Los Altos is a desirable suburb located at the south end of the San Francisco peninsula, in the Heart of Silicon Valley. Most of the city's growth occurred between 1950 and 1980. Originally an agricultural town with many summer cottages and apricot orchards, Los Altos is now an affluent bedroom community. Los Altos has several distinctive features including several city parks, larger lot sizes and safe neighbhorhods with exceptional public schools. Additionally, commercial zones are strictly limited to the downtown area and small shopping and office parks, including a tree lined downtown with speciality shops, restaurants, botiques as well as gourmet grocery stores.
In 2015, Forbes magazine listed Los Altos (Zip codes 94022 and 94024) as the 11th and 57th most expensive ZIP codes in the United States.
Los Altos means "the heights" or "foothill" in Spanish.