San Carlos, California
Good Living!
LookyLOO Review of San Carlos
Laurel Street Rules!
Laurel Street is a wonderful but also relatively mellow commercial street in San Carlos. It smacks of small-town USA with its boutique shopping, restaurants, and coffee shops. You can find cities in the surrounding area with bigger and fancier downtowns (see Palo Alto and Menlo Park) but few are as calm and fun as this. One note: the outdoor seating and restaurant scene blew up a bit in recent times, bringing a more jumping vibe to the area. Some locals are pushing to shut down the outdoor shenanigans in favor of a return to a quieter, slower pace.
It’s hard for these more chill towns near Palo Alto and Menlo Park not to become them as fancier folk move in and buy out some of the historically blue-collar population. When your media home price is north of $2m it can’t entirely maintain its character and San Carlos feels on the verge of losing that balance of socio-economic diversity that made it a more reasonable place to raise your kiddos.
Lifestyle
San Carlos is for sure a family town. Most of the housing is single-family, although there are some condos/townhomes and apartments near downtown and up on Crestview for those looking for something smaller (albeit not inexpensive). Much of the community gathers on Laurel Street (downtown) and Burton Park for a pretty active social calendar that includes an annual parade, weekend markets, a wide variety of fairs including an Art and Wine Faire, outdoor family camp-outs, summer concert series, and movies nights under the starts. There is also a ton of volunteering opportunities offered through the City Council Volunteer group. It’s a close-knit town that also has a ton of youth sports and community activities for the kiddos. If you want your beans to be busy, this town will serve you well.
We highly recommend visiting San Carlos and staying in the community in a VRBO rather than a hotel to get a feel for living among the locals. You can receive discounted fares on travel via our partnership with Expedia as well.
Schools
Public schools in San Carlos rank among the highest in the country with an A on niche.com. Schools in San Carlos place within the top 5% in the state of California White Oaks Elementary School ranks #5 out of 7,163 in California, and Central Middle School ranks #100 out of 6,510 in the state. High Schoolers travel to nearby Carlmont High School in Belmont or Sequoia High School in Redwood City to complete their secondary education, both of which are part of the Sequoia Union High School District that ranks A+ on niche.com so you can’t go wrong for schools in San Carlos.
Why You Should Move Here Now?
The Vibe
Bay Area living with a taste of Mainstreet USA. You’re in the heart of the tech world but San Carlos hasn’t completely flipped yet to the fancy-town vibe of some of the more illustrious neighbors. If you’re hankering for a bit less tech-crypto-algorithm soirees and a bit more Mainstreet USA then take a look at San Carlos.
Reviews of San Carlos from Locals
opsided-Student-300
7mo ago
🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉
We love it, the restaurants in downtown are good, though a few too many overpriced Italian places. Close enough to Redwood City or San Mateo if you’re looking for more variety. Underrated beer scene for the peninsula - Blue Oak, Hapa’s, Ale Arsenal, Out of the Barrel. But be warned the town pretty much shuts down at 8:30. There’s a dive bar and a cocktail bar downtown but that’s pretty much the late night scene. Really nice community, small town feel (in a good way!) like where people know the city council members personally, but pretty kid/family centric.
For more reviews of what living in San Carlos is like from locals, check out The Reviews.
Want to give San Carlos a shot?
Use our friends at VRBO and Expedia to help get you going!

Living in San Carlos
Neighborhoods in San Carlos
View AllAlder Manor
Families/DINKs/SINKs
Alder Manor is in the southwest corner of the city and is topographically a mix of nice hilly landscapes, with canyon and Bay views (Crestview street offers the best views in the city) and flat blocks perfect for family bike riding. Most of the housing is singe-family (as with all of San Carlos) and those are a mix of older ranch and cottages, and newer Tudors and some apartments up on Crestview. Most appealing about this neighborhood is the presence of Eaton Park Trailhead and Park and being on the edge of the Pulgas Ridge Reserve. This makes it one of the best spots in the city for families craving an outdoor lifestyle for their kiddos and themselves. Average home prices in Alder Manor come in just under $2.5m and given the quality of the schools and pleasantness of the city they tend to go fast.