milpitas · santa clara county
Milpitas Real Estate & Neighborhood Guide
Milpitas covers 13.48 square miles of land at the north end of the Santa Clara Valley, between I-880 on the bay side and the foothills on the east, with Fremont to the north and San Jose to the south and west. The city's history page says the name refers to small cornfields; adobes from the 1800s ranchos still stand in city parks. After World War II, Ford announced it would move its assembly plant from Richmond to Milpitas, and the city incorporated on January 26, 1954. County parcel records date about 30% of today's single-family-coded homes to the 1960s, 23% to the 1970s and 20% to the 1980s, and the city's roughly 6,000 condominium units are mostly from 2000 on. The 2020 census counted 25,183 housing units.
population, 2020 census
land area
zip codes
incorporated
neighborhoods
Milpitas neighborhoods
Milpitas reads like a timeline from the bay side to the hills. In the north and west, Sunnyhills (recorded from 1954) and Milpitas Manor & Curtner (mid-1950s to early 1960s, plus 1990s townhomes toward Dixon Landing Rd) are largely one-story postwar tracts, and Town Center & Hidden Lake wraps City Hall with 1970s to 1990s tracts such as Eastbrook, Hidden Lake Villages and Beresford. Through the middle, Midtown & Main Street keeps the old Main Street around the library and adds 1970s to 2000s condos and townhomes, Milpitas Metro (BART & Great Mall) is almost all 2010s townhomes and apartments around the transit center, and Starlite Pines is a 1965-77 single-family tract by Pinewood Park. East of I-680, Milford Village & Piedmont, Parktown and Park Victoria are 1950s to 1980s tracts on the flatter ground below the foothills, and Milpitas Hills covers the hillside streets, including the Hillcrest tract from 1987-95, where city lots and unincorporated county parcels mix. Across the city, single-family lots in single-family zones have a median of about 6,000 sq ft (county parcel shapes), and about 60% of those houses are one story.
Sunnyhills
North Milpitas between N. Milpitas Blvd and I-680, from Jacklin Rd to the Fremont line: a 1954-58 tract of one-story houses at the core, ringed by 1960s to 1980s streets and four school campuses.
Milpitas Manor & Curtner
West Milpitas between I-880 and the railroad, north of Calaveras Blvd: 1955-64 one-story tracts, Curtner and Spangler schools, Hall Memorial Park, and newer townhomes up to Dixon Landing Rd.
Town Center & Hidden Lake
Central Milpitas around City Hall, between the railroad and I-680: 1970s and 1980s tract streets, Hidden Lake Park and its small-lot villages, and townhomes and condos built from the 1990s to 2018.
Midtown & Main Street
The old Main Street village, a 2009 library wrapped around a 1916 schoolhouse, and the condo and townhome tracts that filled the Midtown plan area between I-880 and the BART tracks.
Milpitas Metro (BART & Great Mall)
The Great Mall, the Milpitas BART and light-rail station, and about 2,130 townhomes and condos from 2007-2020 on former industrial land between S. Main St and the San Jose line.
Starlite Pines
A 1965-77 tract of about 840 houses recorded in ten units around Pinewood Park, plus 1990s Summerfield, the Centria condos and the Coyote Creek townhomes across I-880.
Park Victoria
East Milpitas between I-680 and the hills, north of Calaveras Blvd: 1960s to 1980s tract streets along N. Park Victoria Dr, with Cardoza Park, the city Sports Center and the Higuera Adobe.
Milford Village & Piedmont
East Milpitas south of Calaveras Blvd, between I-680 and Piedmont Rd: the 1955-62 Milford Village and Piedmont Heights tracts, two elementary schools and the 1830s Alviso Adobe.
Parktown
Southeast Milpitas between Yosemite Dr and Landess Ave, where 1960s streets carry park and peak names like Yellowstone, Shenandoah, Grand Teton and Crater Lake, with five city parks and two schools.
Milpitas Hills
The east foothills above Piedmont Rd and Evans Rd: Hillcrest's 1987-95 streets, the Summitpointe golf-course loops, acre-plus hillside lots, Ed R. Levin County Park and county land up Calaveras Rd.
schools
Milpitas public schools
Elementary and middle
- Milpitas Unified School District. TK-12 for nearly all of the city and the unincorporated hills in the 95035 ZIP. District elementary schools in town: Burnett (400 Fanyon St), Curtner (275 Redwood Ave), Mabel Mattos (1750 McCandless Dr), Pomeroy (1505 Escuela Pkwy), Randall (1300 Edsel Dr), Rose (250 Roswell Dr), Sinnott (2025 Yellowstone Ave), Spangler (140 N. Abbott Ave), Weller (345 Boulder St) and Zanker (1584 Fallen Leaf Dr); middle schools Rancho Milpitas (1915 Yellowstone Ave) and Russell (1500 Escuela Pkwy).
- Berryessa Union School District. K-8 for a pocket of city land of roughly 150 acres south of Montague Expwy around E. Capitol Ave and Trade Zone Blvd in the Milpitas Metro area (Tarob Ct, Lundy Pl, Joshua Tree Cir, Sage Ct, Riesling Ave, Delano St, Vineyard Ave), per Census school-district maps. The district's schools are in San Jose.
High school
- Milpitas Unified School District. Milpitas High (1285 Escuela Pkwy), Calaveras Hills High (1331 E. Calaveras Blvd) and MUSD Middle College (1450 Escuela Pkwy).
