Blog > Los Altos Hills Fire Hazard Severity Zones: How Many Houses Are in Each, Neighborhood by Neighborhood
Los Altos Hills Fire Hazard Severity Zones: How Many Houses Are in Each, Neighborhood by Neighborhood
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Los Altos Hills adopted CAL FIRE’s fire hazard severity zone map in June 2025. We checked each of the town’s 3,017 single-family house parcels against that map: 443 (15%) have some part of the parcel in a Very High zone and 169 (6%) in a High zone. Here is where they are, neighborhood guide by neighborhood guide, plus what houses in each zone sold for. We pulled CAL FIRE’s map data and the county assessor parcel records on October 21, 2026. There are no addresses here.
The short answer
- Almost half the town’s houses are outside the mapped zones: 1,417 (47%). Another 988 (33%) are in a Moderate zone.
- Very High: 443 houses (15%). High: 169 (6%).
- Three neighborhoods hold 441 of the 443 Very High houses and 168 of the 169 High ones: Mora Drive & Olive Tree (210 Very High and 92 High, 83% of its houses), El Monte Road & Foothill College (120 Very High and 52 High, 34% of its houses) and Altamont, Taaffe & Moody Roads (111 Very High and 24 High, 33% of its houses).
- No High or Very High houses in Purissima Hills, Page Mill Road & Palo Alto Hills, Town Hall & Fremont Road, Arastradero Road & Manuella and Burke Road & Sunset Drive. Burke Road & Sunset Drive has none in any zone.
Next steps in Los Altos Hills
- What’s my Los Altos Hills home worth? Request an estimate, and ask us for the recent sales on your street.
- See Los Altos Hills homes for sale, then use Save Search to get new listings by email.
- Book a strategy call with a Property Nerd.
Neighborhood by neighborhood
Single-family houses inside each guide’s outline, by the highest zone that touches any part of the parcel.
| Neighborhood | Houses | Very High | High | Moderate | Not in a zone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mora Drive & Olive Tree | 366 | 210 | 92 | 54 | 10 |
| El Monte Road & Foothill College | 509 | 120 | 52 | 56 | 281 |
| Altamont, Taaffe & Moody Roads | 411 | 111 | 24 | 270 | 6 |
| Purissima Hills | 303 | 0 | 0 | 290 | 13 |
| Page Mill Road & Palo Alto Hills | 336 | 0 | 0 | 256 | 80 |
| Town Hall & Fremont Road | 578 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 530 |
| Arastradero Road & Manuella | 278 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 273 |
| Burke Road & Sunset Drive | 209 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 209 |
| Los Altos Hills | 3,017 | 443 | 169 | 988 | 1,417 |
The town total includes 27 houses outside the eight guide outlines.
What houses sold for, by zone
Single-family house sales in Los Altos Hills from October 1, 2021 to October 21, 2026 (MLS records, each sale counted once), matched to the parcel they sit on. 358 of the 366 sales with a map location could be matched.
| Zone | Sales | Median price | Median per sq ft | Typical lot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very High | 68 | $5.21M | $1,424 | 1.2 acres |
| High | 23 | $5.7M | $1,577 | 1 acre |
| Moderate | 107 | $5.3M | $1,495 | 1.2 acres |
| Not in a zone | 160 | $6.1M | $1,707 | 1.1 acres |
These medians mix many differences between the houses, including location, lot, age and size, so they don’t show what the zone itself does to a price. For one house, the recent sales closest to it tell you more.
What the zones mean
- Hazard, not risk. CAL FIRE’s Office of the State Fire Marshal says the maps describe hazard: the physical conditions, like vegetation, terrain, fire history, embers and typical fire weather, over 30 to 50 years. They don’t count home hardening, defensible space or fuel reduction, which change the risk to a particular home (OSFM).
- Three classes: Moderate, High and Very High. Land outside them is shown as non-wildland. Los Altos Hills was in CAL FIRE’s second release of maps for cities and towns, published February 24, 2025 (OSFM).
- Los Altos Hills adopted CAL FIRE’s map on June 24, 2025, after the council dropped a version that would have added about 50 more properties to the High and Very High zones (Los Altos Town Crier).
- What a High or Very High zone can bring: stricter building code requirements, defensible space requirements and real estate disclosure obligations, as the Town Crier summarized the town’s action (Los Altos Town Crier).
- Insurance: town staff said the CAL FIRE maps don’t affect insurance rates or availability; insurers use their own risk models (Los Altos Town Crier).
Reading it right
- We counted the highest zone that touches any part of each parcel. The Los Altos Hills County Fire District’s parcel layer gives the same zone for more than 99% of the town’s parcels. Counting by the center of each parcel instead gives 387 Very High and 156 High houses.
- The zone describes the land around a house, not how the house is built or how the lot is kept.
- Check the address. CAL FIRE’s zone viewer shows any parcel, and a seller’s natural hazard disclosure report states the zones for that property.
- Only single-family houses are counted (county assessor records, residential-agricultural zoning, single-family use).
Go deeper
Los Altos & Los Altos Hills Neighborhoods by Their Houses uses the same county records for age, size, lots and stories, and The Most Expensive Streets in Los Altos & Los Altos Hills ranks streets by five years of sales. The Los Altos city guide links every neighborhood guide. Flood & Fire Zones by Neighborhood counts homes in FEMA flood zones and CAL FIRE fire zones for 469 neighborhood guides across Silicon Valley, the Peninsula and San Francisco.
The Los Altos data series: housing market by the numbers · neighborhoods ranked by price per sq ft · where homes sell over asking · ten years of prices by neighborhood · condos and townhomes · house prices by bedrooms · houses under $4M · houses at $7.5M and up · the best month to sell · the most expensive streets · houses by neighborhood · our sales map
Buying or selling in a fire zone?
A Property Nerd can pull the zone, the disclosure report and the recent sales closest to a specific home before you write an offer or set a price. Call (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or book a strategy call. Commissions are negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what’s included.