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palo alto neighborhood guide · property nerds® at compass
University South, Palo Alto Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
The blocks just south of downtown, between Homer Avenue and Embarcadero Road: early-1900s houses on small lots, 2000s condos and townhouses on the old medical clinic campus, Heritage Park and the HP Garage.
University South by the numbers
university south by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for University South: Homer Ave to Embarcadero Rd, Alma St to Middlefield Rd, minus Professorville (city neighborhood outline). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in university south · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in University South
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in University South 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 (University South: Homer Ave to Embarcadero Rd, Alma St to Middlefield Rd, minus Professorville (city neighborhood outline)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How University South came to be
University South is part of the original town. Timothy Hopkins bought the land in 1887 at Leland Stanford's urging and recorded the University Park subdivision in 1889, and these blocks, a short walk south of the University Avenue shops, filled in with houses in the early 1900s. Professorville grew up in their middle, and a few dozen parcels in University South are part of the city's Professorville historic district.
The neighborhood's biggest change came from a clinic. The Palo Alto Medical Clinic, founded in 1930, built the Roth Building at 300 Homer Avenue in 1932, a Birge Clark design, and over the decades its campus grew to about 10 acres south of Forest Avenue. When the Palo Alto Medical Foundation moved to El Camino Real in 1999, the city wrote the South of Forest Area plans. SOFA 1, adopted in March 2000 for the roughly nine blocks where most of the clinic's holdings were, came with a development agreement: the city took title to the Roth Building, land for a park, a child care site and a site for below-market-rate housing, and approved 160 new homes and 30,000 square feet of retail and office space.
SOFA 2, finished in 2003, covers nine blocks and about 19 acres between Forest and Addison avenues, Alma and Ramona streets, and serves as both the plan and the zoning. It created residential transition districts and a program that lets owners of historic buildings transfer development rights to other sites. Two older houses were moved a block or so along Bryant Street, and Heritage Park opened on the clinic land on March 12, 2006. Around the corner at 367 Addison Avenue is the garage where William Hewlett and David Packard worked from 1938 to 1940.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
University South is a band of downtown's tilted grid that wraps around Professorville. Alma, High, Emerson, Ramona, Bryant, Waverley, Cowper, Webster and Byron streets run northwest to southeast, with Kipling, Scott and Tasso streets as short in-between blocks, and Homer, Channing, Addison, Lincoln, Kingsley and Melville avenues cross them. In practice it has three parts: the Homer-to-Addison blocks near downtown, the narrow strip along High Street and Alma, and the strip of Webster, Byron and Tasso streets between Cowper Street and Middlefield Road. By parcel count Channing Avenue (110) and High Street (93) lead, mostly because of condo buildings.
City parcel data counts about 300 single-family parcels and about 350 condo, townhouse and apartment parcels. Single-family lots are small for Palo Alto, with a median of about 5,600 square feet and only 42 at 10,000 or more. Single-family zoning (R-1) covers 283 parcels, concentrated on Byron, Webster, Middlefield, Kingsley, Lincoln and Melville; R-2 covers 101 parcels on Addison, Waverley, Channing, Cowper and Kipling; RM-20 multifamily zoning lines much of Channing; and the old clinic blocks use special zones from the SOFA plans, including a planned-community district along High Street and RT-35 and RT-50 residential transition districts near Alma and Emerson.
The single-family houses are old: median recorded year built 1925, with 182 of 304 built before 1930 and 42 recording 2000 or later. The condo and townhouse side is the opposite, with 135 parcels dating to the 2000s, most of them SOFA-era buildings. Seventy-two parcels carry a Category 1 to 4 listing in the city's Historic Inventory, including three Category 1 buildings: the HP Garage, the Theophilus Allen House at 601 Melville Avenue and Birge Clark's Norris House at 1247 Cowper Street. Every parcel is in FEMA Zone X in the city's data, and the city's 2020 tree-canopy figure here is 31 percent.
streets in university south
- Homer Avenue
- Channing Avenue
- Addison Avenue
- Lincoln Avenue
- Kingsley Avenue
- Melville Avenue
- Kellogg Avenue
- Embarcadero Road
- Alma Street
- High Street
- Emerson Street
- Ramona Street
- Bryant Street
- Waverley Street
- Cowper Street
- Webster Street
- Byron Street
- Tasso Street
- Kipling Street
- Scott Street
- Middlefield Road
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near University South
- park
Heritage Park, 300 Homer Avenue
A 2.01-acre park on former clinic land, opened March 12, 2006, with a playground, picnic tables, a sentinel redwood and a coast live oak moved from 819 Ramona Street.
