Though the MLS calls adjacent to “Belmont Country Club,” present-day Antique Forest Homes carries more of the old golf club’s DNA. The course itself was located within Antique Forest Homes and the original plans of Belle Monti developers Monroe, Miller and Lyon focused on property located east of Alameda de las Pulgas. It’s not by mistake that you’ll find streets named “Fairway,” “Monroe,” “Miller” and “Lyon” in Antique Forest Homes.

Belmont’s country club dreams ended before World War II but the development of Antique Forest Homes went on. Within Antique Forest Home neighborhood you’ll find a number of blocks developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s alongside ones left undeveloped until the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Mixed in among these are a few original “hunting lodges,” rustic cabins built in the 1920s by weekenders drawn by the promise of golf, swimming, clean air and seclusion.

As it is with every other neighborhood in Belmont, the “typical” Antique Forest Homes is difficult to pin down. It could be a modest 1950s rancher, part of the original Belmont Country Club tract. It could be a one-off custom job from the 1960s or 70s, peeking out among the trees and wild grasses along Terrace Drive. It could be a crisp, 1970s contemporary home with 2,000-plus square feet of space or it could be something bigger, built in the past 20 years on a sloped, barely cleared lot on Folger Court. It could even be an apartment or one of the new, neo-Craftsman townhouses on Edgewood, just a block from El Camino Real.

The area is flat and hilly. Its streets have sidewalks, except when they don’t. It includes Central Elementary School, very highly rated with a nine out of 10 score on Greatschools.net. Its southeastern border includes part of downtown Belmont and El Camino Real. Many of its homes feature views of either hillside or San Francisco Bay views.

Given its diversity, it’s difficult to determine the value of an “average” Antique Forest Homes property. During the first five months of 2018, 18 homes sold in this neighborhood, ranging in value from $1.1 to $3.25 million. The majority of sales were in the $1.7 to $2.2 million range, with a median sale price of $1.95 million.

Another way of looking at it is that Antique Forest Homes – closer-in than Belmont Woods and Belmont Country Club but more secluded than Carlmont and Homeview — has something for everyone.

Belmont is a wonderful, serene town with a rural feel and a destination for families. Most of the streets do not have sidewalks, and since much of the town is built amidst the hills, many homes offer extraordinary views of the peninsula. Belmont boasts four parks, and is mostly made up of homes and retail stores. The town’s heritage harks back to William Ralston, the founder of the Bank of California and builder of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, who built his masterful summer residence, Ralston Hall, at the current site of Notre Dame University.

Ralston was offered to have the town of Modesto named after him, but at a Spanish ceremony he declined, and a Spanish lady dubbed him muy modesto, or very modest, and that is how the town got its name. To see a high resolution map of the image above, click here.