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los gatos neighborhood guide · property nerds® at compass
Johnson Avenue & Foster Road, Los Gatos Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
The hillside southeast of the Main Street and Los Gatos Boulevard corner: about 300 houses on Johnson, Alpine and Loma Alta avenues and up Foster Road, from late-1800s houses to new hillside homes.
Johnson Avenue & Foster Road by the numbers
johnson avenue & foster road by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Johnson Avenue & Foster Road: Johnson, Alpine and Loma Alta avenues up Foster Rd to the Town limit (drawn from Town GIS). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in johnson avenue & foster road · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Johnson Avenue & Foster Road
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Johnson Avenue & Foster Road 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 (Johnson Avenue & Foster Road: Johnson, Alpine and Loma Alta avenues up Foster Rd to the Town limit (drawn from Town GIS)); it may not match every local definition.
sold by the property nerds
Our sales in and near Johnson Avenue & Foster Road
Since 2012 we’ve handled 1 sale inside the Johnson Avenue & Foster Road outline that we can match to MLS records: 1 where we represented the buyer. The photos are our closest listings outside it, measured from its edge.
We also represented the buyer at 16450 Cypress Way (Mar 2017).
All 51 of our Los Gatos sales, on a map Selling near Johnson Avenue & Foster Road? Book a strategy call
the story
How Johnson Avenue & Foster Road came to be
Three old streets fan out to the southeast from the corner where East Main Street meets Los Gatos Boulevard: Alpine Avenue, Johnson Avenue and Loma Alta Avenue. County year-built data dates the oldest houses on Alpine and Johnson avenues to the late 1880s and 1890s, and most of the houses on Johnson Avenue were built before 1941. The Town's historic sites list follows the same streets: the stone walls along Alpine Avenue are listed at eleven addresses from 19 to 134 Alpine, and a former gopher-trap factory at 110 Loma Alta Avenue is listed too. Just across Los Gatos Boulevard from the foot of Johnson Avenue, the Peter Johnson Home at 49 Los Gatos Boulevard is another listed site, and Los Gatos Library house histories describe Johnson subdividing his land on the hill.
Above the old streets, the Town and county planned the slope together. The Los Gatos Hillside Specific Plan, adopted by the Town Council in 1978 and the Board of Supervisors in 1979, found that part of its study area had been developed without public roads, municipal water service or sanitary sewer, and it set rules for clustering houses, road design and keeping new homes off the ridgeline. In 1980 the Town amended the plan for circulation in the vicinity of Tourney Road, which is in this area. The recorded tracts on the upper slope are newer than the streets below: Sundland (1981) on Sund Avenue and Tourney Loop, Tract 7660 (1985) on Johnson Hollow, and Vineyard Heights (2004, with a second map in 2006) on upper Foster Road.
At the southeast end, Cypress Way leads to Blackberry Hill Road, Eugenia Way and Mireval Road and, by way of Maya Way, to Aztec Ridge Drive. The Town's map shows small unincorporated county pockets among these streets, and the Town's hillside planning maps mark an Aztec Ridge ridgeline area along the south edge. The Yum See San Fong House at 16660 Cypress Way is on the Town's historic sites list.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
County assessor data for the 319 single-family houses inside the outline puts the median year built at 1964, the median living area at about 2,600 square feet and the median lot at about 13,500 square feet. About 101 houses predate 1941, mostly on Johnson, Alpine and Loma Alta avenues, while about 14 percent were built in 2000 or later, mostly up the hill. About 52 percent have two or more floors.
The lower streets are the old part: Alpine Avenue (zoned R-1:20), Johnson Avenue and the southwest side of Loma Alta Avenue (R-1:8), and the short Cross Way and Reeds Head Lane between them. Foster Road leaves Johnson Avenue and climbs south past Sund Avenue, Tourney Road and Tourney Loop, with Kilkenny Road off Tourney Road, then Dishman Drive, Snell Road and the Vineyard Heights lots near the Town limit. East of Foster Road, Johnson Hollow, Spring Street, High Street and North and South Quarry roads fill the slope below the upper end of Johnson Avenue and Cypress Way, and Cypress Way continues east toward Phillips Avenue and Blackberry Hill Road. Many of the upper lanes are private roads in the Town's street data, including Dishman Drive, Kilkenny Road, Snell Road and parts of Foster Road, Tourney Road, High Street, South Quarry Road, Cypress Way, Blackberry Hill Road, Eugenia Way and Aztec Ridge Drive.
