Silicon Valley real estate, explained by the Property Nerds®

Most people picture Eichlers as single-story houses on flat suburban lots. In San Francisco, Eichler built something different in the early 1960s: split-level townhouses on the slopes of Diamond Heights, high-rise and low-rise apartments in the Western Addition, a 32-story tower on Russian Hill and

Short answer: it depends on the block. Sunnyvale has two tools that shape what you can do with an Eichler: Eichler design guidelines that apply in its Eichler neighborhoods, and single-story zoning districts that many Eichler blocks have adopted, one block group at a time. Here’s how each works, whi

Plenty of 1950s houses in Silicon Valley have low roofs, big glass and a blank face to the street. Not all of them are Eichlers. Several other builders worked the same modern vein, a few with the very same architects, and listings blur the line. Here’s what the records say about the most common look