Pleasanton or Saratoga? (San Jose, Fremont, Sunnyvale: rental, townhomes, neighborhoods)

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by GoldyViolet

The commute between Pleasanton & Silicon Valley is TERRIBLE. For that alone I couldn't live there although it is beautiful. My vote is for Saratoga/Los Gatos. Best of luck to you and yours!

Pleasanton is a great place. I love it there. but, every time I ponder living out there there are three little numbers that keep me away: 6, 8, and 0.

[HDL]

I've lived in both areas and am currently residing in Los Altos Hills. Both Saratoga and Pleasanton (including the surrounding cities of Dublin, Livermore, San Ramon and Danville) are very nice and I could live in either city dependant upon where I worked. I find the latter (Tri Valley area) to have much newer homes and shopping and more Caucasians than say Cupertino/Saratoga/Los Gatos which seems to have more Asians than the Tri Valley area. That's not good or bad, just my personal observation having lived recently in both these areas.

Because I grew up and went to school in the Saratoga area, it's home to me and I know my way around and feel comfortable in the Cupertino/Saratoga/Los Gatos area, as well as having some friends and family here. Since I have no idea of your budget, I can only say that under $1.9M will get you more home and newer in Pleasanton than in Saratoga. But because of everything I know, I would go with Saratoga/Monte Sereno/Cupertino/Los Gatos/Los Altos areas for the quality of life and the resale values, as long as I had the money and a secure job in the South Bay area.

For me, the South Bay has so many more advantages as far as things to do and places to go to enjoy yourself than the Pleasanton area. Whether these types of places are things your family would enjoy is difficult to say for what little information you've given.

Originally Posted by bzmomofthree

Hello. My husband will be transferring to Sunnyvale office so we are looking around to buy a house around that area.
Since we have pre-K, G4 and G6 kids, we would love to move to Palo Alto or Los Altos area. However, our budget would be below $1.9 mil so it is pretty hard to get a 4 bdrm/2-3 bathroom house.

In which case, we would need to go out further and right now, we are looking at Pleasanton (my husband's colleagues strongly recommends it) and Saratoga(I would prefer to stay here than way~ out there).
Cupertino doesn't seem so diverse and I don't want my kids to be overloaded with school work and Mountain View and Sunnyvale school district doesn't seem as nice.

What do you think? My husband has no problem with commuting since he can go to office anytime and he mostly works at home anyway. But I am a SAHM and would like to meet some friends, play tennis, go to a shopping mall, take my youngest to the park... My kids love sports so I hope the neighborhood has good after-school sports activities.
Which would be a better choice - Pleasanton or Saratoga? My husband visited Pleasanton and said it's beautiful there, but we have no idea about Saratoga.
Could you also help us find which areas of either Pleasanton or Saratoga to avoid (safety/ investment/ noisy..)??

I would appreciate any feedback. Thank you!

Originally Posted by bzmomofthree

>>Thank you OrangeSunset for your input. You have a good point there about Silicon Valley not having many SAHM. I visited a playground there once and saw so many Chinese nannies!

However, about Pleasanton, do you know if I will be able to get diverse grocery items there such as Thai/ Chinese/ Korean/ Mexican food ingredients? Or do I have to drive to other towns?
And I guess in the U.S., 30-min drive is not so far(I am a Korean who lives in Taipei currently) so I can probably visit my friends in the Silicon Valley during weekends...

Are you sure that the woman you saw at the playgrounds were nannies??? Because there are alot of Chinese in that area and I've seen them at the parks with their children. I could be wrong, but I think that you might be mistaken. One or two nannies maybe, but I'm pretty sure there are other SAHM's at the parks.

Originally Posted by bzmomofthree

>>Thank you for so many great sites to look at!
My husband did say that Ruby Hill looked great. But at the moment, not many houses on sale with our budget. If not Ruby Hill, can you recommend any other area in Pleasanton? One post mentioned to stay away from the "Valley" area but not sure what that means...

Ruby Hill is kind of isolated in my opinion. Not sure what the big deal is about it unless you work up that way. It certainly wouldn't be on my short list, but that's me. I'd pass it all the time heading back and forth to the south bay from Livermore.

Here are a few homes under $1.9M that I feel are in good areas of Saratoga :

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Saratoga/20749-Saint-Joan-Ct-95070/home/886699

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Saratoga/12003-Brookglen-Dr-95070/home/800207

and this one that is just under $2M -

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Saratoga/18645-Allendale-Ave-95070/home/1076228?utm_source=myredfin&utm_content=home_image &utm_campaign=listings_update&utm_medium=email

Good luck with your move !

[HDL]

Two more homes under $1.9M in nice areas of Saratoga :

20660 CARNIEL Ave, Saratoga, CA 95070 | MLS# 81307554 | Redfin

14165 VICTOR Pl, Saratoga, CA 95070 | MLS# 81307568 | Redfin

[bzmomofthree]

Thank you for the info!
Will definitely check out that neighborhood.

[HDL]

I would also say this, there are quite a few good areas to live in the South Bay/Peninsula dependant upon your family's needs and finances. I would also suggest the city of Los Gatos staying closer to Hwy 17/880 and downtown Los Gatos than further out Blossom Hill or up in the Santa Cruz mountains (past Lexington).

