly because the Palo Alto school’s system has garnered high academic achievements in the last decade. And finally, its proximity to downtown Palo Alto, US Route 101 and Stanford University make for a great location for many young families and professionals.

While exclusively residential, realtors contend that Crescent Park is the hottest real-estate market in the city. The district itself boasts a balance between old and new homes and a variety of house styles. These include everything from Mediterranean, Early Californian, Monterey Colonial and Victorian style homes. There are also larger, more two-story homes sprinkled throughout the district than other Palo Alto communities. For perspective residents, houses tend to be situated on some attractive 20,000 square foot properties with either a two-car garage or a driveway that runs deep into side yards. They’re usually listed in the low $2 million, while rents can set you back a not-so-cheap $2,000/month. However, most families can afford the high prices, usually raking in a annual household salary of $185,000.

Crescent Park is outfitted with a lot of amenities. Its flat living quarters, orderly sidewalks and heavy foliage (that line the street) all exude a sense of calmness and tranquility that usually eludes most Palo Alto communities. For your commercial needs, a large retail shopping plaza is located just adjacent to US Route 101. The area is outfitted with an IKEA, a Nordstrom, a sporting goods store and a couple neighborhood restaurants.

Crescent Park is one of those classic old-timey style neighborhoods, with tree lined sidewalks, nicely trimmed lawns and manor sized homes beautifully maintained. These homes are largely those traditional style homes with brown thatched roofs, dormer windows on top and large paned windows with wooden decorative French shutters below. These are the kind of homes where you are not at all surprised to find well-kept flower beds and birdhouse style mail boxes as you head up the brick walkway to the front door. Really attractive and quaint and made more so by the old style fluted cement lampposts that line many of the streets.
Really wonderful!

There are also a number of streets with Spanish style bungalow and wood shingle style homes. Mediterranean styles and traditional styles abound.

But before you start packing your bags you should know that living in this highly desirable neighborhood will definitely cost you. $1 million is generally considered on the low end for homes here, with many of the beautiful old homes running to $2.5 or higher range.

One of the places that locals take pride in is the Eleanor Pardee Park, whose Demonstration Garden is one of the many Palo Alto community gardens. And you need not worry about recreation and similar activities, just to the south of Crescent Park is Rincotta Park and the Community Center section of Palo Alto with its tennis courts, kids museum, theater and zoo. Makes for a great location in which to live.

The other really nice thing about this area is that you are within walking distance of the University South neighborhood and all of its restaurants and other entertainments. This is definitely not your typical suburban doldrums inducing wasteland.

Of course, finding a way to actually afford living here is no easy task. This is one of the most coveted neighborhoods on the entire Peninsula.

...if you can afford it. While once intended, in all likelihood, for modest homeowners, Crescent Park is anything but these days. The perfect, leafy suburban layout, combined with the close proximity to downtown Palo Alto and to Stanford, make it easily one of the most desirable areas to live in Palo Alto. The neighborhood is so well laid-out that some of the side streets actually dead-end right before hitting Woodland, for the sake of not turning into through streets. Great for the residents, maybe not so great for everyone driving through.

There are pitfalls, of course - and I'm not just talking about the astronomical price tags. University Avenue is a black hole for traffic, and the proximity to the 101 is not for everyone. Furthermore, East Palo Alto is only a stone's throw away, and at the risk of sounding like I am stereotyping, very rich area + very poor area + neighbors = trouble.

But if you are willing to take the small risk and bask in the glory of living in a beautiful, tree-lined suburb with a vibrant nightlife scene within walking distance, by all means, this is the place for it.