Better city... Danville or Pleasanton (San Jose, Santa Clara: real estate, first time home buyer, buying)

[san77]

Hi everyone,
I am seriously considering buying a home in either Danville or Pleasanton. I am a first time home buyer and am looking in particular for these 3 things -
1. Property value appreciation.
2. School district.
3. Accessibility to SFO.
Can someone please advise? Thank you!!

[humboldtrat]

Both Danville and Pleasanton are affluent middle to upper middle class suburban type towns (along with Dublin and San Ramon). Driving in these two towns, you wouldn't notice any difference between them. I would guess property values would be about the same in these two towns. There is a Dublin/Pleasanton BART station BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit District which crosses the bay and goes to SFO airport. The SFO BART station is within the airport itself. I don't know a thing about the schools.

[san77]

Originally Posted by humboldtrat

Both Danville and Pleasanton are affluent middle to upper middle class suburban type towns (along with Dublin and San Ramon). Driving in these two towns, you wouldn't notice any difference between them. I would guess property values would be about the same in these two towns. There is a Dublin/Pleasanton BART station BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit District which crosses the bay and goes to SFO airport. The SFO BART station is within the airport itself. I don't know a thing about the schools.

THanks for your response! Danville appears to be a lot more upscale thanks to the neighboring Black Hawk community. From what I hear, schools are better too in Danville (part of the San Ramon school district). It is the commute to San Jose/ Santa Clara that can really kill you. I'll do more research to find out which one has a better chance for property appreciation. Thanks again...

[wilkermoo]

In my opinion Danville and Pleasanton property appreciation would be about the same, they are very close to each other. I currently work for a real estate office in Pleasanton ( i am not a realtor) and I watch the market in this area a lot. Both cities are considered to be very desirable area's to live. Pleasanton is known for its good schools. I worked in the Blackhawk area for almost 5 years and thought that area to be a little too pretentious. Blackhawk is all about status. If you are interested in that then you might like the Blackhawk area of Danville. The rest of Danville has a nice feel to it. The town is very nice, people are nice and take good care of their homes. If I were to choose between the two areas I would choose Danville.

Both area's are accessible to SFO, but Pleasanton has the BART station and you could take the train into S.F.

If you have any questions about either town I can get information about both for you. If you end up needing a Realtor and you do not already have one I do know many excellent Realtors.

[usafamily]

DANVILLE DANVILLE DANVILLE! its got it all!

[18Montclair]

1. Property value appreciation.-Danville
2. School district.-Not Sure
3. Accessibility to SFO-Definitely Pleasanton as they have a BART station.

[gobruins]

I will only speak for the schools..... PLEASANTON! The school district in Pleasanton is top notch. San Ramon Valley Unified is good (Danville, Alamo, San Ramon), but Pleasanton (I believe) is better.

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by san77

Hi everyone,
I am seriously considering buying a home in either Danville or Pleasanton. I am a first time home buyer and am looking in particular for these 3 things -
1. Property value appreciation.
2. School district.
3. Accessibility to SFO.
Can someone please advise? Thank you!!

Property value probably a tie
Schools probably a tie with slight advantage to Danville.

AS long as you don't mean Blackhawk which is generic minimansions and cookie cutter boring.

Look to live near downtown area's. Very cutesy in both towns.

Pleasanton is closer to SFO via 580. Unless you took Crow Canyon Rd., your commute to SFO from Danville would go through Pleasanton.
Ptown has BART which goes straight to SFO.