Downtown Campbell

Downtown Campbell is where the city started. Benjamin Campbell bought the land in 1851, sold an acre to the railroad in 1878 for five dollars, and the depot that followed turned a farm into the shipping center of the Orchard City. Today the commercial strip runs along East Campbell Avenue with restaurants and small shops on both sides, and the residential streets tucked behind it on either side of the avenue are what most people mean when they tell me they want to live downtown. It is a small area with a limited number of homes, so when one comes up it tends to get noticed by a lot of the same buyers at once.

The housing here is older and more varied than the ranch homes that fill most of Campbell. You will find early twentieth century cottages and Craftsman bungalows on the older blocks, along with some of the city’s designated historic properties, including the homes in the Alice Avenue Historic District. That history is a big part of the appeal, but it comes with rules, and exterior changes to a designated property go through the city’s historic review process, so anyone planning a remodel should find out where a home stands before they fall in love with it. Newer townhomes and condominiums have filled in around the edges of downtown and near the light rail station, and those give you a lower maintenance option within walking distance of everything on the avenue.

One honest caveat for my clients specifically. Many of the older homes here sit on raised foundations with steps up to the front porch, and a lot of the attached homes near downtown are two or three stories. If stairs are the reason you are moving, it pays to be selective, because the charm of a 1920s bungalow does not help much if the only bathroom is up a flight of stairs or the front walk has five steps. Single level options exist here, but they are a smaller slice of what comes on the market, and I look at the floor plan before I look at anything else.

Walkability is the whole reason to be here. The Downtown Campbell Business Association runs the farmers market every Sunday morning, and it is one of the best year round markets in the South Bay. The Campbell Oktoberfest closes the street every fall, and the Ainsley House, a 1925 English Tudor style home that was moved to Grant Street in 1990, sits next to the Campbell Historical Museum just off the avenue. The Campbell Adult Center at the Community Center on West Campbell Avenue and the Campbell Library on Harrison Avenue are both close enough to reach on foot, and the Los Gatos Creek Trail runs just east of downtown for flat, paved walking that keeps going all the way to Los Gatos.

For medical care, Good Samaritan Hospital and El Camino Health’s Los Gatos campus are both a short drive. Schools are served by Campbell Union School District for kindergarten through eighth grade and Campbell Union High School District for the high schools, and as with the rest of Campbell, I confirm the assignment for the specific parcel rather than quoting it from memory.

Getting around may be the best argument for downtown over any other part of the city. The VTA light rail stops right at Downtown Campbell, which puts downtown San Jose and Diridon Station on a single ride, and that matters a lot more once you would rather not drive at night or deal with parking. Highway 17 and Interstate 880 are a few minutes away and Highway 85 sits just south.

On price, Campbell ran a median sale of just over $1.8 million through the summer of 2026, essentially flat year over year, with a median of about 24 days to contract. Downtown is harder to pin to a single number than the rest of the city because the mix is so wide, and a restored bungalow two blocks from the farmers market and a condo near the tracks are really two different products. My Campbell home prices page tracks the citywide trend, and the full Campbell area guide covers the surrounding city.

Whether you have owned on one of these streets for decades or you are thinking about trading a big house somewhere else for a life you can walk, the order of the moves matters, and so do the tax consequences. Helping older adults and their families think two or three moves ahead is what I do full time. Book a call with me for a straight conversation with no obligation, or read how I prepare and market a home.