Booksin, San Jose, CA

In San Jose, Booksin is Willow Glen's leafy southern flank, and it trades on exactly the things that make Willow Glen expensive: older character homes, a deep street canopy, and a neighborhood elementary that families build their entire house hunt around. The walkable Lincoln Avenue strip, with its restaurants, cafes and independent shops, sits just to the north, close enough that a lot of Booksin residents treat it as their downtown even though it is technically the next neighborhood up. Early twentieth century bungalows and period houses sit under a mature street canopy, with Craftsman and Spanish Revival details turning up among them, part of the older Willow Glen housing that spans several decades of building. Walking these blocks feels like a step back from the rest of the city, with shade on both sides of the street most of the way. Lincoln Avenue works as the main street even though it belongs to the next neighborhood up. Braise builds its small plates around produce and dairy from nearby farms. Willow Glen Creamery is the ice cream stop, and the Peet's on Lincoln opens early for the first coffee run of the day. On Saturday mornings the Willow Glen Farmers' Market adds produce stalls to the mix. For exercise, the Los Gatos Creek Trail, the Three Creeks Trail and the trail along the Guadalupe River are all a short bike ride away, and the Willow Glen Community Center on Lincoln runs fitness programs and classes for anyone who wants an indoor option. For commuting, VTA's 64A bus runs up Lincoln toward Diridon Station, where Caltrain stops, and Tamien station is another Caltrain option a short drive to the east. The main tradeoff is mostly the price of admission: this is one of central San Jose's steadier, higher-demand areas, and it costs like it, with the Lincoln Avenue action a stroll away rather than at the doorstep. For buyers who want the Willow Glen feel and the Booksin school name, this is the heart of it, and it earns the premium.