Highland

Highland sits at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains on the east side of the San Bernardino Valley, and it is really two cities under one name. West of City Creek, the streets were laid out over former citrus groves from the 1940s onward, so a buyer compares 1950s and 1960s ranch houses with different additions, garages and lot uses. East of the creek, most housing arrived after East Highlands Ranch opened in the 1980s, so the comparison shifts to planned communities, association documents and special-tax districts. The city's own housing plan describes the result as "essentially two Highlands," and that split is the most useful thing to know before a first showing.

This Highland real estate guide connects the listings above with the questions that decide a purchase or sale here: which side of the creek a home is on, which school district serves the parcel, whether the tax bill carries a community facilities district charge, and how the State Route 210 corridor and the San Bernardino transit hub fit a commute. For the wider region, the Inland Empire guide puts neighboring cities in context. The market section below uses an original municipal sales report with its reporting period stated.

Highland is also older than its 1987 incorporation suggests. The county's history office records that Highland was classified as a townsite in 1891, after the first steam rail line reached it in 1888 and packing houses grew up along the tracks. The original townsite and its Palm Avenue commercial core survive as a National Register historic district. That history matters to a buyer only as a reason to read a property carefully: the same block can hold a 1900s commercial building, a postwar house and a garage conversion, and each deserves its own record check.

Palm Avenue in the Highland Historic District, photographed by Bruceherwig in 2014. The district was listed on the National Register on April 5, 2001; the photograph does not show a current listing.

01 / The directory

Finding Your Place in Highland

Use the creek, the corridors and the community names to organize a search, then bring every comparison down to the parcel. The groupings below describe practical housing choices, not official neighborhood boundaries, school attendance zones or a promise that every property in an area shares the same fees or construction era.

East Highlands Ranch and the planned east side

East Highlands Ranch is the reference point for the east side. The East Highlands Ranch Association describes the community as approximately 800 acres, including 117 acres of common area, with 2,488 residences, the vast majority single-family detached homes. Shared facilities include a catch-and-release lake, swimming pools, spas, tennis and pickleball courts, a softball field and a network of walking trails, and the association maintains seven historic orange groves within the common areas. The association also notes about 137 additional homes planned for the undeveloped south end.

The city's 2021-2029 Housing Element identifies that phase as Blossom Trails: 137 single-family lots on about 25.5 acres at the southwest corner of Church Street and Greenspot Road, at roughly 5.4 units per acre. An approved map is not a delivery date, a price list or a guarantee that the homes will match the older phases. For a resale in the Ranch, request the current association budget, reserve disclosure, rules and fee schedule, and confirm which facilities and which sub-association, if any, apply to that address.

Homes on this side of the creek were largely built from the 1980s through the 1990s, which the Housing Element's age table confirms citywide: units built in those two decades make up about 39 percent of the stock counted in 2018. Systems in a home of that age, from roofs and water heaters to original windows and HVAC, are the inspection questions that separate two houses with the same floor plan.

Greenspot Road, Boulder Avenue and the newer tracts

The Greenspot Road corridor is where the city's most recent housing sits, and where a special-tax check matters most. The city lists three community facilities districts on its Special Taxes and Assessments page. CFD 2007-1 covers Tract 17682 at the northeast corner of Greenspot Road and Boulder Avenue and became active in May 2016. CFD 2001-1, formed for storm drains, carries bonded debt that expires in 2028. CFD 90-1, formed in 1990 for streets, storm drains, bridges and a school, includes a police and fire services tax that does not expire. Read the parcel's tax bill rather than assuming a whole street is in or out of a district.

Newer construction usually means fewer immediate repairs and a different set of documents: builder warranties, solar agreements, landscape maintenance obligations and any association that manages a small tract. Compare monthly cost, not just price, when weighing a newer home here against an older house on the west side.

West Highland: the postwar neighborhoods

West of City Creek, along Base Line, Pacific Street and the avenues between them, the housing is mostly detached single-family homes from the 1950s and 1960s, which together account for about 27 percent of the city's 2018 housing stock in the Housing Element's age table. Lots tend to be larger than in the planned tracts, and many houses have been extended over sixty years. Separate the original living area from additions, enclosed patios and converted garages, and compare listing measurements with the permit history before valuing extra rooms.

