Is $2,000 a month for rent reasonable in San Jose? (best neighborhood, for sale)

[homenj]

I have a friend who is thinking of moving to San Jose. She wants to pay $500 but wants to live with three other roommates so that should be $2000. What if she doesn't get another roommate and could only afford $1500? I don't want her to live in a sketchy area.

[thetrb]

Is she OK with renting a 2 BR together with 3 roommates? In this case it might work in a cheaper part of town, but she certainly won't get more than 2 BR.

[throwmeawayplease]

I seriously wouldn't move here right now, especially if you want to pay $500 a month. The cost of living in the bay is a total joke.

[artillery77]

You'd be hard pressed to rent a room in the most sketchy neighborhood for $500.

$500 might get you a tool shed or a sun porch somewhere totally shady. Sounds like your friend better rethink her decision. Maybe try NE Bay area.

[homenj]

Originally Posted by artillery77

You'd be hard pressed to rent a room in the most sketchy neighborhood for $500.

$500 might get you a tool shed or a sun porch somewhere totally shady. Sounds like your friend better rethink her decision. Maybe try NE Bay area.

It would be 2000 if she has three other roommates.

[bobby_guz_man]

I don't know if $2000 would get you a 4 room house though? Is she planning on sharing rooms too? If that's the case she might as well just go rent out a room in a house for $800.

[Moddedintegra56]

4 bedroom "HOUSE" nope. Maybe if you can locate a 4 bedroom attached condo/townhome maybe and it might not be in the best neighborhood. But "bad neighborhoods" in san jose means homes for sale are in the 500Ks. Pretty funny hearing that, as many who dont want to live in bad neighborhoods can't even afford to buy in them, and barely even afford to rent there.

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by Moddedintegra56

4 bedroom "HOUSE" nope. Maybe if you can locate a 4 bedroom attached condo/townhome maybe and it might not be in the best neighborhood. But "bad neighborhoods" in san jose means homes for sale are in the 500Ks. Pretty funny hearing that, as many who dont want to live in bad neighborhoods can't even afford to buy in them, and barely even afford to rent there.

Actually it's worse than that. I just ran a quick Redfin sold search for San Jose homes sold within 1 week. Out of 129 homes (3+ BR) sold, only 4 were under $600k. Those 4 are $480k (95122), $535k (95111), $575k (95136), and $590k (95148).

The traditional "bad neighborhoods" of the East Side (95116, 95122, the southern portion of 95133 and the northern portion of 95148) homes are generally going for over $650k due to their housing stock generally being larger homes.

Last 1 month average sold price (3+ BR):

95116: $706k
95127: $778k
95133: $978k
95148: $923k

[RVD90277]

i'm not even sure if most 2 bedroom apartments in bad areas for $2k/month will let you have 4 ppl on the lease like that. of course you can always risk it but then you'd be evicted and lose your security deposit, etc.

[artillery77]

Originally Posted by homenj

It would be 2000 if she has three other roommates.

I mean, you can try and win the lottery once, but 4 times is pretty tough. At best you're looking at a 2 Bedroom for $2K and it won't be choice. You're looking at a handful of room rental options. No shame in it, that's how many start, but even then $500 isn't going to get you much.

For $385 there's a totally creepy bunkbed you can share with a guy.

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/roo/6121929026.html

You know, a really successful guy that still needs $385 to share a room...

There's a couple of other room rentals that are hopefully not so shady, but realistically she needs a bigger budget to live here, otherwise she's choosing from THE cheapest spots to possibly live in the entire city. Can't tell you why they're the cheapest, cuz I have no desire to find out.