Cory neighborhood

Looking for a convenient residential location in an area with gorgeous tree lined streets? Check out the Cory neighborhood in west San Jose along the Santa Clara border.

One of the first things you’ll notice when arriving to the interior of this established area is that most streets have older, attractive, and large trees along the sidewalk strip. It’s an enormous canopy which creates a very inviting feel. In some sections, trees are younger.  The majority of homes provide a front porch. You may also note that nearly every property features a single story ranch style house.

What are homes like in the Cory neighborhood?

There are 1065 houses (by my research on Realist) in the Cory community, plus about a dozen duplexes. Along the outside edge of the neighborhood there are other types of buildings, including religious, restaurant, educational, and business.

The houses were built primarily between 1948 and 1950, although about 200 of the thousand were built after 1950 (and 31 of those after 1991). The majority of the houses were part of the expansive Bascom Gardens tract (579 by my count), but 211 of the approximately 1000 houses were part of the Kaiser Community Homes (also known simply as “The Kaiser Tract”). Others are designated by tract number but not subdivision name. It looks like they all started as a single level ranch style house, but today 65 of them are two stories (that’s about 5%).

Many of these house were constructed with wall furnaces in a central location (often in a living room on one side and in the hallway on the other), a fireplace, hardwood floors, a formal dining room, an attached 2 car garage, a raised foundation (access often found outside, in the backyard, but sometimes indoors via a closet floor). Laundry would be in the garage and a drying yard just outside of the garage, often in a side yard (and near the kitchen). Charming touches can be found in things like the telephone niche in the hall. Some feature a breezeway between the house and garage – a great place to store bikes, or an easy place to add on later.

These tract houses were built modestly and affordably in the post WWII era. Some houses are as small as 806 SF with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, though most were and still are 3 bedroom homes with 2 baths. More than half are 1300 SF or less. Ninety percent of these properties are under 2000 SF, but over the years with expansion and rebuilding, some are quite big, and one property is a bit over 3000 SF.

Today, many of these properties have been upgraded and enjoy newer wiring, plumbing, heating, and cooling, in addition to dual pane windows and other improvements over the years. Buyers continue to value the hardwood floors, the large picture windows, and practical layouts that these homes provide.

Where is the Cory neighborhood?

The Cory neighborhood sits just north of Valley Fair in San Jose’s 95128 zip code. The other borders are Winchester Blvd to the west, Newhall to the north, and Washington Street & 880 to the east. This scenic pocket is adjacent to the City of Santa Clara and two cemeteries (Santa Clara Mission Cemetery and Mission City Memorial Park), and for our local multiple listing service, MLSListings.com, this is MLS “area 8” (Santa Clara). It is in west San Jose, but very close to the central San Jose neighborhoods of Buena Vista, Burbank, and Rose Garden.

Valley Fair and Santana Row are somewhere between a few blocks and under 2 miles, depending on where you are in the Cory community. They are likely the biggest draw, especially for homes within a mile of the sprawling shopping mall.

Talk about a central location! From here, by car it is roughly:

• 4 minutes to Santa Clara University
• 5 minutes to O’Connor Hospital (and many medical offices, nursing homes, etc.)
• 8 minutes to the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport
• 9 minutes to Japantown
• 10 minutes to downtown San Jose
• 11 minutes to San Jose State University
• 12 minutes to downtown Willow Glen
• 13 minutes to the BART station in Berryessa
• 11-15 minutes to Apple’s new campus
• 13 minutes to downtown Los Gatos
• 17-20 minutes to Mountain View and Google headquarters

Other things to know about the Cory neighborhood

The Cory area  is serviced by Nextdoor as well as an active Yahoo group that pre-existed the emergence of Nextdoor. It seems to be a cohesive neighborhood where most residents move in and stay for a very long time.

The public schools are part of the San Jose Unified School District: Trace Elementary, Hoover Middle School, and Lincoln High School.

Per the Cal My Hazards Awareness map, this area is in a liquefaction zone.

Cory neighborhood real estate

What does it cost to buy a home in the Cory neighborhood? Home values will be strongly influenced by home size, of course, and by location within the Cory neighborhood (it’s a negative to be up against the freeway or other busy road, and it’s a plus to be on a quieter street).

The probable buyer’s value will be impacted by remodeling or lack of it, too. Homes with central forced air heat, central air conditioning, upgraded windows, remodeled kitchen and baths are those which are more likely to attract multiple offers and overbids.  Many of my clients tell me that they won’t buy a house if it doesn’t have AC or at least a forced air heating system so that it is easier to add it.  Each home and condition is unique.

Below, please find homes currently for sale, pending, or sold and closed within the last year.

See all Cory neighborhood real estate.
(all data current as of 9/30/2023)

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