Seattle to San Jose - Questions (San Francisco, Fremont: real estate, apartment, rentals)

[Yogimom]

Hey everyone!

We're a family of 4: myself (SAHM), hubby (software engineer currently at a very well known company), daughter (12), and son (almost 2). Plus, we have 2 doggies, a german shephard and a yorkie poodle mix.

Hubs has a proposition for a job in Sunnyvale for a Sr. Software Engineer. We currently live in a pretty affluent, family friendly, area of Seattle. I'm wondering a few things:

1). We'll be renting to start. We currently have a 4bdrm 3ba house-$3000/mo. We HAVE to have something comparable in size w/in a decent commute time to hubs' office (20 mins max). What areas are we looking at? Are they comparably priced? Do they even exist?

2.) Schools - daughter is currently in 7th grade, so an excellent school district is a MUST. Our son is supposed to start a Montessori school next summer, so any info on those would be helpful.

3.) I'm noticing not many rentals on Zillow. Is this something to be concerned about? Also, here is Seattle, dogs are considered children, so they would need to be accepted wherever we land, but I'm noticing only small dogs and cats are popular in the accepted "pets" category.

Any info is helpful and appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[ccm123]

I think in the areas close to Sunnyvale, 3K a month for a 4 bedroom rental would be tough to find. You could try Fremont (the southern side, zip 94539) which has good schools. It would be a 30-60 minute commute in traffic to Sunnyvale though.

[cardinal2007]

Originally Posted by ccm123

I think in the areas close to Sunnyvale, 3K a month for a 4 bedroom rental would be tough to find. You could try Fremont (the southern side, zip 94539) which has good schools. It would be a 30-60 minute commute in traffic to Sunnyvale though.

I would agree with this, 4bd is tough to do, since you're only a family of 4, can you do 3bd? Or be willing to pay more? For the most part software engineering jobs here don't pay enough for a family of 4 to live affluently unless both parents are working. I would say though, some software engineers are able to get up to 200k/yr, but that is the exception, and they usually have the title "Software Architect". I would also suggest looking at Craigslist for rentals, as craigslist seems to be the service everyone uses down here for almost anything (being that the company is from San Francisco I'm not surprised), other sites that are popular in other parts of the country seem not to get as much traction here.

[StandingRoomOnly]

If you want an excellent school for your daughter and close commute for DH under $3000, your expectations will have to be cut quite dramatically. Are you willing to give up space? Think 3 bedroom townhome.

I live in Morgan Hill, and our 4 bed/3 bath rentals are going for $3000 a month (very family friendly, clean and safe). It will be a +/- 1 hour commute though from here to Sunnyvale depending on what time your husband commutes into and out of work (if not carpooling). I have a neighbor commuting into North San Jose/Sunnyvale and took him 35 min on a motorcycle, but recently gave it up for a car. I'm sure you can find willing commuters to carpool with too cut cut down on time. Without traffic I can get into Sunnyvale in 30 minutes.

[smgmcse]

As you can see you don't get much for $3500 here. I've also included a school ranking map of the schools in the bay area. The area's that are dotted with green have the best schools. It's not surprising that these areas have ultra high real estate prices with the upper echelon of income earners. Also, just because a neighborhood is expensive here doesn't imply that it looks that way. There are plenty of million dollar homes with 1300 sq. ft. built in the 1960's with few upgrades. Let me know if you have any further questions.

4br- 2.5bath Cupertino School

School Rankings for the San Francisco South Bay Area, California

[ccm123]

Basically, you will likely need to:

1/ look for a smaller place (you should be able to rent a 3 bedroom for 3K)
2/ increase your budget
3/ move further away (and deal with a commute)
4/ look for an area that doesn't have as good schools (in this case, you will have other tradeoffs, such as safety, etc)

[easybay]

Also, here is Seattle, dogs are considered children, so they would need to be accepted wherever we land, but I'm noticing only small dogs and cats are popular in the accepted "pets" category.

Dogs are not considered children here....you are going to have a really TOUGH time renting here with a dog - big or small. The rental market here was insane when we moved - dogless - 2 years ago, it's only gotten worse. Your best chance of getting a rental that accepts dogs is to post a "house wanted" ad on Craigslist, and be prepared to offer the landlord DOUBLE - yes DOUBLE the security deposit, to entice the landlord to rent to you, and get a resume for youself as a dog owner/renter. Pictures of your home, and references, proving you are a responsible dog owner. Best of luck to you - you will really need it here!

[mysticaltyger]

I think all of the posts here were good and I don't think anyone was exaggerating how tough the housing situation here is. It's very brutal. Often, the higher pay does not make up for the higher cost of living here.

[Yogimom]

Thanks everyone for the replies! I knew is was going to be difficult to give up our "luxuries" of Seattle living. Hubs has an interview on Tuesday, so we'll see what the compensation package is and go from there.

[EvilCookie]

yea...we moved down to Sunnyvale a year ago and are actually planning to relocate to Seattle by the time our son is school-age for these very reasons. We're paying $2500 for a 2 br apartment that's in a very nice complex - but I would not send my son to school here, they're somewhat ghetto even though the area is supposed to be decent. The good areas to live are Los Altos, Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Cupertino - but in most of those you would be paying $4-5K for a 3 br.