The Housing Element estimates that about 3,500 units citywide, roughly 20 percent of the stock, need some level of rehabilitation, and that the city averages about 100 rehabilitation permits a year. That is not a neighborhood label; it is a reason to budget for an inspection and to ask for improvement records on any older house. A well-kept 1958 ranch house on a wide lot can be the better buy, and the difference shows up in the records, not the listing photos.

The historic core and Base Line

The National Register lists the Highland Historic District, roughly bounded by Cole and Nona Avenues and Pacific and Church Streets, added on April 5, 2001. Houses near the district are older than the postwar streets and can carry different construction, foundations and utility histories. Base Line itself is the city's main commercial and civic street; City Hall is at 27215 Base Line. A home close to Base Line trades quiet for convenience, so visit at the hours you will actually be home.

Attached, multifamily and manufactured homes

Highland's stock is overwhelmingly detached. The Housing Element's composition table, using SCAG data for 2020, puts single-family detached homes at 76.4 percent of 16,845 units, attached single-family at 2.2 percent, multifamily at 15.8 percent and mobile homes at 5.7 percent. Attached and manufactured options exist but are a small share, so compare them with the same product type rather than with the citywide median. For a manufactured home, establish whether the land is included and obtain the space-rent or ownership documents before comparing price.

Nearby cities are worth touring in the same decision window. Redlands and San Bernardino border Highland directly, the Loma Linda guide covers the hospital and university city a few miles southwest, and the Corona guide shows how a different Inland Empire commute can change the housing you can afford. These are separate cities with their own inventory and address-specific considerations.

Which Highland neighborhood fits your budget, commute and school needs? Ask us to narrow the search.

East Highlands hillside homes above the State Route 210 corridor, photographed by Let-Go-Let-Flow in 2022. Check present conditions and your actual route during a property visit.

02 / The market

Highland Home Prices and Ownership Costs

For the three months ending August 2026, Redfin's Highland housing report shows an all-home-type median sale price of $569,623, down 4.3 percent from the same period a year earlier, with a median 35 days on market compared with 52 days the year before. The report counts 110 homes sold in August 2026 against 76 in August 2025 and a median $328 per square foot. The provider uses MLS and public-record data. These figures describe the city's mixed sales sample for that period; they do not value a particular house or set a range for East Highlands Ranch, the historic core or a new tract.

A useful pricing discussion narrows that sample. A 1990s Ranch home with association amenities, a 1950s west-side house on a large lot and a 2016 tract home with a CFD charge attract different buyers and different comparisons. A change in the citywide median can also reflect a change in which of those homes sold that month.

The table is a comparison method, not a set of advertised prices or fees. The Housing Element's tenure table shows the city was 65.2 percent owner-occupied and 34.8 percent renter-occupied in 2018, so most Highland homes change hands between owner-occupants, and buyer financing terms shape what sells. Put the mortgage payment beside taxes, any CFD charge, insurance, any association dues and a realistic maintenance allowance; use the mortgage calculator for the first pass and ask your lender which items its estimate includes.

For buyers preparing a first purchase, the first-time home buyer guide organizes the process. For sellers, the relevant question is which alternatives a buyer will compare with your home this month, alongside the strongest completed-sale evidence on your side of the creek.

Want the recent comparable sales for your Highland home or target neighborhood? Ask for an address-specific comparison.

03 / The schools

Check Schools by the Exact Address

A Highland address does not establish one school assignment. The city states that it is served by two districts, Redlands Unified School District and San Bernardino City Unified School District, and the dividing line runs through the city rather than along its edge. Start with the full property address and the intended school year, then confirm the district and the school directly.

Redlands Unified publishes elementary, middle and high school boundary maps; that page offers maps rather than an address search, so verify the parcel against the map and then with the district's enrollment office. San Bernardino City Unified provides a school site locator and boundary maps that return a home school for an address. Use both official tools before relying on a listing's school field, a ZIP code or the nearest campus on a map.

