Renting in Willow Glen/Cambrian Park/Campbell

[dogandcat]

Originally Posted by crosscountrymove2016

Thank you all for your insight. Thankfully, we have the ability to spend about a month in an extended stay place so that will help us find a place that's a good fit. We have also been looking at Santa Clara, Almaden, and parts of Santa Theresa. I was considering Milpitas but then read a bunch of stuff about the sewage treatment plant near there, so I think we've taken that off our list. I guess it just depends on what's available when we are looking. We are not super concerned with the commute time because coming from DC we are pretty used to sitting in traffic for hours. Are there any major traffic patterns or backups we should be aware of??

Again, any advice you have is greatly appreciated!

Almaden is amazing place to live but expensive (about the same price as Mountain View I would say). Santa Clara is a good choice both in terms of location and prices but not all schools are good. I would say $3500 and up for Santa Clara detached house.

I live in Santa Teresa, and it's nice and relatively affordable. You can find 3 bdr/2bath for $3100-3500 (modest size, old but clean) and up. With pets, I would add $200 per month but it depends on particular circumstances.

Traffic can be awful practically everywhere in rush hours (101 is the greatest nightmare both directions but especially going from San Jose to Mountain View and Palo Alto in the morning; 85, 280 and 17 bad but better, 87 so-so). If working hours are pretty flexible to avoid main traffic, you will be fine.

Personally, I would rent as close as possible to work place. Even 10 miles in traffic can cost 40 minutes.

[Wintermomma]

Houses bigger than 3+2 are what I found hard to come by, add a dog to that mix and it's near impossible. Also, in this area, it seems even a 3+2 typically has really small square footage. It's like there is not a lot of middle ground between grandiose homes and teeny tiny boxes.