Tassajara Hills | Dublin

Tassajara Hills Neighborhood Guide | Dublin

If you're looking for the top of the new-construction market in East Dublin, Tassajara Hills is the address. This is a Toll Brothers community — the national luxury builder — and it sits in a category by itself out here: bigger homes, bigger lots, and a more secluded setting than almost anything else built in Dublin over the past decade. Tucked into its own private valley off Tassajara Road, sheltered on a knoll and wrapped in protected open space, it's positioned right between Dublin and Danville, which tells you something about who it was built for.

The community is organized into three collections, and the differences between them matter — this isn't one product repeated 370 times. The Glen is the entry point, with 107 homes on flat view homesites averaging around 6,300 square feet; floor plans run roughly 3,000 to 3,500 square feet, four to six bedrooms, and some include a detached casita that's ideal for out-of-town guests or a home office with its own entrance. The Knolls is the largest collection at 179 homes, stepping up in size — homes from about 3,500 to 4,266 square feet on lots in the 6,500-to-7,000-square-foot range, with the signature Toll details: curved staircases, two-story foyers, a main-floor bedroom, and three-car garages. And The Bluffs sits at the top, 84 homes from roughly 3,450 to 4,500 square feet on the most generous lots in the community — 7,500 to 10,000 square feet — with bonus rooms, optional wine cellars, prep kitchens, glass stacking doors that open the great room to the outdoors, and on one design, a rooftop "Mirador" tower off the primary suite to take in the hills.

The thing that ties it all together is the amenity package. At the center of Tassajara Hills is a resort-style recreation center — a pool and spa, covered poolside cabanas, an outdoor kitchen and fire pit, a culinary kitchen, and a multipurpose room residents can reserve for private events. Beyond that, you're surrounded by open space with miles of hiking and biking trails running right out from the neighborhood into the hills. For a buyer who wants new construction but also wants room to breathe and a genuine view, this is one of the few places in Dublin that delivers both.

A word on the trade-off, because there's always one. The price of all this is location: Tassajara Hills is at the far northeast end of Dublin, up in the valley, so you're further from the freeway and BART than the central neighborhoods. The drive down Tassajara Road is the daily reality, and depending on your commute, that's either a non-issue or a dealbreaker. The flip side is what you get for it — the seclusion, the views, and the open space are real, and they're the reason the homes here command what they do.

A couple of things to verify before you fall for a specific home. Schools first: Toll Brothers markets the community to Amador Elementary, Fallon or Wells Middle, and Dublin High — and notice that even the builder hedges the middle school. This is the corner of Dublin where the Dublin Unified attendance lines have shifted more than once, with Cottonwood Creek K-8 opening down Fallon Road in 2018 and Emerald High opening more recently, so the high school assignment in particular may not match the older materials. Verify the current elementary, middle, and high school by the exact parcel address with the district before you write an offer — out here it genuinely varies. Second, there's an HOA that funds the recreation center and common areas; confirm the current dues against the MLS listing, since for a community with amenities like these, the number is worth knowing going in.

If you're deciding between the three collections — whether the casita in The Glen, the size of The Knolls, or the bigger lots and views in The Bluffs is the right fit — or trying to figure out which homesites actually have the views worth paying for, that's exactly the kind of street-level sorting I can help with.

— Rebecca Rook, Living Tri-Valley | Compass