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Blue Hills (Azule), Saratoga Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
Northwest Saratoga between Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and Highway 85: tracts from 1941 to the early 1970s around Blue Hills Elementary and Azule Park, crossed by the old rail corridor that now carries Joe's Trail.
Blue Hills (Azule) by the numbers
blue hills (azule) by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Blue Hills (Azule): Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd to Hwy 85, north of Cox Ave (approximate). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in blue hills (azule) · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Blue Hills (Azule)
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Blue Hills (Azule) from the MLS, updated automatically, with a map of the neighborhood outline.
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Listings come from MLSListings and other MLSs through IDX and show their listing brokerage; confirm details with the listing agent. The map outline is the neighborhood boundary used by our listing search (Blue Hills (Azule): Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd to Hwy 85, north of Cox Ave (approximate)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Blue Hills (Azule) came to be
Two names cover this corner of Saratoga. Blue Hills is on the elementary school, a shopping center and a 1961 tract map. Azule is older. The Peninsular Railway, the electric interurban that ran through the valley in the early 1900s, listed a stop called Azule, and the 1941 map of Azule Homesite (tract 184) draws the Peninsula Railway Co. right of way crossing Saratoga and Sunnyvale Road at the tract's corner. That corridor still runs diagonally toward Cox Avenue, with a Union Pacific track and Joe's Trail along it, and the Azule Crossing Shopping Center sits where it meets Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.
The 1941 map shows 16 lots on Sea Gull Way and Zorka Avenue, most of them 75 by 150 feet, approved by the county Board of Supervisors on land described as part of the old Quito Rancho. Azule Homesites units 2 to 5 extended Sea Gull Way, De Sanka Avenue, Ted Avenue, Cherry Lane and Goleta Avenue in the 1950s. Saratoga incorporated in October 1956, and the larger tracts came after: Kirkmont of Saratoga (recorded 1962), Blossom View and Saratoga Estates to the north, Georgetown West along Fredericksburg Drive, and the three Greenbrier units near Cox Avenue at the end of the 1960s.
The east edge came last. Land for the West Valley Freeway was set aside in the 1950s and Highway 85 through Saratoga opened in October 1994. Saratoga has a single interchange on it, at Saratoga Avenue; planned exits at Quito Road and Prospect were dropped after residents objected. The 1961 Blue Hills of Saratoga tract itself ended up east of the freeway, on Saraglen and Viewoak Drives, and is covered in our Prides Crossing guide. A pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the freeway ties the two sides together.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
Sea Gull Way is the spine. It leaves Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road at the Azule Crossing center, runs east past Blue Hills Elementary and Azule Park, and curves south to Cox Avenue. The Azule Homesites streets off it (Zorka Avenue, De Sanka Avenue, Ted Avenue, Cherry Lane, Goleta Avenue) hold the oldest houses, a few with assessor build years in the late 1940s. North of the school, Kirkmont, Kirkbrook and Kirkdale Drives, Knollwood Drive, Marilla Drive and Carol Lane are 1960s streets, and nearly every Kirkmont house is still single-story. Rodeo Creek runs along Knollwood Drive before angling southwest.
South of the rail corridor the houses get bigger and taller. Georgetown West borrows Washington-area place names (Fredericksburg Drive, Williamsburg Lane, Sheridan Circle, Cheverly Court), and the Greenbrier units fill the curve of Sea Gull Way with Lido Way, Karn Circle, Kane Drive, Veronica Drive and short courts such as Puente, Orella, Indio, Kinman, Guava and Yuba. About two-thirds of the Greenbrier houses are two-story in the assessor data, against fewer than one in ten in the Azule units. Assessor-recorded building area has a median near 2,100 to 2,400 sq ft on the Kirkmont and Blossom View streets and 2,500 to 2,900 sq ft in Greenbrier.
Lots are a little over a quarter acre at the median, about 11,600 sq ft, and rebuilds are scattered rather than block-wide (about 40 single-family parcels carry a build year of 2000 or later). Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road is the commercial edge, with offices, the Azule Crossing center and three groups of attached or small-lot homes: the 65-unit Atrium complex (1979), 18 small-lot houses on Harvest Lane (about 2001) and 24 townhomes on Marigny Place (2014 and 2017).
streets in blue hills (azule)
- Sea Gull Way
- Zorka Avenue
- De Sanka Avenue
- Ted Avenue
- Cherry Lane
- Goleta Avenue
- Knollwood Drive
- Kirkmont Drive
- Kirkbrook Drive
- Kirkdale Drive
- Marilla Drive
- Carol Lane
- Merida Drive
- Natoma Court
- Covina Court
- Lido Way
- Karn Circle
- Kane Drive
- Veronica Drive
- Puente Court
- Orella Court
- Indio Court
- Kinman Court
- Guava Court
- Yuba Court
- Fredericksburg Drive
- Williamsburg Lane
- Sheridan Circle
- Cheverly Court
- Glen Arbor Court
- Sumner Drive
- Claridge Court
- Blue Meadow Court
- McCartysville Place
- Harvest Lane
- Leutar Court
- Atrium Drive
- Marigny Place
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Blue Hills (Azule)
- park
Azule Park
A 4.3-acre city park at 12277 Goleta Avenue, between Blue Hills Elementary and the Highway 85 corridor, with two playgrounds, a reservable tennis court, a petanque court, a horseshoe pit, barbecue picnic areas and par course stations. No restrooms.
- park
Kevin Moran Park
Across the freeway by the pedestrian-bicycle bridge, at 12415 Scully Avenue: 10.3 acres with play areas, tennis, bocce, a basketball half-court, a meditation garden and restrooms. The city's map puts both park loops plus the bridge at 0.85 mile.
