San Mateo - Fiesta Gardens
“Fiesta Gardens is a traditional neighborhood with a strong sense of belonging”
Fiesta Gardens streets are as well-kept as its homes. The neighborhood includes Fiesta Meadows Park, a 4.8-acre, manicured outdoor space whose fields and playground are as much a neighborhood meeting place as the Homes Association’s Facebook page is a neighborhood bulletin board. After enjoying a renaissance during the real estate boom, Fiesta Gardens homes for sale now range in price from the low $500,000s to above $700,000. Besides its unique school opportunities and impactful homeowners’ association, Fiesta Gardens is proximate to commuters’ routes – it’s cradled by Highways 101 and 92 and is close to El Camino Real – and is less than a mile from the Hillsdale Shopping Center. What Fiesta Gardens offers above all else, however, is a strong sense of belonging.
Fiesta Gardens schoolchildren have the option to attend Fiesta Gardens Elementary School, a K-5 Magnet School whose focus is a two-way Spanish-English immersion and Global Studies. The district is served by Borel Middle School and Hillsdale High School as well.
The Fiesta Gardens Homes Association has an active presence on Facebook. There you will find announcements regarding Easter Egg hunts, the results of the holiday decorating contest, postings asking for remodel advice – everything you’d expect to find on a neighborhood message board. Fiesta Gardens may be traditional but its 1,700 close-knit residents are more than willing to accept change. Like a condominium complex, Fiesta Gardens has a strong homeowners’ association – some might say a “legendary” HOA. Homeowners’ dues are approximately $300 per year.
The southern part of the neighborhood — as it is technically within the same MLS zone, 420 — is a brand new development with a gorgeous Whole Foods, several restaurants, an Archstone luxury apartment complex with gated underground parking, several acres of grassy parks, townhomes, and single family homes. Phase II of the development’s construction will begin soon, and includes 1,171 residential units, approximately 715,000 rentable square feet of office space and about 93,000 square feet of retail space, 15 acres of public parks as well as a rebuilt Hillsdale Caltrain station near the site of the old Bay Meadows Caltrain station.
To view a detailed google map of the Fiesta Gardens neighborhood, click here. The MLS area is 420.
The Fiesta Gardens neighborhood is surrounded by Lakeshore, San Mateo Village, Hillsdale, Beresford Manor, Hayward Park and Sunnybrae/19 Avenue Park.
History
Once Leslie Salt property, Fiesta Gardens sits across Highway 92 from 19th Avenue Park, and is just north of the large development at the former Bay Meadows Racetrack (anchored by Whole Foods). Fiesta Gardens real estate claims the same vintage as its Eichler-heavy neighbor but could not be more difference. Where 19th Avenue Park is full to the brim with California Modern wood and glass, Fiesta Gardens chooses a more traditional route. Its neat, wide streets are lined with post-war ranch homes, simple three-bedroom (and usually two-bath), single-story homes built in the 1950s and 1960s on 5,000 square-foot lots. What is unique about Fiesta Gardens’ 1,200 – 1,600 square-foot homes is the condition in which they’re kept.