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Another question on the location - moving from the East Coast in a week and the realtor is sending various options to rent in Burlingame/Mills Estate/Hillsborough. I've been to Burlingame area couple of times so got a feel for that. What is Hillsborough like? I see that the rent is more expensive than Burlingame and realtor says it's because of schools - justified?
What is Hillsborough like for a professional family with 2 small kids? Parks? Libraries? Neighborhoods? Who lives there? Diversity? Schools? Walkable?
We are bit overwhelmed by all these little towns in the Bay area which are the size of one apartment building in Washington DC so please help with your thoughts on this one. PS: Our jobs are in the City Fin District and Mountain View so not sure about commute either.
Hillsborough is a town of million dollar plus homes on large lots and it's more expensive than the surrounding towns. Since your jobs are in SF and Mountain View, check out San Mateo, Belmont and San Carlos - about halfway between SF and Mountain View. The weather is warmer with less fog than places like Millbrae, San Bruno and other towns on the north peninsula. San Carlos has a nice walkable downtown with many restaurants and the schools are good.
Hillsborough also has no businesses. None. It's all old-money style residential on big lots. There are no shops, no libraries. The residents are varied but they have one thing in common: they're loaded. Hillsborough has the highest median income of anywhere in the USA and some of the highest property values. There is no public high school - Crystal Springs Uplands is a private middle and high school. It doesn't seem like it would suit you.
OK, I see. Thank you for sharing; just curious, where do people go from Hillsborough to shop and walk - Burlingame, I assume, if it's so sleepy? Anyway, thanks again, and - sonarrat - you are an expert on every place on the Peninsula! Back to exploring the rental and location options...A somewhat frustrating experience to go through while still across the country...
Actually, H is sought-after as an upscale rental town by many young families who work in SF FinDt and/or SV (and find SF's PacHts or Woodside/Atherton too costly)
Easy drive anywhere esp along 280 corridor
Safe public elem schools as H is an Eastern-feel suburb, not unlike Scarsdale or Bethesda, with lots of professionals and small business owners; by middle or HS forced to pay for pvt schools as IIRC H shares post-elem schools w/various slums along Peninsula
One of best grocery stores in US, Draegers, is in nearby SanMateo (many food-oriented people who live in SF drive to Draegers in either SM or MenloPk to find a decent grocery store which SF lacks)
Would run other errands in PaloAlto/MenloPk area which is very convenient to H along 280...Peninsula is essentially a commercial wasteland btwn SF and PaloAlto
Actually, H is sought-after as an upscale rental town by many young families who work in SF FinDt and/or SV (and find SF's PacHts or Woodside/Atherton too costly)
Easy drive anywhere esp along 280 corridor
Safe public elem schools as H is an Eastern-feel suburb, not unlike Scarsdale or Bethesda, with lots of professionals and small business owners; by middle or HS forced to pay for pvt schools as IIRC H shares post-elem schools w/various slums along Peninsula
One of best grocery stores in US, Draegers, is in nearby SanMateo (many food-oriented people who live in SF drive to Draegers in either SM or MenloPk to find a decent grocery store which SF lacks)
Would run other errands in PaloAlto/MenloPk area which is very convenient to H along 280...Peninsula is essentially a commercial wasteland btwn SF and PaloAlto
"H?" Really? H? Man, you've hit a new low with your wannabe pretentious made-up abreviations.
Yana - Please pay no mind to anything this poster has to say. He/she/it has been a nuisance on this forum who posts the same crap repeatedly, that is only consistent in being wrong about 70% of the time. He's nothing more than an aspiring pseudo-elitist whose mantra is that the only sections of the Earth that matter at all are Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, Greenwich and bits and pieces of Manhattan, SF's Pacific Heights, and parts of West LA. It gets extremely old, and his info is very rarely helpful in any way. So please be advised to disregard his nonsense.
As for the reality, Hillsborough is an extremely wealthy community that shares its lone zip code with Burlingame. I'm not aware of any rentals there at all (maybe right along the border with Burlingame), but its residents primarily utilize Burlingame for walking/shopping, and to a lesser degree San Mateo (depending on which end of Hillsborough they live on). There are no "slums" that Hillsborough shares anything with, as the ignoramus above referred to.
Hillsborough is a gem that is unatainable for most people, located in arguably the most desireable section of the SF Bay Area. If you want to see a commercial wasteland take a drive down to the cookie cutter uber-suburbia in Silicon Valley!
As far as your inquiries into the area go, I'd recommend Burlingame above Millbrae. The weather tends to be slightly warmer/less windy and the neighborhoods are much more walkable. The downtown section centered around Burlingame Avenue is very convenient and walkable, and so is its second "mini downtown" along Broadway.
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As far as your inquiries into the area go, I'd recommend Burlingame above Millbrae. The weather tends to be slightly warmer/less windy and the neighborhoods are much more walkable. The downtown section centered around Burlingame Avenue is very convenient and walkable, and so is its second "mini downtown" along Broadway.
Thanks for all the thoughts - this is very helpful! We liked Burlingame most so far from what we have seen (but admittedly we have seen very few towns on the Peninsula), especially the flats area and not in the hills, as we are used to the urban feel of life in Washington DC and walking everywhere. We are having a really difficult time finding a rental there, however, - there are so few options and out of those they fly away in a day or are too small for us. So we are trying to expand the search to the neighboring areas, hence Millbrae, Hillsborough, San Mateo, etc. searches and queries on the forum. We don't know any of those areas at all so all these opinions are very useful.
There are only a couple of options in Hillsborough for rent that were "somewhat" in our price range - I think they've been on the market for a while and the price has been dropped. It would be nice to take advantage of the market and rent something nice for less money that it would have costed otherwise but from everything I see and read Hillsborough is very sleepy/not walkable and hilly and that would be an issue for us. So I am hoping we can end up in our preferred location . Otherwise, we are very excited about the move to CA and thanks again for the opinions!
There are only a couple of options in Hillsborough for rent that were "somewhat" in our price range - I think they've been on the market for a while and the price has been dropped. It would be nice to take advantage of the market and rent something nice for less money that it would have costed otherwise but from everything I see and read Hillsborough is very sleepy/not walkable and hilly and that would be an issue for us. So I am hoping we can end up in our preferred location . Otherwise, we are very excited about the move to CA and thanks again for the opinions!
There are flat areas in Hillsborough (with sidewalks), but quickly the roads start winding up into the hills and some of the streets up there don't have sidewalks. Absolutely not a place to walk !
You mentioned Mills Estate. I Just want to comment that some of the homes in Mills Estate have a Millbrae address and some have a Burlingame address, so take that into account (for school selection, etc).
Either way, all the areas you're considering are very nice .
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. Otherwise, we are very excited about the move to CA
