Altura neighborhood

The Altura neighborhood in San Jose features quality built, younger townhouses in a convenient location. It also enjoys an expansive, neighborhood park owned by the City of San Jose.

Why people love the Altura neighborhood, in brief:

• Young homes, built in 2006
• Attractive and thoughtfully designed community
• Close to Santa Clara University, easy access to central and downtown San Jose and Santa Clara
• Large neighborhood park nearby
• Double car garages with regular parking,  not tandem!

You’re invited!

We just listed a gorgeous townhome in Altura at 1252 Chiapas Terrace with 2 beds + den, 2.5 baths and oodles of luxury amenities you’ll love! It will be open this weekend, Feb 4 & 5 from 2 – 4 pm. Please stop by! Park along the back of the complex (open spots are guest parking) or on Campbell Avenue. Learn more at 1252 Chiapas Terrace, San Jose or visit the virtual tour at 1252ChiapasTerrace.com.

Where is the Altura neighborhood?

The Altura neighborhood is in San Jose but on the Santa Clara border. The major cross streets are El Camino Real (via Campbell Avenue) and Highway 880. Below is a map – you can see how convenient it is for commuting to Santa Clara University, downtown San Jose, and how easy it is to hop on to Highway 880 or Hwy 87 from here. The blue transit icons in the map below are train stations, too. Easy!

On Nextdoor, the online community of neighbors, you’ll find this is the large area called Newhall. The Altura neighborhood is in San  Jose CA with the zip code 95126.

In the this section of Altura, the homes have little front porches with picket fences. Sometimes the air conditioner is within the front porch and sometimes next to it but outside.

From this neighborhood, it’s a breeze to get to Valley Fair, Santana Row, the Diridon Station and future Google Village, and much more. Japantown, with some of the best food in the valley, is a very short drive away.

While some of the garages face the open parking area, or the park, many of them are along the streets.

What are homes like in the Altura HOA area?

The first thing to know about the neighborhood is that the homes were built by Pulte, one of the most highly regarded builders in the area. With a touch of old style class, in front of each front door there’s a brass plate with the builder’s name displayed. I’d been there a few times before I discovered this, since most of them are covered by welcome mats!

All of these units are townhouses, architecturally. A townhouse is just an architectural style. In this common interest development, the ownership type is condominium. (Some townhouses are Planned Unit Developments, which means that the owner also owns the outer walls and the land beneath the unit. In rare cases, a townhouse could be a stock cooperative, but we have very few of them in Santa Clara County.)

There are 220 townhomes, all constructed in 2006, with 4 basic floor plans, all with an attached 2 car garage:

• the smallest layout offers 1127 SF with 2 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms
• the next smallest provides 1365 SF with2 bedrooms and 2.5 baths
• a larger configuration enjoys 1644 sf, 3 bedrooms, and 3.5 baths (full bed and bath on ground floor)
• the biggest home features 1667 square feet with 2 bedrooms + den and 2.5 bathrooms
• most or all have some sort of outside space, either a balcony or a small front porch
• each has a 2 car garage with side-by-side parking
• in general, they have high ceilings and dual pane windows (except some near the train tracks that may have triple pane windows)

Some homes overlook Campbell Avenue, Newhall Park or Newhall Street, or internal parts of the complex. On the map, the street names are garage access roads. Some homes have front doors near the garage, but many are on the opposite side, facing a community sidewalk.

In the map above, the green lines lead to the rock garden in the middle of the complex, where you see a green oval. Apparently it was once a fountain, but the water  was turned off due to the drought and today it’s a rock garden instead. There are 4 benches there – a nice place to enjoy a break. In the view below the benches don’t show, but there are four metal benches facing the rock garden.

Areas near the back of the community are close to the train line and some units there have triple pane windows. I’ve been told it’s quiet inside for that reason.

Most of the guest parking is against the back wall of the community along Altura Common. There’s some parking available on Campbell Avenue and Newhall, too and we stumbled upon one other spot near the rock garden.

Newhall Park in the Altura neighborhood

The the corner of Campbell Avenue and Newhall Street there’s a wonderful public park with a playground, grassy areas, a little bandstand or amphitheater, and benches for just enjoying the outdoors.

Some of the townhomes overlook the park and enjoy lovely, open views. The  only downside there is that they are also closer to Highway 880.

What is the name of the subdivision or the tract?

These 220 homes are all part of Tract # 9726.

What is funny is that they don’t all share the same subdivision name! I had expected to see the Altura subdivision name for all of the units as Altura, or Altura Commons, or something like that.

Part of this area has names like 9726 Altura-Ph I or 9726 Altura-Ph Two, meaning Altura Phase One, Two etc. (4 phases listed). Some have no subdivision name at all listed on the Realist Reports or county records. Quite a lot of the homes, though, are named as being in the Acacia Acres subdivision.

When I ran the Acacia Acres subdivision in Realist, these are the homes that came up – and so did the park! My best guess is that originally this area was going to be one subdivision, but Pulte may have bought it and then the rest of the land to make the larger complex. But that’s just my best guess.

Are there any concerns with this area?

All areas have pros and cons, and this one is no exception. Depending on where you’re looking in this community, there are noise issues from the trains, the airport, PayPal Park (the other side of the train tracks) and Highway 880. BART will be coming through sometime in the future, also.

This area used to be more industrial, but has been changing in the last 20+ years to include all kinds of new housing. There are still some automobile shops and various types of business nearby, so it’s  not 100% residential.

Some homes may be in a 100 year flood plain, but not all (if any are).

The schools are San Jose Unified and don’t have particularly strong scores.

How much will a home in this neighborhood cost to buy?

What do homes cost in the Altura neighborhood? Pricing everywhere has been a moving target for the last couple of years, so best is to see what is for sale now and what’s sold in the last 3 months. If there are any closed sales, they will show up in the area below.

What about Altura homes for rent? I’m sorry, we don’t cover leased or rented properties as most homes are “for rent by owner” in Silicon Valley.

Altura homes for sale or recently sold

Please also see 1252 Chiapas Terrace, San Jose and our virtual tour: 1252ChiapasTerrace.com

See all Altura neighborhood.
(all data current as of 3/27/2023)

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

Other neighborhoods in San Jose:

Vendome neighborhood (downtown San Jose)

Japantown (downtown San Jose

Naglee Park neighborhood (downtown San Jose)

Buena Vista

Rose Garden