- landmark
Roth Building, 300 Homer Avenue
Birge Clark's 1932 building for the Palo Alto Medical Clinic, on the National Register since 2010 and owned by the city. Restoration began in July 2023 for the planned Palo Alto History Museum.
- landmark
HP Garage, 367 Addison Avenue
The Hewlett-Packard House and Garage, where William Hewlett and David Packard worked together from 1938 to 1940; on the National Register since April 20, 2007 and a California Historical Landmark. Private; view from the street.
- landmark
Norris House, 1247 Cowper Street
A Birge Clark house listed on the National Register on July 24, 1980, and part of the city's Professorville historic district.
- shopping
University Avenue, downtown
Downtown's shops and restaurants begin across Homer Avenue; University Avenue itself is three blocks north of Homer (roughly a 5-minute walk, approximate).
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
University South is served by the Palo Alto Unified School District. Addison Elementary sits inside the neighborhood at 650 Addison Avenue, near Middlefield Road. Walter Hays Elementary is just across the Embarcadero and Middlefield corner at 1525 Middlefield Road, and Palo Alto High School is at 50 Embarcadero Road across Alma Street and the tracks. PAUSD assigns schools by address and attendance boundaries change, so check the exact address with the district.
Getting around
- Palo Alto Caltrain (95 University Avenue) is about 0.3 to 1.2 miles away in a straight line, depending on the block; the Palo Alto Transit Center beside it is served by VTA Route 21 and SamTrans Route 281, among others.
- The Homer Avenue bike and pedestrian tunnel runs under the Caltrain tracks from Alma Street to the west side of the tracks, toward the medical foundation campus and El Camino Real.
- The Bryant Street bike boulevard runs through the neighborhood from Palo Alto Avenue to East Meadow Drive.
- Embarcadero Road runs west to El Camino Real and Stanford and east to US-101, roughly 2 miles away (approximate); Alma Street and Middlefield Road are the main north-south routes.
- Blocks near downtown may be in the Downtown residential parking permit district, where cars without a permit are limited to 2 hours, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays; check the city map for your block.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in University South: what we check
Buying here
- Find out which zone you are buying in. R-1, R-2, RM-20 and the SOFA plan districts (RT-35, RT-50 and planned-community zones) have different rules on units, height and floor area, and SOFA 2 has its own development standards.
- For a SOFA-era condo or townhouse, read the HOA budget, reserve study and recent minutes; many buildings date to the early 2000s, so ask about roofs, decks, waterproofing and any special assessments.
- Check historic status: 72 parcels have Category 1 to 4 listings, some parcels are in the Professorville historic district, and SOFA 2 identified potential historic resources. Any of these can bring Historic Resources Board review.
- On an R-2 lot, ask Planning what a second unit or duplex would take; on R-1 lots, check the city's ADU handbook and SB 9 rules before you price in extra space.
- Lots along Alma Street back up to the Caltrain line, so visit at different times of day to hear the trains.
Selling here
- For condos and townhouses, order the HOA resale package as soon as you decide to sell; buyers here compare reserve levels between SOFA buildings.
- Put measured walking distances in the listing: Caltrain, University Avenue, Heritage Park and Addison Elementary.
- State the zoning and any historic listing up front; for R-2 lots, buyers will ask about the second-unit potential.
- For early-1900s houses on small lots, document any permitted ADU, garage conversion, foundation or sewer lateral work.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
University South questions, answered
Where is University South?
Directly south of downtown. The city maps it between Homer Avenue, Middlefield Road, Embarcadero Road and Alma Street, wrapping around Professorville, which the city maps as its own neighborhood.
What is SOFA?
South of Forest Area, the city's name for the blocks freed up when the Palo Alto Medical Foundation moved to El Camino Real in 1999. The SOFA 1 plan (2000) and SOFA 2 plan (2003) guided the condos, townhouses, Heritage Park and the Roth Building that followed.
Is University South part of the Professorville historic district?
Partly. City records tag about 30 parcels in University South, across Emerson, Cowper and Addison from Professorville, as part of the local historic district.
How far is University South from Caltrain?
About 0.3 to 1.2 miles to the Palo Alto station in a straight line, depending on the block. The Homer Avenue tunnel takes bikes and pedestrians under the tracks.
Which school district serves University South?
The Palo Alto Unified School District. Schools are assigned by address and boundaries change, so confirm any address with PAUSD.
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