san bruno neighborhood guide · property nerds® at compass
Mills Park, San Bruno Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
San Bruno's postwar grid of tree-named streets between El Camino Real and I-280, laid out in six Mills Park tract maps from 1941 to the mid-1950s, with City Hall, the library and Allen Elementary on its east edge.
Mills Park by the numbers
mills park by the numbers · live from the mls
- for sale now…
- median list price…
- homes sold, last 12 months…
- median sale price, 12 mo…
- median price per sq ft, sold…
- sale price vs. list…
Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Mills Park (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in mills park · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Mills Park
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Mills Park from the MLS, updated automatically, with a map of the neighborhood outline.
Loading listings…
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 (Mills Park (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Mills Park came to be
Mills Park takes its name from the Mills estate land that covered much of what became postwar San Bruno. A history in the city's 2010-11 budget says developer George Williams bought and developed that land in the 1940s, and that soon after he built the Mills Park Addition, houses spread into the western hills. The same history dates that housing boom from the 1940s to the 1960s.
County records show the work in six numbered maps, filed in books 23 through 36 of the county's recorded maps. Map No. 1 covers Acacia, Elm, Kains and Reid avenues near Angus Avenue West, where most houses are dated 1941. Map No. 2 (houses mostly 1945-48) adds the Acacia, Elm and Linden blocks along San Bruno Avenue West; Map No. 3 (about 1947-51) the Cypress, Sycamore, Magnolia, Park and Williams avenue blocks; Map No. 4 (about 1948-52) Cherry, Chestnut, Hickory, Holly and Juniper avenues; Map No. 5 (about 1951-53) Pepper Drive and upper Cedar Avenue; and Map No. 6 (about 1954-56) Hawthorne and Redwood avenues beside I-280.
The El Camino Real side is the civic end of town: City Hall at 567 El Camino Real, the public library at 701 Angus Avenue West and Allen Elementary at 875 West Angus Avenue. At the San Bruno Avenue corner, the city approved the Mills Park Center redevelopment for 427 homes in 2020; the city's 2023-2031 Housing Element listed it as still waiting for building permits, so check the city's project list for its current status.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
The streets form a grid set at an angle to follow El Camino Real. Tree-named avenues (Acacia, Elm, Linden, Cypress, Sycamore, Magnolia, Chestnut, Cherry, Cedar, Hawthorne and Redwood) run roughly north-south from San Bruno Avenue West, and Kains, Park, Williams, Reid and Angus avenues cross them. Short blocks such as Hickory, Holly and Juniper avenues and Olive Court fill the corners, and Pepper Drive curves along the I-280 edge.
Nearly every parcel is a detached single-family house in the R-1 zone, and county year-built records put almost all of them between 1941 and 1956. Lots are uniform: the median is about 5,070 square feet and three quarters fall between 5,000 and 5,500. With the land so even, houses differ mainly in size, additions and updates, so the permit history matters when you compare two on the same block. The city's parcel data lists 15 houses with an ADU.
Three small tracts fill leftover land. Cunningham Glen on Cunningham Way has houses from 1973-74, San Bruno Terrace on Cedarwood Court, Peachwood Court and Plumwood Place dates from 1981-83, and Cedar Mills Lane off Pepper Drive was built in 2012-13 on lots of about 3,000 to 3,400 square feet. The shopping and office frontage on El Camino Real and San Bruno Avenue West is zoned for commercial and transit-oriented uses.
streets in mills park
- Acacia Avenue
- Elm Avenue
- Linden Avenue
- Cypress Avenue
- Sycamore Avenue
- Magnolia Avenue
- Chestnut Avenue
- Cherry Avenue
- Cedar Avenue
- Hawthorne Avenue
- Redwood Avenue
- Kains Avenue
- Park Avenue
- Williams Avenue
- Reid Avenue
- Angus Avenue West
- Hickory Avenue
- Holly Avenue
- Juniper Avenue
- Olive Court
- Pepper Drive
- Burrows Avenue
- Cunningham Way
- Cedarwood Court
- Peachwood Court
- Plumwood Place
- Cedar Mills Lane
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Mills Park
- park
Grundy Park
A 4-acre neighborhood park with a tot lot just south of Park Avenue, at the Huntington Park line.
- park
San Bruno City Park and the Recreation and Aquatic Center
City Park (Crystal Springs Road and Oak Avenue, 31 acres in the General Plan's park table) is about a half mile south (straight-line). Its Recreation and Aquatic Center at 251 City Park Way held its grand opening in August 2024 and has indoor and outdoor pools, a gym and a fitness room.
- landmark
City Hall and the San Bruno Public Library
City Hall (567 El Camino Real) and the library (701 Angus Avenue West, part of the Peninsula Library System) sit on the neighborhood's El Camino Real edge, next to Allen Elementary.
- shopping
El Camino Real and San Bruno Avenue West
The Mills Park Center at San Bruno Avenue and El Camino Real, the Bayhill Shopping Center across San Bruno Avenue West, and downtown San Mateo Avenue about 0.6 mile east (straight-line) cover daily errands.
