cupertino neighborhood guide · property nerds® at compass
Creston, Cupertino Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
Postwar streets between Foothill Boulevard and Stevens Creek, where about a quarter of the lots are still unincorporated county land with Los Altos mailing addresses.
Creston by the numbers
creston by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Creston: Foothill Blvd to Stevens Creek, Stevens Creek Blvd to I-280 (approximate). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in creston · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Creston
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Creston 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 (Creston: Foothill Blvd to Stevens Creek, Stevens Creek Blvd to I-280 (approximate)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Creston came to be
Creston is the wedge of streets in northwest Cupertino between Foothill Boulevard and Stevens Creek. The creek is the old part of the story: the city's history notes that Font, the cartographer of Juan Bautista de Anza's 1776 expedition, named it Arroyo San Jose de Cupertino, the name the city eventually took. Like most of Cupertino, the land here went from orchards to houses during the valley's postwar growth, which the city dates to the late 1940s.
County assessor records show the order of construction. The tracts along Creston Drive, Ainsworth Drive and Starling Drive went up around 1954 to 1956. Hartman Drive, Stonydale Drive and Rivercrest Court followed in the early to mid-1960s, and Vista Knoll Boulevard, Carta Blanca Street, Bahl Street and Kendle Street filled in around 1967 and 1968. Cupertino Road and Crescent Road, near Stevens Creek Boulevard, are older and more irregular: several lots there pre-date the tract maps, and a few houses carry build years before 1950.
The jurisdiction map is the unusual part. Cupertino incorporated in 1955, and this corner joined it in pieces: the city's annexation records show a large Stevens Creek annexation in 1959, another in 1963, the Crescent Road blocks in 1980 and single parcels on Creston Drive and Baxter Avenue as late as 2001 to 2008. About a quarter of the parcels never joined. They sit mostly along Creston Drive, Ainsworth Drive, Starling Drive, Baxter Avenue and the courts off Creston Drive, remain unincorporated Santa Clara County land, and use Los Altos 94024 mailing addresses. Cupertino's General Plan (Policy LU-10.5) says the Creston neighborhoods will be annexed parcel by parcel with new development, and the city has already prezoned them R1-10.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
Creston Drive is the spine. It starts at Stonydale Drive near Varian Park, runs north along the creek with short courts (Rivercrest, Cloverly, Berkeley and Alderney) dead-ending toward the water, then bends west to Groveland Drive and Baxter Avenue just below I-280. Ainsworth Drive runs up the middle from Vista Knoll Boulevard to Groveland Drive. Because the creek blocks the east side, cars come and go from Foothill Boulevard at Vista Knoll Boulevard, Starling Drive, Alpine Drive, Salem Avenue and Cupertino Road, and from Stevens Creek Boulevard at Cupertino Road.
On the city side, lots are zoned R1-10 (Creston Drive's south end, Stonydale Drive, Hillcrest Road, Cupertino Road, Crescent Road) or R1-7.5 (Vista Knoll Boulevard, Carta Blanca Street, Bahl Street, Kendle Street, Via Camino Court, Linda Ann Court). Alpine Drive, Salem Avenue and the courts off them are zoned R3 for multiple-family housing, and a handful of lots are duplex-zoned. Lots are generous by Cupertino standards, with medians around 10,000 to 11,000 sq ft. The housing stock is mostly 1950s and 1960s houses, with roughly 60 parcels showing a 1990-or-later build year, which usually means a rebuild.
Two rulebooks apply. Annexed lots follow Cupertino's R1 ordinance, where a second floor larger than 66 percent of the first, or second-story side setbacks under 15 feet, triggers design review and second-story windows may need privacy planting. Unincorporated lots follow Santa Clara County planning and building rules until they are annexed. New housing is also arriving at the edges: a 25-townhome proposal at 10012 and 10050 N. Foothill Blvd. and 22467 Stevens Creek Blvd. was under city review in 2026.
streets in creston
- Creston Drive
- Ainsworth Drive
- Starling Drive
- Baxter Avenue
- Groveland Drive
- Hartman Drive
- Chace Drive
- Stonydale Drive
- Rivercrest Court
- Cloverly Court
- Berkeley Court
- Alderney Court
- Vista Knoll Boulevard
- Carta Blanca Street
- Bahl Street
- Kendle Street
- Via Camino Court
- Linda Ann Court
- Alpine Drive
- Salem Avenue
- Cupertino Road
- Crescent Road
- Hillcrest Road
- Varian Way
- North Foothill Boulevard
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Creston
- park
Varian Park
A 6.3-acre city park at the end of Varian Way, near Stevens Creek Elementary. The city's park inventory lists a playground, baseball, tennis, picnic tables and barbecue pits.
- park
Rancho San Antonio
Across Foothill Boulevard via Cristo Rey Drive, which meets Foothill at Starling Drive. Midpen manages the 2,180-acre preserve and the adjoining 293-acre county park, with more than 25 miles of trail and Deer Hollow Farm.
- park
Blackberry Farm
The city's park on Stevens Creek at 21979 San Fernando Ave., about 0.7 mile south across Stevens Creek Boulevard, with two pools, picnic areas and creek trail access. The city lists weekend-only swimming until weekday swim returns in 2027.
- shopping
Monta Vista Village
The small shopping district on Stevens Creek Boulevard around Imperial Avenue, including the post office at 21701 Stevens Creek Blvd., about 0.7 mile southeast.