Here are a few homes for reference (two recent solds and one currently for sale, all in good areas imho) :

115 MADERA Ct, Los Gatos, CA 95032 | MLS# 81235016 | Redfin
125 EL PINAR, Los Gatos, CA 95032 | MLS# 81238595 | Redfin
110 MILL Rd, Los Gatos, CA 95032 | MLS# 81308503 | Redfin

Originally Posted by bzmomofthree

Thank you for the info!
Will definitely check out that neighborhood.

[Wintermomma]

I would say to rent wherever you are considering first, if you can. Once you live somewhere you really get a feel for it. Plus with schooling being so important, and so many districts it is important where you live down to the street - what if you decide you cannot live with the school and then you've got to sell a house and probably everyone else already knows it's not a good district and you're stuck?

Just speaking from relocation-experience, not school but I know when we were househunting to buy - oh my the difference in the "hot" districts. We got a good deal in a really nice area on a really nice house where people don't want their kids to go to school; this wasn't an issue for us so it was good for us, but I think the sellers were a little bummed not to have a multiple-bidding situation like the other crappy houses on busy streets we saw in hotter districts, had.

As for traffic, in my experience if you think your husband may turn into a commuter - the 85 is horrible. So Saratoga to Sunnyvale would be bleak. I would also live on this side of the bay, over Pleasanton, if the chances are that most o f his industry is on this side b/c he made not stay at the company he's in forever, and need to return to working in the office. I wouldn't want to commute from Pleasanton to SV. My husband has employees who do and they spend a lot of commuting and that's on the train.

if I had 1.9 million I'd go for Mountain View. I know you won't get a mansion for that there, but you can get a respectable home; or the very west end of Sunnyvale. Isn't the Mountain View/Los Altos School district supposed to be good?

[HDL]

If a poster asks me whether or not they should rent or buy, then gives me some helpful background information to consider what might be best for their particular situation and gives a price range for buying and/or renting, 9 times out of 10 I'd probably tell them that they would do better renting first till they know the area that they're moving to better and they know whether or not they plan on staying in that city or state.

But with SV's current rental situation, if someone can comfortably afford ~$1M plus and they don't wish to be moving for several years, I say shop wisely for areas in the South Bay/Peninsula that are highly likely to sell rather quickly (like Saratoga under $1.9M). And make sure to get a mortgage that would be covered by current rental rates if they ever needed to convert their home to a rental, which should be fairly easy to do here in SV with such high demand for rental homes, low interest rates and the buyer(s) putting 20%+ down. Many desirable homes / neighborhoods here have monthly rental rates of $5K+, which makes renting in SV a very tough decision for many .

I too would check out parts of Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Of course I would also add Campbell, Redwood City, Menlo Park.....oh my . There really are quite a few cities I would look at and not rule out if I were looking to buy or rent right now, depending on the available inventory, my timetable and of course MY own personal finances .

Posters definitely need to do their own due diligence before buying and know what their comfort level is!

p.s.
Here is another Los Gatos home that just came on the market that I would go see if I was "shopping" for a home right now and didn't need a turnkey home. It appears to be a long time owner with possibly tenants living there or family looking to rent back. I like the area and the price, but I'm pretty certain that it will need alot of updating on the inside. I expect it to sell very quickly.

170 RINCONADA OAKS Ct, Los Gatos, CA 95032 | MLS# 81308612 | Redfin

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

The OP listed a budget of under $1.9M so they can afford Saratoga, I used to work in Sunnyvale, near Yahoo!, and the traffic from there going in all directions is pretty bad in the afternoon. I knew people that lived in Pleasanton, and they said their commute was about 1hr each way, if the office is further south in Sunnyvale the commute will be even longer, I don't know how much the OP values their time but that is adding 10Hrs outside the home every week without anything to show for it, either the family life would take a hit or their career advancement would take a hit. So I would certainly pause before I suggest places over the hills so to speak.

I can't speak for the particular towns, but the commute to Sunnyvale from Saratoga will be 20-30 minutes depending on where in Sunnyvale you're talking about, Pleasanton will probably be about 1hr.

Is the Mission San Jose area of Fremont completely off the list, I had a coworker move there, from another part of Fremont when I worked in Sunnyvale, and he really seemed to like the area.

Either way it doesn't sound like you're familiar at all with the area, are you sure you want to buy something so quickly without first exploring the place?

The OP said that commuting was not a problem because her husband worked mainly from home and did not need to drive during commute time.

[JohnSoCal]

We lived in Los Gatos, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, San Jose, and Livermore. Personally, I would choose Pleasanton but it depends on what you value the most. Saratoga and Los Gatos are good places but we prefer Pleasanton because you get more house for the dollar, more family oriented, and more relaxing. I really liked having the Bart station as we used to go to the SF Giants games in the city.

I thought Ruby Hill was in Livermore but it says Pleasanton. I think it straddles both cities.

[never-more]

Last time I was in Tri-Valley I noticed that there seemed to be a lot more Hispanics and Blacks but no thugs at all Middle to upper middle class people just doing their thing. Back in the West Valley I saw mostly the usual Asians and Whites. I would say Tri-Valley is a bit more diversity and integration wise. Some don't care and others do but that's ok.