A guide for Earthquakes players, staff and families
Playing for the Earthquakes, living near PayPal Park
A signing can give a player days to land in a new city, sometimes a new country. This page lays out the whole housing picture around PayPal Park in one sitting: the towns, the drives, the prices, and the man who handles all of it for you.
I am Simon Sahi, a real estate agent with Signature Properties here in Silicon Valley. The Earthquakes play in San Jose, in the middle of the ground I work every day, and their players live in the same towns my clients do. I built this page so a player or a family arriving with the club can understand the area before the plane lands.
PayPal Park stands on Coleman Avenue in San Jose, minutes from the neighborhoods where the team lives.
Who this page is for
Short answer: anyone whose work brings them to this team and this building, whether the move is next week or next season.
This page was written for you if:
- You signed with the Earthquakes and you are landing here for the first time.
- You are arriving from another league or another country and starting from zero.
- You are a coach or staff member moving your whole household to San Jose.
- Your family is arriving after you, and they need the full picture in one place.
- You are leaving the club and need the home here sold well, from a distance.
The building: PayPal Park
PayPal Park opened in 2015 on Coleman Avenue in San Jose, close to the airport, and it is the home of the San Jose Earthquakes. It is a soccer first stadium, built close and steep, with the largest outdoor bar in the league behind one goal and a wide open feel on match days.
For a player or a staff family, what matters is the ground around it. The park sits where San Jose meets Santa Clara, so the daily choice is wide: village streets in Willow Glen, a main street life in Campbell, or foothill quiet in Los Gatos, all inside half an hour.
Where players and families land
Four areas carry most of the club’s life. San Jose itself, timed here from Willow Glen, then Santa Clara just over the line, Campbell, and Los Gatos in the foothills. Each card gives the drive, the homes and prices, the schools and the feel, in plain words.
San Jose
The big city around the park, with Willow Glen as its village heart.
The drive. PayPal Park stands on Coleman Avenue by the airport, so most of the city sits ten to thirty minutes away, and Willow Glen runs about fifteen to twenty five minutes at peak.
The homes and prices. The widest ladder of the four by far. The citywide median is about $1.35M and the high end about $3M and up. Willow Glen trades above the city median for its bungalows, its tree lined streets and Lincoln Avenue, and Almaden Valley trades above it too, while Berryessa and South San Jose offer the gentlest entry points in this whole guide.
The schools. Willow Glen sits inside San Jose Unified, where Willow Glen Elementary, Willow Glen Middle and Willow Glen High form one true neighborhood path from the first day of school to graduation. The wider city is cut into more districts than any other in the valley, each with its own map, so here the exact address check matters most of all.
The feel. A city of villages. Lincoln Avenue is Willow Glen's main street, with dining, coffee and the December lights the whole city drives in to see. The Rose Garden keeps its roses and its bungalows, downtown keeps the museums and the arena, and every district keeps its own weekly rhythm.
Santa Clara
The neighbor city: an easy run to the park and the gentlest prices of the four.
The drive. The park is minutes over the city line, about ten to twenty minutes for most of Santa Clara, and less for the streets closest to Coleman Avenue.
The homes and prices. The widest ladder of the four: condos and townhomes near the stadium and in Rivermark, postwar homes across the middle of the city, and larger rebuilt homes in the Old Quad and the west side pockets. The median price is about $1.68M, and the high end runs about $2.2M and up, well below the other three towns at the top.
The schools. One district, Santa Clara Unified, serves nearly the whole city from kindergarten through high school, including Santa Clara High School and Wilcox High School. Pockets along the western edge fall into Cupertino Union and Fremont Union instead, which is why the exact address always matters here.
The feel. Central and lived in rather than polished. The Old Quad holds the Mission and the university, Central Park holds the weekends, and the north of the city holds the stadium and the newer planned streets of Rivermark.
Campbell
The gentle entry: a true little downtown and an easy run to the park.
The drive. About fifteen to twenty five minutes at peak by Highway 17 or San Tomas Expressway, and ten to fifteen off peak.
The homes and prices. Classic ranch homes and bungalows form the core stock, with townhomes and condos near downtown and the Pruneyard offering lower entry points. The median price is about $1.8M, and the high end runs about $3M and up on the largest rebuilt homes.
The schools. Campbell Union serves the younger years across most of the city, then the Campbell Union High School District, with Westmont, Leigh and Prospect among its high schools. Some pockets fall into San Jose Unified or other neighboring districts, so the address check matters here too.
The feel. A small city with a social streak. Campbell Avenue carries the dining, the evenings and a farmers market that fills the street on weekends, the Pruneyard handles movies and groceries, and the creek trail runs through town toward Los Gatos in one direction and San Jose in the other.