- shopping
Homestead Road and Foothill Expressway
The nearest supermarket listed in OpenStreetMap is a Trader Joe's at 2310 Homestead Rd., on the Los Altos side, about 0.65 mile north across I-280.
- landmark
Stevens Creek
The creek forms the neighborhood's east edge behind Creston Drive. FEMA maps a regulatory floodway and AE flood zone along its channel, and the city's parcel data flags about 88 parcels, roughly 60 of them on Creston Drive, as touching one or the other.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
Creston is served by the Cupertino Union School District for kindergarten through eighth grade and the Fremont Union High School District for high school. Census school-district maps put the unincorporated Los Altos-address parcels in the same two districts. Stevens Creek Elementary School sits inside the neighborhood at 10300 Ainsworth Drive, near Varian Park. Attendance boundaries change, so check the exact address with CUSD's school locator and FUHSD's boundary maps before you rely on a listing.
Cupertino Union guide · Fremont Union guide · Silicon Valley school districts
Getting around
- VTA Route 51 runs on Foothill Boulevard (stops at Cupertino Road, Vista Knoll Boulevard, Starling Drive and Homestead Road) and on Stevens Creek Boulevard, between West Valley College and Moffett Field by way of Mountain View; weekday trips run roughly hourly, so check VTA's current timetable.
- I-280 runs along the north edge. North Foothill Boulevard reaches it at the neighborhood's northwest corner and continues north of the freeway as Foothill Expressway toward Los Altos.
- Hwy 85 is about 0.6 mile east and Stevens Creek Boulevard is the main road to the Monta Vista shops, De Anza College (about 1.3 miles) and the rest of Cupertino.
- Caltrain: Sunnyvale station is about 4 miles northeast and the Mountain View Transit Center, with Caltrain and VTA light rail, about 4.6 miles north (straight-line).
- Rancho San Antonio's main entrance is reached from Foothill Boulevard via Cristo Rey Drive, so trail access is a short drive or bike ride.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Creston: what we check
Buying here
- Confirm jurisdiction before anything else. About a quarter of Creston's parcels are unincorporated county land with Los Altos 94024 mailing addresses, so permits, zoning and code enforcement there run through Santa Clara County, not Cupertino. Pull permit history from whichever agency had the parcel at the time.
- If you plan a rebuild, addition, ADU or SB 9 project on a county lot, ask both the county and Cupertino's planning desk which rules apply. The General Plan ties annexation of the Creston parcels to new development, and the city has prezoned them R1-10.
- Ask how the house handles sewage. The city's sanitary-district map leaves the unincorporated parcels outside the Cupertino Sanitary District boundary, so get the seller's records for the sewer connection or any septic system.
- Check hazard zones lot by lot: the city's parcel data flags about 88 of roughly 520 parcels, mostly on Creston Drive, as touching FEMA's floodway or AE zone, and about 100 as inside mapped liquefaction or slope-instability zones. Read the natural hazard disclosure and check FEMA's flood map for the specific address.
- Check the parcel's zoning (R1-10, R1-7.5, R3 or county) and lot size; they decide what you can build. Most houses here pre-date 1978, so expect the federal lead-paint disclosure and have the inspector look at electrical, foundation and the sewer lateral.
Selling here
- Say plainly in the listing whether the home is in Cupertino (95014) or unincorporated with a Los Altos (94024) address, and that the school districts are CUSD and FUHSD either way. Buyers who search by city can miss a county parcel.
- Gather permits from the county, the city, or both if the parcel was annexed after work was done, plus sewer or septic records.
- Lead with the lot: size, zoning and frontage. Many Creston buyers are weighing a remodel against a rebuild.
- If the lot touches the creek, order the natural hazard report early and know the flood-zone status before buyers ask.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Creston questions, answered
Is Creston in Cupertino or Los Altos?
Mostly Cupertino. About a quarter of the parcels, mainly along Creston Drive, Ainsworth Drive, Starling Drive, Baxter Avenue and the courts off Creston Drive, are unincorporated Santa Clara County land that uses Los Altos 94024 mailing addresses. They sit inside Cupertino's planning area, and the General Plan expects them to be annexed parcel by parcel when new development happens.
Which school districts serve Creston?
The Cupertino Union School District (K-8) and the Fremont Union High School District, including the county parcels with Los Altos addresses. Stevens Creek Elementary is on Ainsworth Drive inside the neighborhood, but boundaries change, so confirm the exact address with each district.
When were the houses built?
Mostly in two waves, per county assessor records: Creston Drive, Ainsworth Drive and Starling Drive around 1954 to 1956, and Vista Knoll Boulevard, Carta Blanca Street and Bahl Street around 1967 to 1968. About 60 parcels show a build year of 1990 or later, usually rebuilds.
Does Stevens Creek affect any homes?
It can. FEMA maps a floodway and AE zone along the creek behind Creston Drive, and the city's parcel data flags about 88 parcels as touching them. Check the specific address and read the natural hazard disclosure.
Is this the same as the General Plan's Creston-Pharlap area?
Not quite. The General Plan's Creston-Pharlap planning area runs from Foothill Boulevard all the way east to Hwy 85, across the creek to Phar Lap Drive and Mann Drive. This guide covers the west side of the creek, which is what most people mean by Creston.
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