Zoning changes with the slope. About half of the houses are R-1:8, mostly on Johnson Avenue, Loma Alta Avenue, Spring Street and Johnson Hollow, and Alpine Avenue is R-1:20. Most upper lots are in the Town's Hillside Residential zones: HR-2 1/2 (about 70 houses, on Foster Road, Cypress Way, Blackberry Hill Road, Tourney Road, Aztec Ridge Drive and Mireval Road), HR-1 (about 33, mostly on High Street, Cypress Way, Sund Avenue and Tourney Road) and HR-5 on part of upper Foster Road. In new subdivisions those zones allow one house per 1 to 5 acres (HR-1), 2 1/2 to 10 acres (HR-2 1/2) or 5 to 40 acres (HR-5), depending on slope. The Town's Hillside Area map takes in 122 of the 319 houses, where new homes and major additions or remodels follow the 2004 Hillside Development Standards and Guidelines. Town parcel data records a secondary dwelling unit on about one lot in seven and a well on a few lots.
streets in johnson avenue & foster road
- Johnson Avenue
- Alpine Avenue
- Loma Alta Avenue
- Cross Way
- Reeds Head Lane
- Foster Road
- Sund Avenue
- Tourney Road
- Tourney Loop
- Kilkenny Road
- Dishman Drive
- Snell Road
- Johnson Hollow
- Spring Street
- High Street
- North Quarry Road
- South Quarry Road
- Cypress Way
- Phillips Avenue
- Blackberry Hill Road
- Eugenia Way
- Mireval Road
- Aztec Ridge Drive
- Los Gatos Boulevard
house sales by street, 2021–2026
| Street | Sales | Median price | Per sq ft | Typical lot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Avenue | 4 | $5.12M | $1,544 | 19,620 sq ft |
| Foster Road | 6 | $4.34M | $1,023 | 1.8 acres |
| Loma Alta Avenue | 7 | $3.1M | $1,473 | 7,510 sq ft |
| Johnson Avenue | 8 | $3.08M | $1,615 | 6,640 sq ft |
| Cypress Way | 5 | $3.05M | $1,405 | 8,090 sq ft |
| Blackberry Hill Road | 3 | $3M | $1,340 | 1.2 acres |
Single-family house sales inside this guide’s outline, Oct. 1, 2021 to Oct. 21, 2026, from MLS records, with each sale counted once. Streets with at least 3 sales; prices, price per square foot and lots are medians. The whole city, ranked: The most expensive streets in Los Gatos & Monte Sereno.
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Johnson Avenue & Foster Road
- landmark
Alpine Avenue stone walls
Stone walls along Alpine Avenue are on the Town's historic sites list at eleven addresses, from 19 to 134 Alpine Avenue. They are on private lots, so view them from the street.
- park
Worcester Park
A Town park of about 11 acres on Worcester Loop, just north across Loma Alta Avenue, with a multiuse trail in Town park data and limited street parking. It is about 0.3 mile (straight line) from the nearest houses here.
- park
Novitiate Park and St. Joseph's Hill Preserve
The Town's Novitiate Park at the end of Jones Road is the entrance to St. Joseph's Hill Preserve, about 0.55 to 1.9 miles (straight line) from the houses here, depending on the street.
- shopping
Downtown Los Gatos
Shops and restaurants on Main Street and North Santa Cruz Avenue in the Town's Downtown business district; Town Plaza Park is about 0.55 to 1.9 miles (straight line) from the houses.
- landmark
Los Gatos High School
The public high school at 20 High School Court is across East Main Street from the foot of Alpine and Johnson avenues, about 0.2 mile (straight line) from the nearest houses.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
The whole area is in Los Gatos Union School District (K-8) and Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District, per the California Department of Education's 2025-26 district map checked at houses throughout the outline. Los Gatos High School, a public school of the high school district, is just across East Main Street at 20 High School Court. Attendance boundaries change, so check any specific address with the district.
Los Gatos Union guide · Los Gatos-Saratoga high schools · Silicon Valley school districts
Getting around
- VTA Route 27 (Winchester station to Santa Teresa station) stops at Main & Jackson, at the foot of Alpine Avenue, and northbound at Los Gatos & Stacia on Los Gatos Boulevard. The Main & Jackson stop is about 0.05 mile (straight line) from the nearest houses and about 1.4 miles from the farthest, uphill ones. Local reporting says weekend trips have used Saratoga-Los Gatos Road instead of Main Street, so check the current schedule.
