Boston-Morgan Hill (San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Clara: to rent, homes, neighborhoods)

[RO_MJ]

Hi
My husbands work is moving us to Morgan Hill. What are the good towns to live nearby with good schools? We live in a top rated public school district here in MA so wouldn't want to compromise on education. Our daughter will be starting grade 5. We would be looking to rent before we jump into buying anything in the bay area.Will have to compromise on the square footage for sure
Totally clueless & very nervous about uprooting our lives from east coast and make this big move. Please help.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by RO_MJ

Hi
My husbands work is moving us to Morgan Hill. What are the good towns to live nearby with good schools? We live in a top rated public school district here in MA so wouldn't want to compromise on education. Our daughter will be starting grade 5. We would be looking to rent before we jump into buying anything in the bay area.Will have to compromise on the square footage for sure
Totally clueless & very nervous about uprooting our lives from east coast and make this big move. Please help.

Without knowing your budget, it's a little difficult to give you good recommendations. Morgan Hill is actually a very nice town, in my opinion. I have friends there and would have no problem living there myself. Schools aren't top rated but I would still consider them to be ok.

The top-rated school districts in the Bay Area (as far as API scores go) will demand the most money to live in those neighborhoods. Commuting in the Bay Area can be horrible. For the sake of an easier commute and having decent to very good schools, I'd recommend parts of San Jose like Cambrian Park, Almaden Valley and Evergreen. All of these areas tend to have good or very good schools for the most part and your husband would have a reverse commute to Morgan Hill. They are also desirable areas to live in for the most part. If you can afford it, Los Gatos/Monte Sereno/Saratoga (all separate towns) have highly-rated schools and are very desirable locations. They're very expensive though.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

Without knowing your budget, it's a little difficult to give you good recommendations. Morgan Hill is actually a very nice town, in my opinion. I have friends there and would have no problem living there myself. Schools aren't top rated but I would still consider them to be ok.

The top-rated school districts in the Bay Area (as far as API scores go) will demand the most money to live in those neighborhoods. Commuting in the Bay Area can be horrible. For the sake of an easier commute and having decent to very good schools, I'd recommend parts of San Jose like Cambrian Park, Almaden Valley and Evergreen. All of these areas tend to have good or very good schools for the most part and your husband would have a reverse commute to Morgan Hill. They are also desirable areas to live in for the most part. If you can afford it, Los Gatos/Monte Sereno/Saratoga (all separate towns) have highly-rated schools and are very desirable locations. They're very expensive though.

Agree. If you're up for living in Morgan Hill, the Nordstrom School (K-6) is a very good one.

And again, your budget is going to be a consideration.

[Ruth4Truth]

So, Morgan Hill is considered part of the Bay Area, now? I guess as long as it's in a Bayside county, it qualifies, according to the ever-extending commuting needs.

Out there, OP, you may not have to compromise on square footage much, if at all. But you will be giving up more income to taxes, probably. People are right, that living where you work, if possible, is the best strategy, in the region.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

So, Morgan Hill is considered part of the Bay Area, now? I guess as long as it's in a Bayside county, it qualifies, according to the ever-extending commuting needs.

Out there, OP, you may not have to compromise on square footage much, if at all. But you will be giving up more income to taxes, probably. People are right, that living where you work, if possible, is the best strategy, in the region.

Morgan Hill is in Santa Clara county, which would make it part of the 9-county SF Bay Area.

[Wintermomma]

If the job is IN Morgan Hill, then count yourself lucky and live there. Bigger, newer housing on bigger lots for less money than points north. Many people live there but have to commute to the north, and that's a horrific commute. It is hot though.

[Moddedintegra56]

Decent homes in morgan hill are already near million. Look to spending $800K minimum for a detached single family that isnt super old.

keep in mind morgan hill is super small. 44K population. it wont have the usual things you find in bigger cities. malls? forgte about it. most chain stores? forget about it. it is a nice suburb town. San Jose is about 20 min drive but thats just to south san jose. Gilroy will be your main "mall type" shopping destination at the outlets which is 15 to 20 mins.

If you are latino or asian descent and need asian or mexican type supermarkets--which are very common all throughout CA, i dont believe there are many or any at all, but again you will find yourself driving to gilroy or sj often.

With that said Morgan hill is great if you can afford

[sonarrat]

I grew up in Morgan Hill and went to Live Oak High School. My family moved from Boston as well, but I should add that dad was originally from Texas so he wanted the big square footage, big lot, quiet woodsy retreat type of property. And he endures a terrible commute to Redwood City to enjoy it; he has a carpool and works some days at home to take the edge off somewhat.

The schools were fine as far as instruction went. But it was clear there were some not so nice parts of town, and a lot of the kids from that side conspired to make both the teachers and other students miserable. Even back then, the instructors were often commuting from the other side of the Pacheco Pass because they couldn't afford our Silicon Valley bedroom community. That commute from Los Banos isn't as bad as it used to be, since they constructed a flyover at the 152/156 interchange, but it's still a long drive that can be ruined by even a minor mishap, and Los Banos itself is a pit. Cheap and proud of it.

Morgan Hill used to not have many services, so that most shopping involved going to Gilroy or San Jose. I also remember hour+ long lines at grocery stores because there were so few of them. That is no longer the case as a lot more stores have opened in the past 5 years. Unfortunately, the commute patterns have gotten downright hellish. It used to be only getaways, but now you routinely see epic delays on 101 through the Coyote Valley.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

Morgan Hill is in Santa Clara county, which would make it part of the 9-county SF Bay Area.

It's almost the exact same distance to San Francisco from the south as Healdsburg is in the north. And wouldn't Healdsburg be considered Bay Area? Don't see why Morgan Hill wouldn't be.

[mossly]

We moved to the Bay Area from the East Coast two years ago. While overall we really like it here, and the move has been amazing for my husband's career, the public schools were a huge disappointment. We chose a school district that everyone said was good (Cambrian in San Jose), but the curriculum was a solid year behind our schools back East. We ended up switching to private.