- trail
Joe's Trail
A crushed-stone path on the old rail corridor beside the Union Pacific track, with a small trailhead on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road just south of Sea Gull Way. It is open in two pieces with a gap at Cox Avenue and crosses Rodeo and Saratoga creeks on bridges.
- shopping
Azule Crossing Shopping Center
On Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road at Sea Gull Way, with a supermarket and small shops. The Blue Hills Shopping Center is across the road just south of Prospect, and the Argonaut Shopping Center is just south of Cox Avenue, about half a mile from the middle of the neighborhood (straight line).
- school
Blue Hills Elementary
A Cupertino Union K-5 school at 12300 De Sanka Avenue, sharing its east edge with Azule Park.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
Census school-district maps and the city's parcel data put nearly all of Blue Hills in the Cupertino Union School District (K-8) and the Fremont Union High School District; a few lots fronting Cox Avenue map to Saratoga Union and Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union instead. Blue Hills Elementary, a Cupertino Union K-5 school, is inside the neighborhood at 12300 De Sanka Avenue. Christa McAuliffe Elementary (Cupertino Union, K-8) is about a mile east on Titus Avenue, and Lynbrook High (Fremont Union) is about 1.4 miles northeast in San José (straight line). Attendance boundaries change, so check the exact address with each district.
Cupertino Union guide · Fremont Union guide · Silicon Valley school districts
Getting around
- VTA Route 51 runs on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road along the west edge (stops at Cox Avenue and Sea Gull Way, then De Anza Boulevard at Prospect) between West Valley College and Moffett Field; check VTA for current times.
- Highway 85 has no interchange here. The De Anza Boulevard exit (16) is about 1.2 miles north and the Saratoga Avenue exit (14) about 1.6 miles southeast (straight line).
- Caltrain: Sunnyvale and Lawrence stations are each about 6 miles north; VTA light rail at Winchester station in Campbell is about 4.3 miles east (straight line).
- OpenStreetMap shows bike lanes on Prospect Road, Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and Cox Avenue, and Joe's Trail runs from Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road toward Cox Avenue on the old rail corridor.
- The pedestrian-bicycle bridge from Azule Park crosses Highway 85 to Kevin Moran Park and Scully Avenue.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Blue Hills (Azule): what we check
Buying here
- Check the school districts for the exact address. Nearly everything here maps to Cupertino Union and Fremont Union, but a few Cox Avenue lots map to Saratoga Union and Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union.
- Read the geologic notes on the southwest streets. The city's GIS flags 22 parcels, mostly on Fredericksburg Drive, as inside a Monta Vista fault zone and 47 (Fredericksburg Drive, Harvest Lane, Sumner Drive, Claridge Court and nearby) as potential ground-rupture areas on its ground movement potential map. The county's Alquist-Priolo layer shows no state fault zone here. Ask the city what an addition or rebuild would need.
- Ask which sewer agency serves the house: the city's parcel data puts most lots in the Cupertino sanitary district and about 120 in eastern Greenbrier with West Valley Sanitation District. Have the sewer lateral scoped; most houses pre-date 1978, so expect the lead-paint disclosure too.
- Look at the Housing Element map if you are buying near Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. The city's site inventory proposes mixed-use zoning at 30 to 40 units per acre for several commercial parcels on the corridor, including an office site at 12312 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road planned for about 37 units.
- Lots backing onto Highway 85, the rail corridor or Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road are worth a visit at rush hour and in the evening; compare them with interior lots on the same tract.
Selling here
- List the school districts accurately (Cupertino Union and Fremont Union for nearly all addresses) and invite buyers to verify; do not name an assigned school unless the district confirms it.
- Say which tract the house is in. A 1941-1950s Azule lot, a 1960s Kirkmont ranch and a late-1960s Greenbrier two-story attract different buyers, and the tract explains the lot size and plan.
- Give the walk: minutes to Azule Park, the freeway bridge to Kevin Moran Park, Joe's Trail and the Azule Crossing center.
- Gather permits for additions and any geologic or soils reports, especially on the fault-flagged streets near Fredericksburg Drive.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Blue Hills (Azule) questions, answered
Is it Blue Hills or Azule?
Both are in use. Azule is the older name: a Peninsular Railway stop, the 1941 Azule Homesite tract, Azule Park and the Azule Crossing center. Blue Hills is on the elementary school, a shopping center and a 1961 tract just east of Highway 85.
What are the boundaries?
In this guide: Prospect Road (north), Highway 85 (northeast), Cox Avenue (south) and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road (west), which takes in the Greenbrier and Georgetown West tracts. The city does not publish an official boundary.
Which school districts serve Blue Hills?
Cupertino Union for K-8 and Fremont Union for high school, per Census maps and the city's parcel data, with a few Cox Avenue lots in Saratoga Union and Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union. Blue Hills Elementary is inside the neighborhood. Boundaries change, so check the exact address with the districts.
When were the houses built?
The first tract was mapped in 1941. Recorded maps and assessor build years put the Azule Homesites units in the 1950s, Kirkmont and Blossom View in the early-to-mid 1960s, Georgetown West in the late 1960s and Greenbrier around 1969 to 1972, with townhomes in 1979, about 2001 and 2014-2017.
What is Joe's Trail?
A crushed-stone path on the old rail corridor beside the Union Pacific track. The north trailhead is on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road just south of Sea Gull Way, and the trail runs southeast in two pieces with a gap at Cox Avenue.
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