Places around Cupertino? (San Jose, Sunnyvale, Berkeley: apartment complexes, rentals, townhouse)

[rdecartus]

I will be moving to bay area from Boston to work at Apple (Cupertino) and looking for a one Bedroom apartment upto $1300-$1400 pm with minimum commute to Apple. My preference will be to minimum commute, safe neighborhood, affordability and managed apartment complexes (rather than houses). From reading a few posts on the this forum, my initial understanding is that Sunnyvale, San Jose, and Santa Clara will be good places to look for - any advice? Are there any specific property/apartment complexes I should look for in these areas?

I highly appreciate any help and information I can get folks!

[AA702]

I use to work at Apple in the 90's. This was pre Ipod. anyways, I would live in Cupertino, Sunnyvale, West San Jose or Mt. View. At 1400 per month for a 1 bedroom, you should have no problem. Of course nicer areas cost more. Try using craigslist.org for prices and pics.

[rdecartus]

Thanks for your reply. I am infact using housingmaps which has been a real help to identify rental house deals.

A general trend in rental pricing seems to be $1200 for 1BR rentals without swimming pool/gym amenties, and $1400 with amenities. So I guess it depends upon whether I need these amenities to shell out extra $2500 annually..

[AA702]

I moved out of that area in 2002 and rents were out of check. I guess after the .com bust, it dropped but its still creeping up. Back in the early 90s a nice 2 bedroom apt cost me $800. In 2002 it was 3000K for a 3 bedroom duplex. This was in the area of de anza blv and 85. Its a nice area, lots of different type of people (mostly asian in that area), good food, close to SF for those weekend adventures and good weather(this is what i miss). What are you going to be doing for Apple? Good company to work for BTW.

[rdecartus]

I will be joining as Analytics Manager in Direct Marketing and Internet Communications division (Marcom as they say).

I intend to join a part-time MBA program while working at Apple, and this has to be taken into consideration while deciding a place to stay. Anderson (UCLA) might be too far to drive over the weekends, but may be Haas (UCBerkeley)? Of course it might take a one good year or so to solidify these plans, but I still kind of want to plan it a bit ahead.

[Luke9686]

I live in Cupertino. Actually, I am moving out of state in January and my townhouse will be up for rent.

I pay $1350 for a two bedroom townhouse. It is in a nice area. In fact, the identical unit in the complex next to me is renting for around $1900. Cupertino is very expensive. I guess my landlord doesn't raise the rent much.

You may be able to take this place in January.

[rdecartus]

Do you have any pictures of your place? May be we can take this offline. My email is rdecartus at yahoo dot com

[RLangben]

Go to sunnyvale, it is cheaper and Just as nice as cupertino. A quick trip up 85 will get you right to work in around 10 minutes.