The nearby-school module above helps locate campuses; it does not create attendance rights. Ratings, when supplied, are one provider's measure with its own source and period. Consider the programs and practical arrangements your household needs, and speak with the school about them. This guide does not rank neighborhoods by the people who live there or promise an educational outcome.

Bring the school route into the property tour. City Creek, the SR-210 interchanges and the long east-west blocks can make a short straight-line distance into a different drive or walk. The city publishes suggested walking routes under its Safe Routes to School program; use them with the district's confirmation for the actual address.

Brookings Lumber Company wagons on City Creek Road, bound for the box factory at Molino in Highland, in a public-domain photograph dated between 1899 and 1913. A historical image does not describe present road or school conditions.

04 / Getting around

Build the Commute Around Your Actual Trip

Highland's commuting geography is the SR-210 corridor, the Base Line and Highland Avenue arterials, and the transit hub in downtown San Bernardino. Highland has no rail station of its own. Metrolink's Arrow service runs between San Bernardino Downtown, San Bernardino Tippecanoe, Redlands Esri, Redlands Downtown and Redlands University, and connections between Arrow and the San Bernardino Line are available seven days a week at San Bernardino Downtown. Arrow runs about every 30 minutes in the early morning and evening and every 60 minutes midday. Any rail commute from Highland therefore starts with a drive or a bus to one of those stations.

For local bus service, Omnitrans Routes 3 and 4 loop through West San Bernardino, Base Line and Highland with buses every 15 minutes on weekdays and every 23 minutes on weekends, with Highland Avenue stops at Victoria, Patton, Central, Orange and Palm among others. Check the current timetable for both directions and the first or last trip you would rely on.

The freeway has changed recently. The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority reports that SR 210 was widened from Sterling Avenue to San Bernardino Avenue and the Base Line interchange was widened from Buckeye Street to Seine Avenue in Highland, with a ribbon cutting on June 21, 2023. Test your route during your own travel window anyway; the approach from an interior street to an on-ramp can matter as much as the freeway itself.

For air travel, San Bernardino International Airport is just west of the city at 1601 E. Third Street. As listed on the airport's airline information page in September 2026, scheduled service is Breeze Airways to San Francisco and Provo, so most other routes still mean a drive to another airport. For a job-center check, Yaamava' Resort & Casino at San Manuel is in Highland and, by the Nation's own account, employs more than 5,000 people, which shapes traffic on Highland Avenue and Victoria Avenue at shift changes.

Keep the same method when comparing Highland with neighboring cities. Write down a few essential destinations and test them from each shortlisted address at the hours you would travel. The Corona to Orange County commute guide shows the kind of trade-off that applies across the Inland Empire. This guide does not promise a door-to-door travel time.

05 / Daily life

Trails, History and Everyday Stops

Highland's recreation identity is its trail system and its mountain edge. The city's Community Trails program publishes a trails map, dated June 27, 2022, that names fifteen segments with lengths, including the Shelton Trail at 4.69 miles, the City Creek Levee Trail Loop at 2.33 miles, the Natural Parkland Trail at 1.6 miles, the Red Hill Trail at 1.27 miles and the Northfork Trail at 1.1 miles. Added together, the listed segments come to about 16 miles. The city also runs an Adopt-A-Trail program and an annual Trails Day.

The historic district and Palm Avenue

The Highland Historic District, listed on the National Register on April 5, 2001, holds the 1891 townsite, packing houses along the former rail line and the Palm Avenue commercial core. It is a small area, and it is a good place to understand why older west-side houses vary so much from block to block.

Library and learning center

The Highland Sam J. Racadio Library and Environmental Learning Center, a San Bernardino County Library branch at 7863 Central Avenue, houses an animal collection of more than 25 species alongside its programs and public computers. Check current hours before planning a visit.

East Highlands Ranch amenities

Ranch residents use association facilities that most of the city does not: the lake, pools, courts and trails described by the association. Those amenities are funded by dues and governed by rules, so treat them as part of the ownership cost, not as free public parks. Public trail access and city facilities remain available to everyone.

