family of 5 moving to San Jose, with lots of questions (San Francisco: renter, day care)

[sesa70]

Hello everyone!

We are from the midwest, and are hoping to relocate to San Jose in the very near future. I have some questions about places to live and income though... what would you say is a comfortable but not extravagant income for a family that has 3 children and one working parent?

What are some family friendly neighbourhoods that are also affordable? Thanks in advance!

[mstnghu2]

"Comfortable" can be subjective. For my wife and I it means at least $115k/year to be able to afford our expenses (we are pretty frugal and have minimal bills and are able to put some $$ aside each month).

Unfortunately most family-friendly neighborhoods (well-maintained/pride-of-ownership, safe, good schools, etc.) are only affordable to us by renting a house and not owning. We plan to leave the Bay Area once we are ready to purchase a house. We currently rent in a neighborhood that we could never afford to own a house in.

I don't mean to be negative, but it's reality. Anybody who says that my budget is too high doesn't have kids or has a really low standard of living. This is coming from somebody who has lived in the Bay Area his entire life and wouldn't plan to leave for any other reason other than the cost of living and if money were no object would stay here.

[sesa70]

Thank you.

From what we have been able to tell long distance (we are in the Chicago area) most places that you can afford to buy a school have pretty crappy schools, and the areas with consistently better schools we would have no hope of buying in, ever.

We had hoped to rent for about a year to get a feel for the area, and then buy. The problem is that most homes are at least double what ours here is! Along with the three kids we have two dogs and a cat.... and it seems not to be a very renter friendly culture either.

One thing we talked about was sending our kids to private school and living somewhere a bit further out. Morgan Hill was one possibility. Unfortunately they have wait lists for their public elementary schools (the two that have higher ratings) and the charter has something like 7 year wait!

Anyway, I am not sure how larger families do it. My husband is trying to decide if he should take a job offer, and the biggest hurdles are where to live and how to handle school for the kids

[80skeys]

I would say a comfortable income for two adults (no kids) would be $85k. I don't have kids so I don't know how much those little people cost.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

I would say a comfortable income for two adults (no kids) would be $85k. I don't have kids so I don't know how much those little people cost.

Day Care alone for my wife and I is costing $960/month for our baby and that's on the cheap end of childcare. Kids are very expensive!

[whitey black]

Originally Posted by sesa70

.... and it seems not to be a very renter friendly culture either.

I'm not sure about that - I would bet that the vast majority of folks around here are renters.

Maybe the 'unfriendly' vibe you are feeling is that you may not be seeing lot of bang for the buck/quality when looking at how much places are renting for per month versus how nice the property actually is. It took us 3 years (while living in so-so places) and a lot of craigslist stalking to finally score an excellent deal on a rental in a good neighborhood....

Are there other reasons for relocating? Yes, we have good weather here, but I would bet Chicago is a better city to actually live in or around (I've only visited, but...). Make sure you weigh all the factors before considering relocating (salary, schools, commute, quality of life, etc.) I'm not trying to discourage here, but sometimes living here can be a struggle. Good luck anyways.

[sesa70]

Originally Posted by whitey black

I'm not sure about that - I would bet that the vast majority of folks around here are renters.

Maybe the 'unfriendly' vibe you are feeling is that you may not be seeing lot of bang for the buck/quality when looking at how much places are renting for per month versus how nice the property actually is. It took us 3 years (while living in so-so places) and a lot of craigslist stalking to finally score an excellent deal on a rental in a good neighborhood....

Are there other reasons for relocating? Yes, we have good weather here, but I would bet Chicago is a better city to actually live in or around (I've only visited, but...). Make sure you weigh all the factors before considering relocating (salary, schools, commute, quality of life, etc.) I'm not trying to discourage here, but sometimes living here can be a struggle. Good luck anyways.

The main reason for relocating is work... my husband has an offer at basically his dream job so that is huge. The weather doesn't hurt either The cost of living thing is really throwing me off... it is huge! I don't dislike the Chicago area, in fact I love it here. I am not a huge fan of the gloomy winters, but I survive them and actually like the snow. We love Chicago's downtown too.

The reason I felt it wasn't a very renter friendly culture is that most people I called or emailed with homes for rent never called back, and most owners do not seem to like dogs and cats. I had never heard of a pet resume until looking into relocating to San Jose!

[mayorhaggar]

Well if they are giving him an offer they must have given a dollar amount. I don't know what your standards are but you'd probably want to have at least 100k a year to rent a nice house in a good area with good schools. The Bay Area isn't really like Chicago where you can move out of the city and move to a suburb with affordable houses and good schools--housing here is expensive pretty much anywhere especially near Silicon Valley and especially in towns with good schools. Areas here that would be considered "middle class" in pretty much any other state often have pretty terrible schools. That said, depending on your budget you might be able to rent in an area with good schools. You might never be able to buy a house but that is pretty normal here.

I'd say it's "renter-friendly" due to the fact that pretty much everyone who moves here has to rent, so people don't look down on it here. People who have lived here 20-30 years bought their homes back when it was cheap, so the home ownership rates seem high despite the fact that newcomers are almost all priced out. But there is a rental squeeze going on because the tech industry is having a boom again (which is probably what created this potential job for your husband) and so it's going to be hard to contact people about homes because they are overwhelmed with replies. I have never looked at housing in the San Jose area but I imagine that you will need to be here on the ground and be looking at places rather than calling people up and asking about something you expect to look at several weeks from now, you have to move quick to take a rental you want. And landlords can afford to be picky so they will ban pets if they feel like it, it's almost impossible to find a landlord in San Francisco who allows even a small pet, I dunno what San Jose is generally like for that.

[Radical347]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

And landlords can afford to be picky so they will ban pets if they feel like it, it's almost impossible to find a landlord in San Francisco who allows even a small pet, I dunno what San Jose is generally like for that.

Easier, but not by much.

[easybay]

The reason I felt it wasn't a very renter friendly culture is that most people I called or emailed with homes for rent never called back, and most owners do not seem to like dogs and cats. I had never heard of a pet resume until looking into relocating to San Jose!

You can assume that the home owners never called back because their homes are already rented. From my brief experience looking for a home to rent last summer, homes rent generally over the course of a weekend. Landlords generally wait for their tenants to vacate, and then list the clean home for immediate occupancy. And you are correct that the home owners do not want animals in their houses. San Jose is a CRAZY rental market, with the home owners being able to dictate who they want living in their homes, and for incredibly high prices, because they can. Why would you rent to a family with a dog or cat when there are 20 other potential renters who don't have animals that are willing to rent from you?

When we rented our townhome, we had to pay our landlord 2 months rent as our deposit. Once again this was a screening method for our landlord. So we paid $2800/month for a 1650 sq ft townhome in the Westgate area of San Jose (good local school). We are Non-smokers and had no pets. We had to have 2 months security deposit + first months rent - so $8400 for move in. We bought last April and moved out early, breaking our lease. Our landlord was really great about our breaking the lease and moving out early with no penalties BECAUSE - I kept our house immaculate and I showed the home to 2 potential renters (the second wanted the home), AND she was able to rerent the property for $3000 per month to her new tenants. Welcome to San Jose!