Santa Clara

About Santa Clara

Santa Clara is a family oriented and business friendly city, led by a city government that has developed an award-winning ethics program and a commitment to fostering the public trust. Located in Santa Clara County at the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, about 45 miles south of San Francisco, Santa Clara is a strategic regional hub, convenient to freeways, airports, railroads, expressways, light rail and other public transportation.

Santa Clara boasts of long and rich history, going back to 1769, when Jose Francisco Ortega, scouting for the Portola-Serra party, became the first European to visit the fertile valley that later became known as the Santa Clara Valley. But it wasn’t until 1850’s when the hamlet of Santa Clara began to take shape as a recognizable small town. In the 1950’s the semiconductor industry started taking over agriculture as the main industry in the area.

Santa Clara was voted as one of the ten All-American Cities in the New Millennium by that National Civic League. It is also rated as one of the most affordable cities in the nation for business and one of the region’s lowest combined utility cost areas out of the nine Bay Area counties. Their public safety department is also one of the fastest in the state.

Santa Clara has its own unified school district, and students attend schools based on their residency location and through open enrollment. There are two magnet schools in the district that students can apply to through a lottery system. The district also extends into a small portion of Sunnyvale as well as Alviso in North San Jose. The schools on average are good performing schools, with some of the best located in the Birdland neighborhood of Sunnyvale near the new Apple Campus. Santa Clara University is a top private Jesuit university located near the San Jose border on The Alameda and is also the site of Mission Santa Clara.

Among the many companies with offices in Santa Clara today are AMD, Avaya, Marvell Technology, Intel, McAfee, Nvidia, Applied Materials, and Palo Alto Networks. Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, is a state-of-the-art facility used for performances in addition to sports and other events. Paramount’s Great America amusement park is also located in Santa Clara.

Neighborhoods

Santa Clara has 3 primary zip codes: 95050, 95051, and 95054.
The 95050 zip code includes the heart of Santa Clara around Santa Clara University.
The 95051 zip code includes areas to the West of San Tomas Expressway between Central Expressway and Stevens Creek Blvd.

The 95054 zip code includes city’s industry and commercial space at the North of Central Expressway area. The city has a nice blend of single-family homes, condominiums and townhomes across all price ranges.

Learn more at santaclaraca.gov.