The mountains and the river

The city's own profile describes Highland as sitting against the San Bernardino Mountains with skiing and mountain recreation nearby, which is why weekend traffic on the east side follows the mountain calendar. Seven Oaks Dam, the flood-control dam on the Santa Ana River, sits upstream of the city; the river wash and the levee trails along City Creek define the southern and eastern edges of the built area. Check flood-zone status for any parcel near the wash as part of the insurance quote.

Make a practical errand loop

The city's profile identifies its Town Center policy area along Base Line and a retail, restaurant and entertainment focus along the Greenspot Road corridor on the east side, and Highland Avenue is the other main east-west commercial street. During a home tour, run the errands you repeat most often from the actual property and note the turns onto and off the arterials. A shopping corridor visible on a map does not explain the experience of a particular trip.

Seven Oaks Dam and the Santa Ana River canyon upstream of Highland, photographed by inkknife_2000 from Panorama Point in Redlands in 2012. The dam is outside the city limits; the view shows the mountain edge that frames the east side.

06 / Selling here

Selling a Highland Home

A strong selling plan starts by identifying the home's actual competition. A buyer comparing East Highlands Ranch resales is asking about the lake, the dues and the age of the roof. A buyer comparing west-side postwar houses is asking about lot size, additions and permits. A buyer looking at a newer Greenspot tract wants the CFD number and the solar paperwork. Present the property in the context its buyers will use.

Prepare the record before the presentation

Gather the documents that explain the home: permits and plans, improvement records, the current tax bill with any special-tax lines, warranties and any association or solar paperwork. Resolve discrepancies between the listing description and the records before a buyer's review finds them. For an older west-side house, a clear improvement history can be the difference between a clean appraisal and a renegotiation.

Because the city estimates that about a fifth of its housing needs some rehabilitation, buyers here expect to inspect carefully. A pre-listing inspection, or at least a candid list of known items, keeps the negotiation on price rather than on surprises. If work is contemplated before listing, get project-specific quotes and decide with the likely sale price in view rather than the cost of the work alone.

Explain the full ownership picture

For a Ranch or tract resale, organize association and CFD information early; lenders and buyers may need time with it. Make parking, storage and any shared-facility arrangements clear. Do not advertise an amenity or a fee expiration without the document that supports it; the city's own page notes that one CFD's police and fire tax does not expire while another's bonded debt ends in 2028, and buyers will check.

Photographs and copy should show how the main rooms connect, how the home meets its outdoor space, the mountain or valley view if there is one, and how parking works. Describe the surroundings accurately and answer the questions a buyer is likely to raise during a visit, including the school district serving the address.

Price with a defensible comparison

Review relevant completed sales beside competing listings and the home's condition. The citywide median in this guide is background; the recommendation should rest on the closest comparables by side of the creek, era, size and lot, refreshed as the competing inventory changes. Justin Tye and the team can organize preparation, presentation and negotiation around your timing and goals. Start with the address, the current condition and any constraints on the move.

Get your Highland home value

Tell us about your property through the home-selling page, or start with the home-valuation tool before an address-specific conversation.

07 / Why Justin

Work With Justin Tye in Highland

The Active Realty team and office ledger documents 47 confirmed Highland home sales, reviewed September 16, 2026, on both the buyer and seller side and on both sides of City Creek. That is team and office evidence rather than a claim that Justin personally handled each transaction; the table below lists the eight most recent eligible closings from that ledger, deduplicated by date and address, with the side represented.

Working with Justin Tye and the team means turning a broad city search into a manageable set of choices: separating the two Highlands, reading the tax bill and association documents, and identifying questions for the district, the lender and the inspector. For sellers, it means a documented preparation and pricing discussion, clear presentation and attention to the details that affect negotiation and closing. Client experiences across the team are collected on the testimonials page.

Source: Active Realty team and office closed-deal ledger, CRMLS and Zillow records, reviewed September 16, 2026. Blythe Avenue closed twice in 2022 and both closings are listed. No local review excerpt is shown because no verified Highland-scoped review exists in the team's review inventories.

Call (949) 381-8581, send us your Highland question, or browse Highland homes. Justin Tye | CA DRE# 01728694.

