Union City, California

This area offers everything from great options for first-time homebuyers to fancier neighborhoods for more wealthy families, all clustered around the top-rated high school in the city: James Logan High School. This high school is rated 8/10 on greatschools.org and has an “A” rating from Niche.com. Other nearby schools include Cesar Chavez Middle School (rated 4/10 by greatschools.org) and Searles Elementary School (also rated 4/10 by greatschools.org). Families can expect that their children may be able to walk or ride their bike from home to high school, and possibly also middle school.
The nearest shopping center with all your essentials will be El Mercado Plaza where you’ll find everything from grocery and gas stations to banks and auto stores. You’re also close enough to the 880 where accessing it is a breeze but you don’t have to worry about freeway noise. There are even a few parks in the area, William Cann Civic Center Park and Charles F Kennedy Park being among them.
Like we said, there are several neighborhoods around this junction. Heritage Pointe neighborhood offers an average home value of $1.5+ million. Typically homes here have 3-4 bedrooms and 2 baths within 1300 to 1900 square feet. Then there’s the neighborhood of Downtown Estates where median home prices are in the $500,000s. Styles here include attached homes and single-family homes with 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. This is the perfect spot for a first-time home buyer who wants peace of mind that their investment will appreciate well. For the area as a whole, you can expect to find an average home value of about $850K.
Do be aware that the northern part of one of the neighborhoods bordering this cross street, Decoto, includes what residents refer to as the “letter and number streets,” which are said to have more crime than other parts of Union City. Generally, the wealthiest neighborhoods in Union City are west of 880. The neighborhoods surrounding the intersection of Decoto Road and Alvarado Road are east of 880, sitting within the center and south part of Union City.
Impressively, almost 50% of the residents in the area are immigrants, primarily of Asian and Iranian descent.

This western part of Union City (west of 880) includes some of the city’s most expensive neighborhoods. Residents are typically well-educated with upper-level careers. They drive luxury cars, can send their children to private schools and enjoy very well-maintained homes. Nearby public schools include James Logan High School (rated 8/10 by greatschools.org), Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School (rated 6/10 by greatschools.org) and Alvarado Elementary School (rated 5/10 by greatschools.org).
Families who live in the area enjoy easy access to parks and shopping centers. The closest shopping center, Alvarado Plaza Shopping Center, has essentials like a Rite Aid, a UPS store, grocery stores and gas stations. A little bit further is another shopping center called Union Landing. The freeway is about 3 miles away, depending on your exact location.
One of the popular neighborhoods in this area, Ponderosa Landing, contains homes selling for a median price of $1.8 million. These single-family homes were built in the 1990’s and average 3-5 bedrooms and 4-5 bathrooms, all within 1,500-3,000 square feet. Another neighborhood in this section of town is the gated community of Meridian Court where home values average around $1.7 million with 2-stories, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms within 2,200-2,900 square feet. The HOA here is on the low-end for HOA’s in the Bay Area and everything you need is within 1.5 miles (Cosco is just 5 minutes away!).
High demand, limited inventory and the high-end lifestyle of the area demands an average home value in this area of upwards of $1.13 million. You can expect these homes to be between medium and large-sized single-family homes with some apartment buildings intermixed.