Cambrian Park, or more broadly, Cambrian, is a west San Jose neighborhood or district and is one of the high-value areas in Silicon Valley. The schools are good, the crime is low, and the commute is not too bad.

For people relocating to Santa Clara County, this is a place to know about since quality education and affordability are often high priorities! Most Silicon Valley home buyers would say that Cambrian Park real estate offers a very good value.

What’s the compromise for the more reasonable prices of homes for sale? Well, Cambrian doesn’t have an interesting, upscale downtown area like Campbell, Los Gatos, Saratoga, or Willow Glen. (It may, when the Cambrian Park Plaza redevelopment takes place.)

But it does have tons of shopping & restaurants and even a Farmer’s Market. It also enjoys a top notch hospital (Good Samaritan) and plenty of parks as well as a fantastic rec center with a large park adjacent to it, the Camden Community Center, which has loads of programs (including an after school program for youth), classes, and a fabulous pool.

Altogether, there are about 75,000 to 80,000 residents in Cambrian, spread throughout part of two zip codes, part of 95124 and some of 95118.

If there is a “central Cambrian Park”, it would have to be near the original Cambrian Park Shopping Center, which was the first actual mall in San Jose! That area is sometimes known as Cambrian Village.  People sometimes use the three names interchangeably: Cambrian, Cambrian Park, Cambrian Village.

Where is Cambrian Park? Map of approximate Cambrian Boundaries:

View Cambrian Area of San Jose in a larger map

Cambrian Park is a west side suburban area, part of the city of San Jose for the most part (there are a few county pockets, a bit now covered by Campbell, though), which is located adjacent to Campbell, Los Gatos, Almaden Valley, Blossom Valley and Willow Glen.

The Cambrian Park boundaries are, approximately, Foxworthy Avenue, Bascom Avenue, Carlton Avenue, Blossom Hill Road (except for a jut up in the Vista Loop area), Camden Avenue, the Guadalupe Creek (between Coleman Ave and Blossom Hill Rd.) and Almaden Expressway. There are many many zigs and zags, especially with the Los Gatos border, but I sketched out the approximate boundaries so that readers could get a rough idea of the area we call Cambrian Park – see the map above.

What are the schools in Cambrian?

Cambrian is served by 3 elementary school districts:

• the Union School District (in the area closest to Los Gatos)
• the Cambrian School District (the part to the north, closer to Campbell)
• the San Jose Unified School District (covering most of the 95118 section).

And two high school districts:

• Campbell Union High School District if the homes are in the Union or Cambrian schools area
• San Jose Unified in the rest of Cambrian.

(Some school districts are elementary and middle only, with a separate high school district.  Others are “unified”, covering K – 12.)

Schools in the Union School District typically are the highest rated, followed by Cambrian, followed by San Jose Unified – but you need to check each school since they are not uniform. Additionally, scores for the individual schools can change from year to year.

Maps for the school district boundaries and school of attendance in Cambrian:

Map of the Union School District

Map of the Cambrian School District, showing school of attendance maps also (they include the Farnham charter School):

The History of Cambrian, via the Cambrian Community Council

A friend & past client of mine (who purchased a home with me in Cambrian) very kindly told me about a wonderful article on the history of the Cambrian area which can be found on the Cambrian Community Council website.

Cambrian’s name

As with many parts of California, interestingly, the name itself goes back to the naming of a school (Cambria being another name for Wales).  This happened in the mid to late 1800s. The details of the founding of the Union School District and the Cambrian School District are shared there, too. It’s funny to think that more than a century later, the high quality schools in this San Jose neighborhood are still of prime importance and a main driver in home values.

What were the boundaries of Cambrian originally?

The article further explains that the Cambrian area was an enormous stretch of land, and that Cambrian Park is within that general area (as is “Cambrian Village”, found at the crossroads of Union and Camden Avenues in San Jose).

The boundaries got defined differently at various points in time, and at times has included part of Los Gatos. (I read elsewhere that Cambrian was said to extend as far as Dry Creek Road at one point.) Some areas that were originally Cambrian are now part of Willow Glen or part of Campbell. Our local Realtor MLS defines the area as going roughly from about Foxworthy to the north to Blossom Hill in the south, Almaden Expressway to the east and Bascom Avenue to the west. (It touches Los Gatos, Almaden Valley, Willow Glen, and Campbell.)

If you live in this wonderful part of Silicon Valley, I encourage you to visit the CCC website and enjoy their colorful article, History of the Cambrian Area. [Update: the article has since been removed (as of checking, it is down March 2020), but a transcript of it was found in a Facebook Post]

Cambrian Park – more info:

Neighborhoods: You can find an extensive list of articles on this site for specific Cambrian neighborhoods here: Cambrian Park neighborhoods list.

Cambrian Park Neighborhoods: How to Choose Where to Live?

The Cambrian Park real estate market update

You can read about the Cambrian real estate market (as well as other Silicon Valley real estate markets in Santa Clara County) on my REReport, which is updated in the first week or so of each month.

The current RE Report for Cambrian Park Houses
The current RE Report for Cambrian Condominiums & Townhouses

What do houses cost in Cambrian?

Homes for sale in Cambrian 95124 – houses /single family homes

See all Real estate matching your search.
(all data current as of 12/8/2023)

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

Homes for sale in Cambrian 95118 – houses /single family homes

See all Real estate matching your search.
(all data current as of 12/8/2023)

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

Cambrian condominiums and townhouses for sale

If you’d like to buy a Cambrian home, you can browse the MLS listings of Cambrian Homes for Sale on this blogsite.  I have them listed by zip code on separate posts for houses, and below this section are the currently available condo and townhome properties which are on our MLS. These are in order of most recently added to the MLS – click the link at the end of each group to see more.

Cambrian Park real estate – Homes for sale in the Cambrian area of San Jose

Want to buy or sell a home or real estate investment in the Cambrian Park area of San Jose? Please reach out to me at mary@popehandy.com