08 / Questions

Highland Real Estate Questions

What is the current Highland median home price?

Redfin reports a $569,623 median sale price for all home types over the three months ending August 2026, down 4.3 percent year over year, with 110 homes sold in August. That is a municipal statistic for a stated period. A particular home's comparison should account for its side of the creek, era, size, lot, condition and the relevant completed sales.

What does "two Highlands" mean for a buyer?

The city's Housing Element explains that suburban growth moved east from San Bernardino after the 1940s and stopped at City Creek, and that the east side developed decades later around East Highlands Ranch in the 1980s. In practice, west-side searches turn on lots, additions and permits; east-side searches turn on association documents, special taxes and the age of 1980s and 1990s systems.

Is East Highlands Ranch a gated community, and what does the association provide?

The association describes 2,488 residences on about 800 acres with 117 acres of common area, a catch-and-release lake, pools, spas, tennis and pickleball courts, a softball field and trails, and it does not describe the community as gated. Confirm gates, dues, rules and any sub-association for the specific address from the current documents rather than from a listing summary.

Does Highland have Mello-Roos taxes?

Some parcels do. The city lists three community facilities districts: CFD 90-1 from 1990, whose police and fire services tax does not expire; CFD 2001-1 from 2001, whose bonded debt expires in 2028; and CFD 2007-1 at Greenspot Road and Boulder Avenue, active since May 2016. Read the parcel's property tax bill for the actual line items and amounts.

Which school district serves a Highland address?

Either Redlands Unified or San Bernardino City Unified, depending on the parcel. Use the Redlands Unified boundary maps and the San Bernardino City Unified school locator, then confirm with the district for the intended school year. A city name, a ZIP code or the nearest campus does not establish enrollment.

Is there a Metrolink station in Highland?

No. Metrolink's Arrow line serves San Bernardino Downtown, San Bernardino Tippecanoe and three Redlands stations, and connects with the San Bernardino Line at San Bernardino Downtown seven days a week. A Highland rail commute starts with a drive or an Omnitrans trip to one of those stations, so test that first leg at your actual departure time.

How old are Highland's homes?

Newer than the valley average on the east side and older on the west. The Housing Element's age table, from 2018 Census data, counts 16,891 units, with about 39 percent built in the 1980s and 1990s and about 38 percent built before 1970. Use the year built as a reason to inspect specific systems, not as a substitute for the condition of the actual house.

How do I get a useful selling-price estimate for my Highland home?

Start with the address, the side of the creek, the year built, the current condition and the improvement history, and pull the tax bill for any CFD or association charges. Use the valuation tool for a first reference, then ask for a comparison with the closest completed sales and competing listings. Neither an automated estimate nor the citywide median determines a future sale price.

Detail of the 1907 Sanborn fire insurance map of Highland, from the Library of Congress collection, showing Pacific Avenue, Boulder Avenue and the Brookings Lumber and Box Company yard at Molino. The plate records a population of 1,200 that year.

Get your Highland home value

Continue with the Inland Empire guide, browse the full neighborhood directory, compare Corona, read the Inland Empire selling strategy guide, or use the Highland home search to focus on current options.

Prepared for JustinTye.com. Research reviewed September 16, 2026. Market period: three months ending August 2026, Redfin all home types. Housing stock, tenure and age figures are from the City of Highland 2021-2029 Housing Element (June 2023), which cites 2018 Census and 2020 SCAG data. Native provider statistics and nearby-school information above are separate from the dated sources and address-specific guidance in this article. Photographs identify local places and do not depict current listings or present conditions.

Photography and maps: East Highlands Ranch from Panorama Point by inkknife_2000, 2012, CC BY-SA 2.0 (hero); Highland Historic District by Bruceherwig, 2014, CC BY-SA 3.0; East Highlands foothills by Let-Go-Let-Flow, 2022, CC0; Brookings Lumber Company wagons, 1899 to 1913, public domain; Seven Oaks Dam from Panorama Point by inkknife_2000, 2012, CC BY-SA 2.0; 1907 Sanborn map plate, Library of Congress, public domain. Images cropped, resized and compressed without scene alteration.