Moving to San Jose area, neighborhood suggestions please

[sezzam]

Originally Posted by SantaTeresaHills

Check out the Palm Valley apartments near the Kaiser Hospital in San Jose. We've visited friends that had a unit there and the apartments and grounds are very nice.

I had exactly this property in mind when I made my suggestion (but didn't want to pin it down to just one property).

IIRC, Palm Valley has three styles of apartments: monstrous multi-family style; 4-storey style; and 2-storey villa style. The entire property is maintained quite well.

[Wry_Martini]

Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man

Since your husband works in downtown, is he open to taking public transit?

If he is, then the light rail runs through downtown. It is not incredibly fast but generally does a decent job as long as the starting points and end points are close to the stations. In this case you would want to look for a place anywhere that has quick access to the stations.

You can go to Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to check up on the schedule and maps of the routes. The fee is currently $2 one way, but you can buy a monthly package for $80 that has unlimited rides.

I don't know where the OP's husband will be working, but a lot of companies in the area will subsidize the cost for employees who take public transit, and basically reimburse you for all or part of the monthly pass. It's worth checking into. (The light rail also has WiFi.)

Northpark might be worth checking into, it's right on the light rail (I live in STSJ and have friends who live in the Northpark apartments, they just hop on the light rail when they come over). They have a couple different apartments, all named after trees. I know they found the location fairly convenient for their commutes, running errands, etc.

OP, you'll also find that apartment living in Silicon Valley can be fairly family friendly. There's quite a housing crunch here, and housing is also expensive, so it's not unusual to find long term renters, families in apartments, etc.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by easybay

I would center my search on apartments in west/south San Jose or Santa Clara. If you upped your rent to $2400-2500 you would probably find something in the price range. And trust everyone here on the board - proximity to downtown will be important, the traffic here is insane. It's going to be tough being a new mom in a new city/country - without having to deal with your DH leaving to work 1 1/2 hours early and coming home 1 1/2 hours late. Look for homes/apartments on Craigslist - Rivermark area of Santa Clara is nice (we rented at the Carlyle) with a ton of young families or around Santa Clara University. I drive by a nice apartment building - Park Central in Santa Clara when I go to the post office.

I live in Santa Clara next to the university and I love it. Very safe. I rent small apts mainly to students in my bldg (I'm the resident manager). Sorry no 2 or 3 bdrms :-)

The Park Central apts next to the post office is a really nice complex. It does rent to a lot of undergrad students, though, so can be noisy. They do allow pets, though, and I have seen older tenants mixed in with the younger students.

Just check the reviews of any apt complex on yelp.com and apartmentratings.com.

I agree wholeheartedly with everyone that you do really want to avoid commuting. Save the driving for weekend trips.