- Highway 17: the nearest ramps are at Los Gatos-Saratoga Road (Highway 9), about 0.4 to 1.7 miles (straight line) from the houses.
- VTA light rail: Winchester station in Campbell is about 4.2 to 5.3 miles (straight line) away.
- Walking and biking: the Town's bicycle and pedestrian project map shows new high-visibility crosswalks with flashing beacons on East Main Street at Villa Avenue, High School Court and Chicago Avenue as in progress. The upper roads are narrow and steep, and several are private.
- Drive times down to Los Gatos Boulevard and Highway 17 depend on the street; from the top of Foster Road or Aztec Ridge Drive, test the route at the hour you would drive it.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Johnson Avenue & Foster Road: what we check
Buying here
- Check the fire map first. CAL FIRE's 2025 fire hazard severity zones, adopted by the Town in June 2025, reach part of the lot for 240 of the 319 houses in a High zone, 29 in Very High and 46 in Moderate. Ask for the seller's natural-hazard and fire-zone disclosures and any defensible-space records, and look hard at roof, vents, decks, vegetation and the evacuation route out of private lanes.
- Confirm the road and the utilities. The Hillside Specific Plan notes that parts of these hills were developed without public roads, municipal water or sanitary sewer, and many upper lanes here are private. Ask whether the house is on sewer or a septic system, where its water comes from (Town parcel data shows a well on a few lots) and whether there is a recorded road maintenance agreement.
- Check the age and the history. The Town presumes any primary structure built before 1941 is historic unless it has found otherwise, and about 101 houses here predate 1941; on Alpine Avenue, the stone walls are on the Town's historic sites list as well.
- Ask what the ground needs. Town parcel data flags more than a third of the single-family lots (114 of 308) in a mapped landslide zone, 27 with a recorded historical landslide and about a quarter in a fault zone, most of them the Berrocal fault zone on the Town's geology map. Ask the Town what geologic and soils reports an addition or rebuild would need.
- Confirm the jurisdiction at the southeast end. The Town's map shows unincorporated county pockets near Eugenia Way, Blackberry Hill Road and Mireval Road, and stretches of Blackberry Hill Road and Maya Way are county roads; county parcels follow county planning and permits.
Selling here
- Put the fire-zone disclosure, any defensible-space inspection and records of roof, vent or vegetation work in the disclosure package; about three-quarters of the lots here show a High zone on the state map.
- For a house built before 1941, gather any Town historic-inventory findings and the permit history, so buyers can see what a remodel would involve.
- Have the road maintenance agreement, septic or sewer records and any geotechnical reports ready; on private lanes those documents answer the first questions.
- Describe location with measured routes: the walk to Main Street and Los Gatos High School from the lower streets, or the drive time to Highway 17 from the upper ones.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Johnson Avenue & Foster Road questions, answered
Is Johnson Avenue & Foster Road an official Los Gatos neighborhood?
No. The Town maps it as part of its large Hillside Area neighborhood district, and no association or plan uses one name for it. This guide is named for its two spine streets: Johnson Avenue on the lower slope and Foster Road, which climbs into the hills.
How old are the houses?
They span about 135 years. County data dates the oldest houses on Alpine and Johnson avenues to the late 1880s and 1890s, about a third of the houses predate 1941, and about 14 percent were built in 2000 or later. The median year built is 1964.
Are homes here in a wildfire hazard zone?
Almost all are. CAL FIRE's 2025 map, adopted by the Town in June 2025, puts part of the lot in a High zone for 240 of the 319 houses, Very High for 29 and Moderate for 46. None is in a FEMA flood zone. Check the specific address on both maps.
Is all of it in the Town of Los Gatos?
Almost all of it. 12 of the 319 houses inside the outline are in small unincorporated county pockets near Eugenia Way, Blackberry Hill Road and Mireval Road, and county land beyond the south edge, all with Los Gatos addresses. Confirm the jurisdiction of a specific parcel before planning work.
Which school districts serve the area?
Los Gatos Union School District for kindergarten through 8th grade and Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District for high school, per the state's district map. Check the exact address with the district, because attendance boundaries change.
Are the roads public?
The lower streets and Foster Road's lower section are Town streets. Many upper lanes, including Dishman Drive, Kilkenny Road, Snell Road and parts of Tourney Road, High Street and Cypress Way, are private roads in the Town's street data, so ask who maintains them.
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Listing data comes from the MLS through our IDX feeds and is shown as reported; it isn’t guaranteed. Repeat listings from overlapping feeds are removed, and land and mobile homes are left out.
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