Baywood is one of San Mateo’s most prestigious and sought after neighborhoods, with top-notch schools and a cosmopolitan flair. Nearly ever street in Baywood is filled with trees and Mediterranean style homes with tile roofs. Open and manicured, this neighborhood features homes with architectural styles including Tudor and Colonial which evoke an East Coast feel with street names such as Harvard, Georgetown, Fordham, Cornell, and Notre Dame. Buyers looking for great weather, a quiet well-tended, upscale and fashionable neighborhood and a short commute end up here.
Baywood fits snugly into a corner formed by Alameda de las Pulgas, Crystal Springs Road and El Camino Real. Notre Dame Avenue separates the neighborhood from Aragon. It is within a brisk walk of downtown San Mateo and a short drive from commute routes and highways 101, 92 and 280, but what brings out the pride in Baywood residents isn’t their comfortable homes, their close-in location, their gently curving streets or the cache that comes with a Baywood address – it’s their schools.
Baywood Elementary, the holy grail of San Mateo public K-5 schools, is in Baywood, a block from Aragon high School. Borel Middle School is a 15-minute walk away, as is the Crystal Springs Uplands School, a lauded private 6-12 institution built on the former Hillsborough estate of Templeton Crocker. Each school, thanks to reputation and/or open enrollment public district policies, annually draws more applicants than it has space for.
Among San Mateo neighborhoods, Baywood real estate is surpassed only by the stately mansions of San Mateo Park. Homes in Baywood are larger than those in other neighborhoods, with three, four or five bedrooms and, as a rule, more than 2,000 square feet of living space. More often, Baywood houses have 2,500 or more square feet, ranging all the way up to 4,000 in some cases. Homes are built in a variety of classic pre-war styles: Spanish, English, Moorish, Tudor and Colonial, with only a few post-1950 homes mixed in. Lots are larger than those in Aragon or Baywood Knolls, often 10,000 square feet in size.
Many homes have been updated. Even those that haven’t have amenities that were reserved only for the upper class when they were built, like en-suite baths and walk-in closets. Homes rarely come up for sale in Baywood, but when they do, they sell between $1.4m and $2.1m. The neighborhood median usually hovers around $1.6 or $1.7 million, with several homes selling for more than $2 million. Buyers who like Baywood also generally look for homes in Baywood Knolls, Aragon, San Mateo Park, and the Burlingame neighborhoods of Easton Addition and Burlingame Park.
The name “Baywood” didn’t come out of nowhere. Nobody held a contest to determine the name for San Mateo’s premier pre-war subdivision. Long before there were streets named after states, “Baywood” was the name of John Parrott’s 377-acre estate, purchased for $30,000 on February 1, 1860. Parrott named his land after the Bay trees he found on the property (probably because of the bay trees alongside the creek which flowed beside the northern boundary of the property). Today, $30,000 won’t even buy you a garage in Baywood. In 1927, the estate was purchased with the intent to subdivide. The first 445 lots offered for sale by D.A. “Doc” Raybould, who would later be instrumental in developing the east side of San Mateo, ranged in price from $3,150 to $4,250.
Baywood is a neighborhood of style and grace. A stroll through its gently curved, wide streets reveals beautifully manicured lawns, children happily (and safely) playing and driveways full of luxury cars. It is as much an idea as a place – and it’s been that way since the days of John Parrott.
Just nearby Baywood across El Camino, the impressive San Mateo Library is state-of-the-art and tech-smart, and the 16 acre Central Park features the cherish Japanese Tea Garden with its koi pond, where the koi are fed every day at 11 a.m. and at 3 p.m.
Homes Currently for Sale in Baywood
Showing properties
1 - 5 of 5.
See more Baywood/Parrott Park community real estate.
(all data current as of
5/19/2012)
- $998,000 : 601 Maple St, San Mateo3 beds, 1 full, 1 part baths
- $2,348,000 : 262 Virginia Av, San Mateo4 beds, 3 full, 1 part baths
- $949,000 : 724 W Capistrano Wy, San Mateo2 beds, 2 full baths
- $1,198,000 : 531 Maple St, San Mateo2 beds, 2 full baths
- $1,725,000 : 519 Nevada Av, San Mateo4 beds, 3 full baths
Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.