- park
Junipero Serra County Park
San Mateo County's park at 1801 Crystal Springs Road, about 108 acres per the General Plan, starts just south of Crystal Springs Road, with the Buckeye and Live Oak Nature trails and views over SFO and the bay.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
Census maps put all of Mills Park in the San Bruno Park School District (K-8) and the San Mateo Union High School District. Allen Elementary (875 West Angus Avenue) is inside the neighborhood, the district office is at 500 Acacia Avenue just to the south, and Parkside Intermediate (1801 Niles Avenue) is next to City Park. Capuchino High School, part of the San Mateo Union district, is at 1501 Magnolia Avenue in south San Bruno. Attendance boundaries change, so check the exact address with both districts before you rely on a school.
San Bruno guide: school districts · San Mateo Union High guide
Getting around
- San Bruno Caltrain station (833 San Mateo Avenue) is about 0.6 to 1 mile straight-line from most blocks; trains began running on its elevated grade separation in May 2013.
- San Bruno BART (1151 Huntington Avenue, at Tanforan) is about 1 mile straight-line; the Millbrae Caltrain/BART station is about 2.5 miles straight-line.
- I-280 meets San Bruno Avenue West at the northwest corner, and I-380 to US-101 and SFO begins just north of San Bruno Avenue West.
- El Camino Real (State Route 82) runs along the east edge; SamTrans buses serve the Caltrain and BART stations.
- Junipero Serra County Park's trails start about a half mile south (straight-line), across Crystal Springs Road.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Mills Park: what we check
Buying here
- Liquefaction: the state's seismic hazard maps (Montara Mountain quadrangle, 2019; San Francisco South, 2021) put parts of Hawthorne Avenue, Park Avenue, Cedar Avenue and Cedar Mills Lane in a liquefaction zone. It shows up on the natural hazard disclosure and can mean a soils report for big additions; check the parcel.
- Fire maps: the 2025 state fire hazard maps place about 50 parcels near I-280 and City Park (Hawthorne Avenue, Cunningham Way, Cedarwood Court, Niles Avenue and parts of Redwood Avenue and Pepper Drive) in a Moderate zone. Check the parcel and ask your insurer early.
- Airport: all of San Mateo County is in SFO's real estate disclosure area. The city's parcel map tags the San Bruno Avenue West blocks with a 60 dB noise band, below the 65 dB contour used by SFO's insulation program.
- Houses date mostly from 1941-1956: check the electrical panel, foundation, sewer lateral and the city permit record for additions, garage conversions and ADUs.
- Flood: no part of Mills Park is in a FEMA special flood hazard area on the 2019 county FIRM panels, so flood insurance is a choice, not a lender requirement; confirm for the address.
Selling here
- Lead with the tract and the block: the legal description names the Mills Park map, and buyers searching the MLS for Mills Park also see Huntington Park listings, so say where the house sits relative to Park Avenue and El Camino Real.
- Gather permits and final inspections for additions, second stories and ADUs; on a block of near-identical lots, documented square footage drives the comparison.
- Order the natural hazard disclosure early so buyers see the liquefaction or fire-zone result, if any, before they write.
- Give straight-line distances buyers care about: Allen Elementary, City Park and the Recreation and Aquatic Center, and San Bruno Caltrain and BART.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Mills Park questions, answered
Where does Mills Park end and Huntington Park begin?
San Bruno has no official neighborhood map. County legal descriptions show the six Mills Park maps north of about Park Avenue and Williams Avenue (the 550 to 799 blocks of the tree-named avenues) and west of Cedar Avenue down to Niles Avenue, with the Huntington Park maps south and east of that line. MLS areas named Mills Park and Huntington Park overlap on Hazel, Beech and Elm avenues, so check the tract on the title report.
Why is it called Mills Park?
The city's history says the land was part of the Mills estate and was bought and developed in the 1940s by George Williams, who built the Mills Park Addition.
How old are the houses in Mills Park?
County year-built records date almost all of them from 1941 to about 1956, with a median of 1950. Small later groups were built in 1973-74, 1981-83 and 2012-13.
Is Mills Park in a flood zone?
No part of it is in a FEMA special flood hazard area on the current county maps. Some streets near Hawthorne, Park and Cedar avenues are in a state liquefaction zone, which is a separate disclosure.
What is happening with the Mills Park Center?
The city approved a 427-home redevelopment of the shopping and office center at San Bruno Avenue and El Camino Real in 2020. The 2023-2031 Housing Element listed it as awaiting building permits, so check the city's planning pages for its status.
talk to a property nerd
Thinking about Mills Park? Let's run your numbers.
Eric, Janelle and the Boyenga Team have sold more than 2,520 Silicon Valley homes, $2.6+ billion in all, since 1996. Get a value, a plan, or a straight answer about a street.
Questions about Mills Park? Send us a note.
