Pleasanton or Saratoga? (San Jose, Sunnyvale, Livermore: real estate, house, transferring to)

[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!

[aslowdodge]

I don't believe there is a bad area in either city. Honestly I don't know a lot about Saratoga but have visited there often over the past 30 years. I do know Pleasanton. I think at what you listed, Pleasanton would be great. Plenty of sports leagues, lots of public parks with swimming and tennis courts. There are always big swim meets at the public pools and lot's of soccer tournaments.

While both have a downtown, I don't seem to notice as much activity in Saratoga as Pleasanton. In Pleasanton I often see many kids and families meeting up while dining, shopping, etc. I don't think they plan it as much as they run across each other. It seems to be a gathering spot-almost like a small quaint town would have where many people know each other. I have never seen this in downtown Saratoga.
Schools are good in both cities. The only noise I hear is when you live next to the freeway but at your price point I don't think you'll wind up with a house near there. Hope this helps.

[beeneverywhere]

I think the biggest thing with Pleasanton is you will only be working in Silicon Valley and not living there. When you live in Pleasanton I think you will tend to stay there. It's very far away and isolated from what I feel is the real bay area. We have friends there and have visited many times. It has a great downtown and many beautiful newer homes etc. But we enjoy the real silicon valley and its diversity more with our 3yo. In Saratoga you are 20 minutes from many great boutique and charming downtown's and many many more activities. You could head up to SF in under an hour or down to Santa Cruz beach in 45min, Monterey in just over an hour. You can add almost an hour travel time from Pleasanton to these same places.

You are in a price range to get a great home in either place plus many others. If possible take your time and spend several weekends in these places. Also take a day and drive to and from during rush our... I would also add Los Gatos and maybe Willow Glen and head north to the Penninsula towns. Not sure where you are coming from, but having lived many places in the U.S. you just can't beat the bay area; seek carefully. Regardless I'm sure you will love it.

[easybay]

I have only driven through Pleasanton, so I won't give you an opinion for that....but if you are in the 1.9 mil price range, I would suggest adding Los Gatos to your list. I agree with beeneverywhere - that Saratoga and Los Gatos border San Jose - so you will have better access to more Bay area stuff. Also, if you need access to an airport (we travel a lot) I would rather be closer to SJC and SFO.

I would live in either Saratoga or Los Gatos in a heart beat - only my DH refuses to commute. Both have walking town centers - although Saratoga is much smaller. Los Gatos is probably more what you are looking for with family centered activities.

[roadwarrior101]

I would definitely say that with $1.9M to consider Saratoga or another one of the nicer west valley cities over Pleasanton. The one exception would be if your work was in the tri-valley area, but most people commute to the Silicon Valley, due to the plethora of jobs there. The commute itself is pretty awful and quite honestly, the west valley is just nicer than the tri-valley area, even if you can get more for your money in Pleasanton.

[easybay]

Also - if you aren't here permanently, it's MUCH easier to resell house in Saratoga or Los Gatos than it is in Pleasanton.

[ccm123]

I would pick Pleasanton. Both are great areas and the real estate values should hold up well and appreciate over time. These are high demand neighborhoods. For me, having access to BART is important and Pleasanton has two BART stations.

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by beeneverywhere

I think the biggest thing with Pleasanton is you will only be working in Silicon Valley and not living there. When you live in Pleasanton I think you will tend to stay there. It's very far away and isolated from what I feel is the real bay area. We have friends there and have visited many times. It has a great downtown and many beautiful newer homes etc. But we enjoy the real silicon valley and its diversity more with our 3yo. In Saratoga you are 20 minutes from many great boutique and charming downtown's and many many more activities. You could head up to SF in under an hour or down to Santa Cruz beach in 45min, Monterey in just over an hour. You can add almost an hour travel time from Pleasanton to these same places.

You are in a price range to get a great home in either place plus many others. If possible take your time and spend several weekends in these places. Also take a day and drive to and from during rush our... I would also add Los Gatos and maybe Willow Glen and head north to the Penninsula towns. Not sure where you are coming from, but having lived many places in the U.S. you just can't beat the bay area; seek carefully. Regardless I'm sure you will love it.

I agree with the other location picks. I only picked between the 2 cities as that was what the op named.
I definitely like Los gatos and willow glen areas both over saratoga.
One thing is that you state in Saratoga you are 20 minutes away from great shopping and downtown. I go to San Jose 1-2 times a week from Pleasanton and it takes me 25 minutes, so it's really no farther. Also you can go to other areas from Pleasanton such as Livermore, Lafayette,Danville, and Walnut Creek-all with great downtowns.
Santa Cruz takes me one hour.
True some places are farther from Pleasanton, but other places are closer.
In any case at 1.9 Million I don't think they will wind up in a bad place.

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by beeneverywhere

I think the biggest thing with Pleasanton is you will only be working in Silicon Valley and not living there. When you live in Pleasanton I think you will tend to stay there. It's very far away and isolated from what I feel is the real bay area. We have friends there and have visited many times. It has a great downtown and many beautiful newer homes etc. But we enjoy the real silicon valley and its diversity more with our 3yo. In Saratoga you are 20 minutes from many great boutique and charming downtown's and many many more activities. You could head up to SF in under an hour or down to Santa Cruz beach in 45min, Monterey in just over an hour. You can add almost an hour travel time from Pleasanton to these same places.

You are in a price range to get a great home in either place plus many others. If possible take your time and spend several weekends in these places. Also take a day and drive to and from during rush our... I would also add Los Gatos and maybe Willow Glen and head north to the Penninsula towns. Not sure where you are coming from, but having lived many places in the U.S. you just can't beat the bay area; seek carefully. Regardless I'm sure you will love it.

Another good getaway from Saratoga is the Big Basin Redwoods. You also have the impressive concert series at the Mountain Winery right there and it is my favorite northern California concert venue (I have seen Chicago and Huey Lewis and the News perform there).

Summers are warm during the day in both places, but the evenings will be more comfortable in Saratoga...it cools off a little more there at night where as Pleasanton can still be hot on summer evenings. Pleasanton will be over 90 in the summer more often than Saratoga. There is a dryness and that parched yellow brown color to the hillsides of the outer East Bay in in the summer that is a little less prevalent in the Saratoga area as it is closer to the coast. Saratoga is also just a four mile drive from the equally charming town of Los Gatos down scenic Hwy 9.

Both are very nice towns, but I would give Saratoga the edge.

[bobby_guz_man]

You could head up to SF in under an hour or down to Santa Cruz beach in 45min, Monterey in just over an hour. You can add almost an hour travel time from Pleasanton to these same places.

C'mon guys. I know that it's fashionable to hate on San Jose in this forum, you know, the "San Jose" forum, but wouldn't it kill you to mention that OP can also head to SJ within 10 minutes, if not 5, depending on where she lives?

Does it kill any of you San Jose folks in here to boost your own city once in a while? The city of San Jose is practically made for SAHM, you know that, right? For that budget, OP and family can afford pretty much anywhere in the Bay Area, especially in the South Bay.

Or maybe I'm in the wrong forum and there are no San Jose folks in here, and this is actually the "Every Bay Area Cities Not Named San Jose" forum? If that's the case then I'll shut my mouth I'm sure the Forum Designer made a mistake with that San Jose title, which is often the only thing San Jose-related when looking at most of the threads here