Santa Clara vs Mountain View vs Sunnyvale (Palo Alto, Cupertino: real estate, rentals)

[noy29]

My wife and I have decided to move with our three kids. We have a job offer already at Santa Clara and we have narrowed our choices to Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Mountain View. I have read most of the threads here but I still do not have a grasp regarding the difference in these three suburb cities and which one will be relatively cheaper to live in. Any advice out there?

[san carlos]

Personally, I like Mountain View the best (I attended high school in Mountain View) The schools in that area are very good, and I like the feel of the town more so than Santa Clara or Sunnyvale. GREAT downtown area -- you can find virtually any food style on Castro Street.

Downside? The Googlers may have driven the housing prices through the roof, since the Google HQ is in MV.

Good luck....

[bluebeard]

There is no difference. They all bleed into each other. Santa Clara probably will offer cheaper housing. Just look on craigslist for rent, or zillow.com for real estate.

[Luke9686]

They all pretty much run together. Mountain View does have pretty cool downtown area, on Castro Street. There is a nice mexican place on W. Dana, right off Castro in Mountain View.

M.V. is the most expensive, but they are all pretty expensive. Santa Clara and Sunnyvale have the least expensive housing.

[gmkarr]

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like Sunnyvale. Before moving here, after doing research, Sunnyvale was the last pick for my family (including four year old son) because it sounded like a suburban sprawl wasteland. However, after looking at about 25 rentals in the cities you mentioned and others, I found the best house and neighborhood for the best price in Sunnyvale. We settled in the Cherry Chase neighborhood. Actually, we are more specifically in the Cherry Hill neighborhood (Cherry Chase is the local elementary school). Cherry Chase school is supposed to be excellent, the neighborhood is attractive with nice parks, and we are right on the border of Los Altos and Cupertino (five minute drive from Mountain View). People are pretty friendly here, and the Sunnyvale downtown is actually very cute. A new downtown is being developed that is supposed to be along the lines of the Mountain View downtown, so I think it will really add value to the city when it is done in a couple of years. I like many parts of mountain view as well, but don't know Santa Clara. Good luck!

[sandy7]

I recently moved to Sunnyvale from MV and really welcome this thread. Out in MV, I really liked the Franklin St Library, tennis at Whisman Park and of course Castro st. I was really happy to find the library, eating places on Castro, banks, caltrain, coffee shops, post office were all within a mile of each other. Plenty of parking spaces at MV downtown.

Oops, how could I forget Stevens creek trail and Hetch hetchy trail for biking!

I am a friends member of the Palo Alto lib and have to say the MV lib is really top notch. I was wondering how many libraries you have around sunnyvale and how good they are.

Plus, what are the good parks in Sunnyvale for biking and tennis?

Is there something like a prime spot in Sunnyvale like we have Castro in MV - a location where you get most of the amenities within a small radius(Post office, bank, retail stores)? It's too bad that Target's down till Nov.

I need to look up the haunted ToysRUs as well :P

[Luke9686]

I believe Washington Park in Sunnyvale has a lot of tennis and basketball going on. The Mathilda & El Camino area is where most everything is. There's a library right off of Mathilda on either Olive Way Iowa Ave.

The haunted Toys R Us?? Is it really haunted?

[sandy7]

thanks for the info...I have a book on bay area biking trails but need to look it up for anything around sunnyvale

Here you go for Toys R Us

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...unnyvale+toys+

[bluebeard]

the downtown in sunnyvale is murphy st. dishdash is an awesome restaurant there.
they are all in the same vicinity. you can live in one and drive to the other. if you live in the san jose area you are surely driving all the time anyway. the general character of all 3 is the same, depending on what part of each your are in.
rancho san antonio is the popular hiking spot. there are lots of em all over the cupertino hills. i used to ride my bmx all up in em from the cupertino area as a kid. calabasas park even has bike hills made for bmx tricking, but you'll prolly be overrun with adolescents.
el camino real has a lot of the stuff you would look for. arounf lawrence and el camino is like a k-town and indian area. the korean restaurants are mostly expensive though. there can be some cheaper indian places, and lotsa excellent ones.
there are tennis parks in sunnyvale, but i don't know if they qualify as "good". i know of one in between fremont and homestead on hollenbeck.
i can't believe people are still talking about that haunted toys r' us. funny.

[Sunnnee]

Anything off Pruneridge Ave is really nice in Santa Clara.

Sonia
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