Get to Know Los Altos

Snuggling the western foothills of Silicon Valley, Los Altos comprises some of the most bucolic real estate anywhere in the Bay Area. Its modern history begins in 1906, when Sarah Winchester, unwilling to let railroad tracks bisect her farm, sold it to the Southern Pacific Railroad entirely. Seeing the value of 140 acres on their new line, Paul Shoup, a visionary Southern Pacific executive, created the Altos Land Company, developing the area into an elegant commuter suburb that filled seats on the company’s trains through 1964. Today, the hometown of Steve Jobs boasts a fashionably quaint downtown of shops, cafes, and galleries. Located less than an hour from San Francisco, 20 minutes from San Jose, and a scenic mountain drive from the Pacific Ocean, Los Altos is a tranquil yet convenient base for work and play. It’s accessible via Foothill Expressway and I-280, with Caltrain and VTA Light Rail service available in neighboring Mountain View.

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Living in Silicon Valley

Twentieth-century innovation transformed the Santa Clara Valley, once a verdant Eden of blossoming plum and apricot orchards, from the rural “Valley of Heart’s Delight” to suburban Silicon Valley. Located at the south end of the San Francisco Bay Area, its borders are more or less congruent with Santa Clara County, though they're sometimes stretched by extension to cover tech-forward areas up the peninsula and the lower East Bay. Though roads are the default thoroughfare for local travel, there's a growing number of transit alternatives: CalTrain and now BART provides easy travel to San Francisco and Oakland, and the VTA light rail slinks streetcar-style through downtown San Jose on its way from Milpitas and Mountain View to Campbell and Santa Teresa. The Santa Cruz Mountains to the south and west, along with Mt. Hamilton and the Diablo Range to the east, keep nature in easy reach.