- East Side Union High School District. High school district for the same Berryessa Union pocket south of Montague Expwy, per Census school-district maps; its campuses are in San Jose.
property nerd note
District lines in Milpitas follow the city limit almost everywhere, with one exception near the BART station: the pocket south of Montague Expressway around E. Capitol Ave and Trade Zone Blvd shows up in Berryessa Union and East Side Union High instead of Milpitas Unified, and that line does not follow an obvious street. For any address, confirm the district first, then the assigned school with that district (Milpitas Unified has a Find Your School lookup on musd.org). Attendance boundaries change, so check before you write an offer, not after. Start with our Silicon Valley schools guide.
zip codes
Milpitas ZIP codes
The whole city. The Census ZIP area matches the city limits except for slivers, but about 40% of its land, roughly 9 square miles, lies outside the city: unincorporated Santa Clara County hills and parkland on the east side, including much of Ed R. Levin County Park. Homes there carry Milpitas addresses but fall under county planning and permits.
getting around
Getting around Milpitas
BART
Milpitas station sits in VTA's Milpitas Transit Center at Montague Expressway and Capitol Avenue, about 1.7 miles straight-line from City Hall. Service began June 13, 2020, with trains toward Richmond and Daly City; the next stop south is Berryessa/North San Jose. VTA built the transit center between April 2012 and January 2020, with a pedestrian overcrossing to the light-rail platform and bike parking.
VTA light rail
The Orange Line (Mountain View to Alum Rock) has three stations inside the city: Alder, on Tasman Dr west of I-880; Great Mall, on Great Mall Pkwy at Main St; and Milpitas, at the transit center. There is no Caltrain stop in Milpitas; Santa Clara station is about 6 miles southwest of City Hall, straight-line.
Freeways and expressways
I-880 runs along the west side with interchanges at Dixon Landing Rd, Calaveras Blvd (where Highway 237 comes in from the west), Great Mall Pkwy and Montague Expwy; I-680 runs along the east side with interchanges at Jacklin Rd, Calaveras Blvd and Montague Expwy. Calaveras Blvd crosses town between the two freeways, and Montague Expressway runs along the south edge into San Jose.
Buses, the airport and trails
VTA routes from Milpitas BART include 20 (Sunnyvale), 47 (Alder station via McCarthy Ranch), 60 (Winchester station via the airport), 70, 71 and 77 (east San Jose) and Express 104 (Stanford Research Park), and AC Transit also serves the station. San Jose Mineta International Airport is about 5 miles south of City Hall, straight-line. The Coyote Creek Trail follows the creek levees along the city's west edge.
living here
Living in Milpitas
Main Street and the library
The old Main Street is where the town began; the city's 1990 historic inventory lists cottages, bungalows and storefronts from about 1885 to the 1930s around it. The Milpitas Library at 160 N. Main St, a 60,000-square-foot county library that opened in January 2009, includes the 1916 Milpitas Grammar School, which served as City Hall from 1956 to 1969 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Great Mall
The Great Mall on Great Mall Parkway occupies the building put up as Ford's assembly plant in 1955; the plant closed in 1983 and the building reopened as a shopping mall in 1994 (Milpitas Historical Society). It sits next to the BART and light-rail stations.
City parks
The city's park GIS maps about 35 public park sites. Larger ones include Cardoza Park (about 10 acres, with a lighted ball diamond and play structures), Hall Memorial Park (a lagoon and 4 tennis courts), Pinewood Park (4 tennis courts) and Hidden Lake Park, built around a small lake on N. Milpitas Blvd between Escuela Pkwy and Jacklin Rd.
Ed R. Levin County Park
About 1,550 acres of county parkland in the hills on the city's eastern edge, at 3100 Calaveras Rd (county parks GIS). Part of it is inside city limits and the rest is unincorporated county land.
The adobes
Two city parks hold adobes from the rancho era. Alviso Adobe Park, where Piedmont Rd meets Calaveras Rd, keeps the 1837 Alviso Adobe, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, with reconstructed farm outbuildings and an interpretive exhibit. Higuera Adobe Park, off N. Park Victoria Dr on Wessex Pl, keeps the Higuera Adobe, which the city uses for history exhibits.
City Hall and community buildings
City Hall is at 455 E. Calaveras Blvd, with the Milpitas Community Center beside it; the Milpitas Sports Center and Cardoza Park are a short way east across I-680 (city points of interest).
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faq
Milpitas real estate FAQ
What school district serves Milpitas?
Milpitas Unified School District (TK-12) serves nearly all of the city. A pocket south of Montague Expressway around E. Capitol Ave and Trade Zone Blvd shows up in Berryessa Union (K-8) and East Side Union High on Census maps. Boundaries change, so confirm the district and school for the exact address.
Does Milpitas have BART or Caltrain?
BART, yes: Milpitas station opened to passengers on June 13, 2020, at the Milpitas Transit Center, which also has a VTA Orange Line light-rail station. VTA light rail also stops at Great Mall and Alder. There is no Caltrain station in Milpitas; Santa Clara station is about 6 miles southwest of City Hall, straight-line.
What ZIP code is Milpitas?
95035 covers the whole city. About 40% of that ZIP's land lies outside the city in unincorporated county hills and parkland, where county planning rules apply.
Is Milpitas in a flood or earthquake hazard zone?
Parts of it. State maps put about 65% of city land, essentially the whole valley floor, in a liquefaction hazard zone; Alquist-Priolo earthquake fault zones along the Hayward fault zone cover about 9%, mostly a strip at the base of the hills; and landslide zones cover about 12%, all in the hills. FEMA's maps put about 18% of city land in special flood hazard areas (zones A, AE, AH and AO). Check the exact parcel.
Can you build in the Milpitas hills?
With extra hurdles. The city's urban growth boundary runs along the eastern foothills; voters first approved it in 1998 and renewed it in November 2016 (Measure I) for another 20 years. The city also maps a separate hillside building-code area in the eastern hills, and much of the hill land outside the city is unincorporated county territory with county planning and permits. Check zoning and jurisdiction for the exact parcel before you plan anything.
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