Los Gatos
The foothill town players choose for beauty, quiet and a real main street.
The drive. About twenty to thirty five minutes at peak by Highway 17, and fifteen to twenty five off peak.
The homes and prices. Victorian homes in Almond Grove, craftsman bungalows on the flat streets near downtown, ranch homes across Belwood and Blossom Hill Manor, and hillside estates in Glen Una, Alta Vista and Surmont with the whole valley below. The median price is about $2M, and the high end runs $5M and up where the hills and the views take over.
The schools. Los Gatos Union serves the younger years across most of the town and feeds Los Gatos High School, a landmark campus with academics to match. Some eastern pockets fall into Campbell Union and other neighboring districts, which is why the exact address always matters here.
The feel. The South Bay mountain town. Santa Cruz Avenue is the storied main street, Vasona Lake is the town playground, the creek trail starts in town, and the redwoods begin twenty minutes up the hill.
One call handles everything
Short answer: you make one call to me, and the whole move gets handled. Buying, selling, leasing and settling in, all of it, on your schedule.
A soccer life runs on a calendar nobody else keeps. Training, travel, games, family time squeezed between all of it. House hunting the normal way, with weekend open houses and slow replies, does not fit that life, and it should not have to. My practice is built the other way around, around your hours.
- Buying: I search on and off market, tour on your hours, and send full video walkthroughs when you are on the road, so a decision never waits for a flight home.
- Selling: when a move sends you out of the Bay Area, I price, prepare and sell the home you leave behind, and I handle every showing and every paper while you are gone.
- Leasing: for a short stay or a first season, I find the right lease fast, furnished or not, close to the building and the schools.
- Settling in: neighborhoods, schools, the daily life around a home. I walk your family through all of it before you land, and I stay a phone call away after you do.
- Coordination: your agent, your family, your advisors. I work with the people already around you, quietly, and I keep everyone on the same page so you do not have to.
That is the whole offer. One person who knows this ground, answers his own phone, and treats your move like it is the only one on his desk, because for that stretch of days, it is.
A boutique firm, built for high net worth clients
Short answer: Signature Properties is a small boutique firm, and working with very high net worth clients is our expertise. Privacy is not a policy with us. It is the way the firm runs.
I am not an agent who works with every caller who finds my number, and this firm is not built that way either. We keep our client list small on purpose. The people we work with are executives, founders, athletes and families whose lives are full and whose business is their own, and they stay with us because everything they share with us stays with us.
I work in multimillion dollar properties, mansions and grand estates included, and a good part of that world never touches the public market. I keep a private database of homes whose owners want to sell quietly. They are discreet people, the same way my clients are discreet, so their homes never come up in public and no one else can show them. When you tell me what you are looking for, on a quick phone call or a Zoom, I go into that database, find the homes that fit, show them to you in private, and make the deal happen. At that level a deal carries intricacies that a volume practice never sees: trusts and entities, timing tied to contracts and seasons, and families whose names carry weight. I have spent twelve years inside those situations, and I handle them calmly and carefully.
The portfolio says the rest. More than two hundred fifty million in sales, one hundred four verified five star reviews, and sold homes across this valley at every level, each one handled with the same care. When you work with me, anything you tell me, anything you deal with through me, stays private. That is one of my most important assets, and I protect it like one.
Questions players and families ask
Short answer: the questions below are the ones I hear most from players and families, answered the way I answer them in person.
I am arriving from another country. Can you handle everything?
Yes, and that is common with this club. I run the search before you land, tour by video with you and your family, and have the lease or the purchase ready in step with your arrival. One call handles it.
Where do Earthquakes players tend to live?
Willow Glen and the San Jose neighborhoods first, then Santa Clara and Campbell for closeness and value, and Los Gatos when a player wants foothill quiet.
Can you work around training and the match calendar?
Yes. Tours run on your hours, and the paperwork moves while you travel. Your calendar leads.
Will anyone know I am looking?
No. I do not talk about clients, searches or deals, and neither does my firm. What you tell me stays with me.
The other Bay Area playing fields
I built the same kind of guide for every Bay Area team, so wherever the game takes you in this region, the housing picture is already laid out.
- Living near Levi’s Stadium, for the 49ers in Santa Clara.
- Living near SAP Center, for the Sharks in San Jose.
- Living near Chase Center, for the Warriors in San Francisco.
Moving here for a tech campus instead? My guides to living near the big campuses cover Apple, Google, Meta and the rest the same way.
Thinking of buying or selling near PayPal Park?
Let us talk through the areas, the numbers and your timing, in one honest conversation.
Peninsula (650) 274-1134
South Bay (408) 389-6939
