Flood: Alviso + creeks
Alviso is the high-risk pocket. Guadalupe River, Coyote Creek, and Lower Berryessa Creek matter in atmospheric-river winters.
San Jose Neighborhood Data — Alviso Flood, Schools & Crime
San Jose neighborhood data: Alviso FEMA Zone A, Guadalupe/Coyote Creek floods, Almaden–Willow Glen schools and crime. Free address report.
San Jose is the largest Bay Area city, so averages hide the split. Alviso sits on historic salt-pond land below sea level (FEMA Zone A). Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek flooded in 2017 and 2023. Almaden Valley, Cambrian, and Willow Glen are the usual low-crime / strong-school cluster. Median single-family price is about $1.45M — $2M+ in Almaden/Willow Glen, closer to $1.1M in parts of East San Jose and Berryessa.
What to check first
Crime: West vs east split
Almaden, Cambrian, Willow Glen, and parts of Evergreen/Silver Creek run safer than the city average. Check the block, not the ZIP.
Schools: Several strong districts
Cambrian, Almaden Valley, and parts of Evergreen and West Valley. Boundaries are the price driver.
Community: 35–40% Asian
Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, and Filipino districts — Little Saigon, Japantown, Story/Tully corridors.
Before an offer: creek/FEMA status if you are north or along a channel, and the exact school assignment — not “San Jose schools.”
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
Is San Jose safe?
Safety varies block by block in San Jose, so a citywide answer is not much use when you are choosing between two houses. MyHomeScout screens the exact address against law-enforcement incident records at two levels — census block for the street and census block group for the surrounding neighborhood — and reports each with its source and the date it was pulled. Run the address rather than the city name.
What is the crime rate in San Jose?
We deliberately do not publish a single citywide rate: one number hides the block-to-block variation that actually decides whether an address works for you. Each San Jose address is screened at street level and neighborhood level against law-enforcement incident records, and the report shows both readings with the source and date attached.
What neighborhoods are in San Jose?
The ones buyers ask about most are Willow Glen, Almaden Valley, Evergreen, Cambrian, Rose Garden, Berryessa, Silver Creek and Blossom Valley. Boundaries matter more than names: flood zone, fire hazard and school assignment can all change inside a single neighborhood, so screen the address rather than the label.
What are the safest neighborhoods in San Jose?
Almaden Valley, Cambrian, Willow Glen, and parts of Evergreen and Silver Creek consistently rank among the safest areas of San Jose, with low property and violent crime rates and strong school ratings. Always check block-level crime data — patterns can shift even within a single ZIP code.
Which San Jose areas have flood risk?
Alviso (in the far north, on historic salt-pond land below sea level) is San Jose's highest-risk flood area; significant portions are in FEMA Zone A. Areas along the Guadalupe River, Coyote Creek, and Lower Berryessa Creek can also flood during atmospheric river storms — most notably in 2017 and 2023.