Hillsborough or Burlingame? (San Mateo, Foster City, Spring Valley: real estate, foreclosure, apartments)

[saimamom]

My husband, kids and I just moved to the Peninsula area (Millbrae rental) in July. We're saving to buy a house in 10-12 months. So far, we like areas of Burlingame, especially Easton Addition. But the lot sizes are pretty small. So we think Hillsborough may be a possibility. However, Hillsborough just seems so residential and obsessed with schools. I'm not necessarily a soccer mom. I'm more artsy and having lived in NYC for years, I still crave culture and activity, shops, life. And Hillsborough doesn't seem to offer that.

I'm also not sure I'll 'fit in' in Hillsborough. I just came from a party in a Hillsborough, multi-million dollar home and met a few people I have nothing in common with. Please tell me people are more diverse down there?! It seems like a good investment to buy there because it's a buyer's market. We consider buying something under 2 million (there are a couple places) and then fixing it up over time. How realistic is that?

[gizmo980]

I grew up between Hillsborough (where I went to school) and Burlingame, in San Mateo Park... and unfortunately, Hillsborough is everything you observed - no real diversity (aside from upper-class Caucasian & Asian), fairly snobby, and chock-full of soccer moms! It's a beautiful town, and I certainly wouldn't complain about having a home there; but if you're looking for something with more diversity & down-to-earth people, Hillsborough is probably not the place. And considering the outrageous prices there, you really would get a "fixer-upper" for $2M.

As for Burlingame, it's a really cute little town, and definitely has more of a neighborly feel to it. The prices are still very high, but not QUITE as bad as Hillsborough, and they have a really cute downtown on Burlingame Ave. - unlike Hillsborough, which doesn't have one single commercial business (it's actually an ordinance). My only issue with Burlingame is the extreme yuppiness that's taken over. I grew up around yuppies, including most of my family, so that's not necessarily a BAD thing... but it's changed the town a bit, and turned Burlingame Ave. from charming to "chic." And considering you mentioned not being a "soccer mom," this might be annoying to you after a while. It really is a nice place to live and raise children, though, so I would still highly recommend it.

[gizmo980]

P.S. Hillsborough only has private schools, aside from Crocker Elementary... so if your kids are going to public, they'll be assigned to either a San Mateo or Burlingame school (depending on your exact location, I believe). They have good schools like Aragon and Burlingame High, Burlingame Intermediate, etc.

[sonarrat]

Here's the thing about Hillsborough: there are no townhouses, no apartments, and if you want to build a new home there, it is required to be a 2500 square foot single-family home on a half-acre lot. (Anything smaller than that was grandfathered in.) We're talking arch-conservative, stuck-up, NIMBY hell. As an artistic type - stick with Burlingame.

[UrbanQuest]

Hillsborough to me is basically a large residential extension of Burlingame whom where so snobby they needed to be exclusive only to the super rich and not just merely rich, thus cutting themselves away.

[saimamom]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

P.S. Hillsborough only has private schools, aside from Crocker Elementary... so if your kids are going to public, they'll be assigned to either a San Mateo or Burlingame school (depending on your exact location, I believe). They have good schools like Aragon and Burlingame High, Burlingame Intermediate, etc.

I think Hillsborough has public elementary schools but not a highschool. Our daughter is in Kindergarten at Spring Valley right now. We also have a 2 and a half year old and a 2 month old. So school is definitely one of the things that attracts us to Hillsborough. Another thing is the lot size. If God blesses us, then in a year we can afford a 2 million home and remodel it slowly. But for about 1.6 million in Burlingame you can buy something that may not need any work. It's just insane that I'm writing these numbers for a home. I feel like such a dork. So many parts of the country are falling into foreclosure and here we're looking at million dollar tear downs. But that's what we have to deal with.

Some of you mentioned what I suspected, that there's a lack of diversity in Hillsborough. I'm used to snobs - we lived in the UES of NYC. But atleast there people had a creative blend of high and low culture. Designer clothes with a mohawk. One thing that's indearing so far is the small town quality that even Hillsborough people have. At the party I saw a double for Nancy Reagan and an old guy in leather pants, pink shirt and a cowboy hat. That made my day. There is a little quirkiness here. Like people who are living in a bubble.

[Peninsula gal]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

P.S. Hillsborough only has private schools, aside from Crocker Elementary... so if your kids are going to public, they'll be assigned to either a San Mateo or Burlingame school (depending on your exact location, I believe). They have good schools like Aragon and Burlingame High, Burlingame Intermediate, etc.

Wrong, wrong, wrong Gizmo980. Hillsborough has 3 public elementary schools; South, West and North school plus Crocker Intermediate. There is no public high school there and the kids can choose between any of the San Mateo Union High School District schools; San Mateo, Burlingame, Aragon plus the others, but those are the usual high schools for them.

Now, if you want a little more diversity consider San Mateo and Baywood, Aragon or those areas near to it. San Mateo is not quite so yuppiefied as Burlingame, the lots a bigger than Easton Edition (where they are all 6000 sq. foot lots) and it is a larger city. Burlingame has fine schools but the population is very upscale. If you want more info go to my blog, Home Page - San Mateo Real Estate - Foster City Real Estate - San Mateo Homes - Burlingame Real Estate.

[linjoe]

[quote=saimamom;1795111]My husband, kids and I just moved to the Peninsula area (Millbrae rental) in July. We're saving to buy a house in 10-12 months. So far, we like areas of Burlingame, especially Easton Addition. But the lot sizes are pretty small.

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[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by Peninsula gal

Wrong, wrong, wrong Gizmo980. Hillsborough has 3 public elementary schools; South, West and North school plus Crocker Intermediate. There is no public high school there and the kids can choose between any of the San Mateo Union High School District schools; San Mateo, Burlingame, Aragon plus the others, but those are the usual high schools for them.

Isn't that what I said?? I said there was a public elementary school (Crocker & I thought there might be another 1 or 2), but no public high schools... obviously you and the OP misunderstood me!

[saimamom]

Crocker is a Middle school.