East SJ mtns vs morgan hill vs coyote area (San Jose: house, neighborhood)

[girth]

hi all. landed a job in south san jose and we are looking to buy a house to hopefully spend the rest of our lives. we're mid and late 40's, no kids.

1) we want to own a horse again, (i think you need an acre per horse?)
2) at least an acre of usable (flat) land with a decent degree of privacy,
3) city/valley and/or mountain views,

all 3 criteria may be out of our price range, but would be very happy with any 2 if thats the case.

size, age, and condition of home is of lesser importance, because we're thinking we can add on later. our initial search has us looking at Morgan hill, (above tennant ave due to water contamination from a flare co. years ago?), An unincorporated area between MH and south SJ called the coyote valley, and the foothill mtns east of (alumrock, berryessa, evergreen up to around Mt Hamilton road, etc)


Morgan hill , in general seems to be very nice bedroom community, offering more bang for your buck. The coyote valley, although underdeveloped, is very private, horse friendly and decent mtn views. And although east SJ gets slammed a lot, we really like the foothill mountain areas from berryessa down to silvercreek for the awesome views, land and possible horses.

we'd like to stay at or below the million dollar range. Safety and traffic congestion would be our two most important social/environmental issues. we're looking to stay within about 20 minutes from the 101/85 split.

looking for opinions, thoughts, suggestions and alternatives. is there a reason anyone would avoid planting roots in any of these areas? any residents that can extoll the virtues of these areas? etc etc. we're in no particular hurry, but would like to get something b4 next april.

finally, securing land and building a home is an option too. is one municipality (san jose, Morgan hill and unincorporated Santa clara cty). easier or harder to work with (re; permits, fees, inspection, well water, rules and regs, etc), then the others?

sorry for the volume, but I hope i provided enough info for thoughtful replies. thanks in advance

[StandingRoomOnly]

If you work around the 101/85 crossing, MH is a great place to live. It takes my DH 15/20 min to work every morning, with very little traffic to contend with. MH will offer more of a small town community atmosphere than east SJ, IMO. We love it here. But I will also say we are a young family and MH is made up of a lot of families with kids. If you are planning on buying house/acreage around 1 mil, your neighborhood may consist of more empty nesters and couples with older kids... It will likely be harder to find similar couples like yourselves without kids.

[sonarrat]

In college, I commuted by car from Morgan Hill to San Jose, Bernal Road to get to the light-rail station and very rarely had any issues.. if anything, it was weekend getaway traffic on the way back. The areas with views (Edmundson, Thomas Grade, the uphill stretch of E. Dunne before Jackson Oaks) generally don't have the lot size for horses - the horse-friendly areas are generally in the flatlands around Monterey or around Hill Road.

[RebekahOwen]

I grew up in the foothills by west dunne - back when there were ranchettes and we all had horses on our property. We rode our horses downtown and over El Toro.
A few years ago, when Cisco was going go build a plant at Bailey, the asking prices of properties jumped but I think that area is a real bargain right now. You might also look closer to the Cinnabar as there is a stable or something there, horse trails and I think you can find properties still on the Williamson Act, which will help on taxes.
Lastly, I was looking at a property by the coyoteclays.com/
It's a flat area, close to freeways, and just off of Santa Teresa - which is easy access north or south. Besides, it's a pretty drive and it doesn't feel like you are so close to the city :-)