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Palo Alto is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, occupying the San Francisco Peninsula between San Francisco Bay and the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Home to roughly 68,000 residents, it is one of the defining communities of Silicon Valley and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The city takes its name from El Palo Alto — Spanish for "the tall stick" — a centuries-old coastal redwood that stands along San Francisquito Creek near the Caltrain tracks and marks a boundary between Palo Alto and neighboring Menlo Park. The city's identity is inseparable from Stanford University, whose large campus and endowment have shaped the Peninsula for more than a century. Leland and Jane Stanford founded the university in 1885 in memory of their son, and the surrounding community grew up around the campus. In 1951, Stanford and the city established the Stanford Research Park, widely considered the world's first university research park. The park has hosted generations of technology companies — including Hewlett-Packard, Tesla, SAP, and Broadcom among more than 150 tenants — and helped cement the region's reputation as a global center of innovation. Palo Alto's residential character is equally distinctive. Older neighborhoods such as Professorville, named for the Stanford professors who built homes there in the university's early years, preserve shingled and Craftsman-era houses, while Crescent Park offers wide, tree-lined streets and larger lots. Midtown and Barron Park provide a more family-oriented feel, and Downtown North places residents steps from the shops and restaurants along University Avenue. Residents enjoy an unusually rich mix of open space, from the 1,940-acre Baylands Nature Preserve along the bay to Foothills Park in the western hills. Caltrain's Palo Alto station and the U.S. 101 and Interstate 280 corridors connect the city to San Francisco to the north and San Jose to the south, while the Palo Alto Unified School District is among the region's most sought-after. The result is a city that blends academic prestige, technology employment, and a leafy, established residential character.

Population 68,572

County Santa Clara County

Active Listings 138

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Frequently Asked Questions

What county is Palo Alto, California in?

Palo Alto is in Santa Clara County, California, in the northwestern part of the county on the San Francisco Peninsula. It sits between San Francisco Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains foothills.

What is Palo Alto known for?

Palo Alto is known as the home of Stanford University and as a birthplace of Silicon Valley. The Stanford Research Park, established in 1951, helped launch the region's technology industry, and the garage where Hewlett-Packard began still stands in the city.

What school district serves Palo Alto?

Palo Alto is served by the Palo Alto Unified School District, which operates about 19 schools and is consistently ranked among California's strongest public systems. It includes two comprehensive high schools serving the entire city.

How far is Palo Alto from San Francisco and San Jose?

Palo Alto lies about thirty-five miles south of San Francisco and roughly seventeen miles northwest of San Jose. Caltrain provides direct commuter rail service to both cities, and U.S. 101 and Interstate 280 serve drivers.

What does the name Palo Alto mean?

The name Palo Alto means 'tall stick' or 'tall tree' in Spanish. It refers to El Palo Alto, a centuries-old coastal redwood that stands along San Francisquito Creek near the city's railroad tracks.

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