West Castro Valley

West Castro Valley skirts the eastern side of Highway 580. It is a large residential neighborhood, made up mostly of homes dating from the post WWII era. The median home price here is around $400K.

A lot of the homes in West Castro Valley are of the smaller, older style Ranch homes. This is a semi-hilly area, so a lot of the front lawns are on an incline. People clearly show signs of caring for their homes—lawns have topiary, well-cared for trees, and white picket fences here and there.

This is mostly pick-up truck and economy car territory—which is another way of saying that this is a staunchly middle class neighborhood (by Bay Area standards anyway).

Fairmont Hospital is on the northern end of this neighborhood. I don’t know much about it, though I have heard that it is a pretty standard hospital with nothing particularly spectacular about it.

One concern with living in this area, located as it is just to the east of Ashland, is the possible crime problems. In fact, just last month there was a murder on the southern end of this neighborhood. The victim was a 58 year old, Barbara Latiolas who was strangled in her home by two local boys—16 and 18-- who then set the home ablaze and stole guns from the home and the woman’s Volvo SUV. The brutality of the murder has shocked Castro Valley.

This brutal murder combined with 3 more just to the west of Highway 580 in Ashland and one to the east of the neighborhood (all within the last six months) do give prospective residents some pause about moving into this neighborhood, and perhaps explain why Castro Valley is still relatively affordable.

I am not sure if this kind of crime is typical of Castro Valley—residents seemed to be shocked enough that it suggests this is fairly unusual. Nevertheless it is concerning and tragic.

As to other sorts of crime in the area, there have been maybe a dozen or so assaults in the neighborhood and a lot more just
on the other side of Highway 580. There have been about an equal number of break-ins and robberies as well.

In a nutshell then, I would say that crime is concern here—this is not the burbs like Pleasanton etc. just to the east.

Despite all this, I would still say that this is still a pretty good neighborhood and might even recommend it.