sunnyvale neighborhood guide · property nerds® at compass
SNAIL, Sunnyvale Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
North-central Sunnyvale between Mathilda and Fair Oaks avenues, Maude Avenue and Highway 101: early-1950s houses, two of Eichler's first tracts, Columbia Park and a neighborhood named by acronym.
SNAIL by the numbers
snail by the numbers · live from the mls
- for sale now…
- median list price…
- homes sold, last 12 months…
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for SNAIL (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in snail · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in SNAIL
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in SNAIL from the MLS, updated automatically, with a map of the neighborhood outline.
Get alerts for new SNAIL listings: open this neighborhood in our full search and tap Save Search.
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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 (SNAIL (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets)); it may not match every local definition.
sold by the property nerds
Our sales in SNAIL
Since 2012 we’ve handled 3 sales inside the SNAIL outline that we can match to MLS records: 1 home we listed and 2 where we represented the buyer. The other photos are our closest listings outside it, measured from its edge.
We also represented the buyer at 557 Kirk Avenue (Jun 2019), 617 Manzanita Avenue (Dec 2018).
All 96 of our Sunnyvale sales, on a map Selling in SNAIL? Book a strategy call
the story
How SNAIL came to be
SNAIL is an acronym. The neighborhood association's bylaws give its full name as Sunnyvale Neighbors of Arbor Including La Linda, and the city's registry of neighborhood associations dates the group to 1995. East and West Arbor avenues run across the middle of the area. La Linda is harder: the bylaws don't explain it, and we found no street, tract or park by that name, so the second half of the acronym stays a mystery for now. The bylaws do pin down the map: Mathilda Avenue on the west, Ahwanee Avenue and Highway 101 on the north, Fair Oaks Avenue on the east and Maude Avenue on the south.
Joseph Eichler started his tract building here. Sunnyvale Manor I reached the market in April 1949 on North Bayview Avenue near Maude Avenue, at SNAIL's south edge, and in February 1950 Sunnyvale Manor II added 51 houses designed by Anshen & Allen on Morse, Arbor, Maple and Duane avenues, inside SNAIL. Our Sunnyvale Manor & Sunnymount Gardens guide covers those two tracts, their floor plans and what survives, so we won't repeat it here.
The ranch-house blocks around them are a few years younger. Listing records we checked show a 1951 house on Madrone Avenue and a 1955 house on East Hemlock Avenue, each between about 1,000 and 1,200 square feet as listed. The area's civic center came later: Columbia Middle School reopened in 1995, and the Columbia Neighborhood Center opened beside it in 1996 through a partnership of the city, the Sunnyvale School District and Advanced Micro Devices.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
The grid is mostly long east-west avenues running between Mathilda and Fair Oaks, many named for trees: Hemlock, Madrone, Manzanita, Balsam, Cypress, Fir, Pine, Maple and Beechnut, plus Arbor itself. Borregas, Morse and Bayview avenues run north-south. Near Fair Oaks, a set of terrace streets borrows Channel Islands names (Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz and Anacapa terraces, with Isla Vista Terrace next door), and San Aleso Avenue and Santa Cecilia Terrace sit near Mathilda.
The city's zoning map shows the bulk of the residential land as R-0 single-family, with R-2, R-3 and R-4 blocks mixed in for duplexes, apartments and condos. Fair Oaks Place and Fair Oaks 90 are condo complexes on North Fair Oaks Avenue, and Fairoaks Mobile Lodge, zoned R-MH for mobile homes, sits near the Highway 101 end of Fair Oaks. A strip along Mathilda Avenue falls in the city's Peery Park Specific Plan area, which is where the hotels front the avenue. The city's single-story overlay map shows no districts in SNAIL.
The original-era houses we checked are small single-story ranches on lots of roughly 5,500 square feet, and one had just been fully remodeled. Expect a block-by-block mix of early-1950s houses, remodels and the 1949-50 Eichlers, and check each house's record rather than assuming. Sunnyvale Manor II's flat-roofed, T-shaped houses are easy to miss if you're expecting atriums and tall gables.
streets in snail
- N. Mathilda Avenue
- N. Fair Oaks Avenue
- W. and E. Maude Avenue
- Ahwanee Avenue
- W. and E. Arbor Avenue
- W. and E. Duane Avenue
- Borregas Avenue
- Morse Avenue
- N. Bayview Avenue
- Maple Avenue
- W. and E. Hemlock Avenue
- W. and E. Ferndale Avenue
- W. and E. Eaglewood Avenue
- Madrone Avenue
- Manzanita Avenue
- Balsam Avenue
- Cypress Avenue
- Fir Avenue
- Pine Avenue
- Beechnut Avenue
- Alturas Avenue
- Worley Avenue
- Waddington Avenue
- San Aleso Avenue
- Santa Barbara Terrace
- Santa Catalina Terrace
- Santa Cruz Terrace
- Anacapa Terrace
- Carolina Avenue
- Caliente Drive
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near SNAIL
- park
Columbia Park
789 Morse Ave., about 15 acres per the city, with a reservable picnic site, shuffleboard, a volleyball court, a playground and tennis court lights until 10 p.m. Basketball courts, a swimming pool, a jogging path, two multi-use sports fields and a parcourse are on the adjacent school grounds when school is out.
