Communications Hill

Communications Hill is the most unusual residential development in San Jose, built on a genuine hill rising out of the flat valley floor between Highway 87 and Monterey Road, south of downtown. The name comes from the microwave relay tower that has stood on the summit since 1972, and the hill was a dairy farm held by the Bettencourt family, with roots on the land going back to 1896, before any of this was built.

The city began targeting the hill for development in 1984 and adopted the Communications Hill Specific Plan in 1992, with residential construction starting in 2002. Roughly half of the planned units have been built, with the remainder moving through approved phases. It is one of the largest active infill projects in the city and it looks unlike anything around it, with dense streets of townhomes climbing the slope.

The Grand Staircase is the neighborhood’s landmark, a long public stairway climbing the hill to a viewpoint over downtown San Jose and the valley. It is genuinely popular with walkers and runners from across the city, and it is a real public amenity rather than a marketing flourish.

For downsizing clients, the housing mix is the important part. Communications Hill has single family homes, townhomes and condominiums within the same development, which is uncommon in San Jose and means there are attached, lower maintenance options with modern construction. The caveat is the terrain, since this is a hill, and the specific property’s position and internal stairs matter as much as the floor plan.

Schools serving this area include Terrell and George Shirakawa Sr. elementary schools, Willow Glen Middle and Andrew P. Hill High, across San Jose Unified and East Side Union depending on the parcel. Assignment does not follow neighborhood lines and I verify it on every listing.

The location is central by San Jose standards. Downtown is minutes north, Highway 87 runs along the western edge with Highway 280 and 101 close, and the Caltrain station at Tamien is nearby with VTA light rail connections. That transit access is a real asset for anyone thinking about the years when driving becomes less comfortable.

For services, the San Jose Public Library runs branches nearby with the main branch downtown, the city’s Active Adults 50 and Over program operates at neighborhood community centers, and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, the county trauma center, is a short drive west.

Anyone buying into a newer development with an association should read the governing documents properly, particularly reserve funding and what the association covers, and that is more important in a phased project still under construction than in a settled one. I go through those carefully for any client I represent here.

On price, San Jose ran a citywide median sale of about $1.4 million through the summer of 2026, down roughly three and a half percent year over year, with a median of about 21 days to contract. The attached inventory here trades below that citywide figure while the detached homes sit closer to it, and newer construction generally commands a premium for condition. My San Jose home prices page tracks the trend and the full San Jose area guide covers the rest of the city.

Whether you are selling a family home elsewhere and looking at a townhome here, or you already own on the hill and are weighing what comes next, the sequence and the tax treatment matter. Proposition 19 lets homeowners 55 and over carry their property tax basis to a replacement home, which changes the arithmetic considerably. That planning is what I do with older adults and their families. Book a call with me for a straight conversation, or read about my selling process.