- landmark
Columbia Neighborhood Center
785 Morse Ave., opened in 1996 next to Columbia Middle School. The city lists a gymnasium, a fitness room, a health and social services wing and an on-site medical clinic, plus meeting and event rooms for rent.
- park
Fair Oaks Park
540 N. Fair Oaks Ave., just across Fair Oaks Avenue from SNAIL's southeast corner: 15.3 acres with the Magical Bridge Playground, the Sunnyvale Skate Park, two reservable ballfields, three basketball courts, picnic sites and a dog park.
- landmark
Borregas Avenue bike bridges
Borregas Avenue runs north through SNAIL to a pair of bicycle and pedestrian bridges over Highway 101 and Highway 237, opened in April 2009, which connect to the Borregas light rail station and Sunnyvale Baylands Park.
- shopping
Maude and Borregas storefronts
Small storefront strips on East Maude Avenue near Bayview Avenue and on Borregas Avenue near Ahwanee Avenue have produce markets, a bakery and laundromats. Downtown's Murphy Avenue is about 1.2 miles south of the middle of SNAIL (straight-line).
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
The state's school-district map places all of SNAIL in the Sunnyvale School District (K-8) and the Fremont Union High School District, and the two listing records we checked agree. Columbia Middle School (739 Morse Ave.) is inside the neighborhood next to Columbia Park, and Bishop Elementary is just south across Maude Avenue. Attendance boundaries change, so check the exact address with each district.
Sunnyvale School District guide · Fremont Union guide · Silicon Valley school districts
Getting around
- Caltrain: Sunnyvale station (121 W. Evelyn Ave.) is about 1.1 miles south of the middle of SNAIL (straight-line).
- VTA light rail: Fair Oaks station on Tasman Drive is about 1 mile north and Borregas station about 1.4 miles north (straight-line); the Borregas Avenue bike bridges are the direct route on foot or bike.
- Buses: VTA Rapid 523 stops at Mathilda & Almanor and Mathilda & Maude on the west edge; Route 56 runs on Fair Oaks Avenue with stops at San Conrado, Cypress and Maude.
- Freeways: US 101 runs along the north edge, and Mathilda Avenue connects to both US 101 and Highway 237 just north.
- Bikes: the city's Active Transportation Plan map shows bike lanes on Borregas and Maude avenues and includes Ahwanee and Duane avenues in its bike-boulevard network.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in SNAIL: what we check
Buying here
- Pin down what you're buying. SNAIL mixes early-1950s ranches, 1949-50 Eichlers, remodels and new builds on the same block, so check the county record for year built and pull the permit history for additions.
- The early-1950s houses we checked were about 1,000 to 1,200 square feet. If you plan to add on, check what R-0 zoning allows on your lot and how the city's single-family design techniques apply before you write an offer.
- Near Highway 101, Mathilda Avenue or Fair Oaks Avenue, visit at commute time to judge traffic and freeway noise for yourself.
- For a 1950s house, ask about electrical panel capacity, original plumbing, the sewer lateral and foundation bolting; homes built before 1978 come with a federal lead-based paint disclosure.
- Condo, townhome or mobile home? Get the HOA or park documents early (rules, budget, reserves, current dues), and for a mobile home on a rented space, confirm exactly what you would own.
Selling here
- Name the house's era plainly. If it's a 1949-50 Eichler, say which tract; if it's a 1950s ranch, list what was updated and when.
- Gather permits and final inspections for additions, garage conversions and ADUs; with small original footprints, buyers look hard at what was added.
- Give real distances: Columbia Park, Fair Oaks Park, the Borregas bike bridges, Sunnyvale Caltrain and the Fair Oaks light rail station are all within about 1.5 miles (straight-line).
- State the districts (Sunnyvale School District and Fremont Union) and suggest buyers confirm by address.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
SNAIL questions, answered
What does SNAIL stand for?
Sunnyvale Neighbors of Arbor Including La Linda, per the association's bylaws. Arbor Avenue runs through the middle of the area; we could not trace where La Linda comes from.
Where are SNAIL's boundaries?
Mathilda Avenue on the west, Ahwanee Avenue and Highway 101 on the north, Fair Oaks Avenue on the east and Maude Avenue on the south, in ZIP code 94085.
How many homes are in SNAIL?
Sources disagree. The association's website says nearly 1,500 homes, while the city's registry of neighborhood associations lists about 2,251 households. Neither explains how it counted, so treat both as rough.
Are there Eichlers in SNAIL?
Yes. Sunnyvale Manor II (1950) is on Morse, Arbor, Maple and Duane avenues inside SNAIL, and Sunnyvale Manor I (1949) clusters on North Bayview Avenue near Maude Avenue at the south edge. Our Sunnyvale Manor & Sunnymount Gardens guide has the details.
Which schools serve SNAIL?
The Sunnyvale School District for K-8 and the Fremont Union High School District, per the state's district map. Columbia Middle School is inside the neighborhood. Confirm any address with the districts.
next door
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Sunnyvale right now
City-wide numbers read from the MLS each time this page loads. A neighborhood can trade differently from its city, so ask us for the sales on your street.
- homes for sale…houses, condos, townhomes
- new this week…by days on market
- median list price…of homes for sale
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- 12 months of sales…median sale price
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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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