Planning on moving to Santa Clara from Chicago (San Jose, San Francisco: sales, apartments)

[dave99203]

Hi,

Me and my wife are planning on moving to Santa Clara from Chicago. I have a job offer and would like to hear of the pros and cons of moving and living in Santa Clara. More specifically, one bedroom house rents, how friendly are the people, cost of living, public transportation, job scene and recreational activities. Most importantly a comparism of life in Chicago and Santa Clara.

Thanks,

dave99203

[humboldtrat]

Originally Posted by dave99203

Hi,. . .job scene

Job scene?? If you don't have a job lined up, don't come here. The state as well as Santa Clara county has about 12% unemployment.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by humboldtrat

Job scene?? If you don't have a job lined up, don't come here. The state as well as Santa Clara county has about 12% unemployment.

If you bothered to read the post you'd see he's got a job offer.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by dave99203

Hi,

Me and my wife are planning on moving to Santa Clara from Chicago. I have a job offer and would like to hear of the pros and cons of moving and living in Santa Clara. More specifically, one bedroom house rents, how friendly are the people, cost of living, public transportation, job scene and recreational activities. Most importantly a comparism of life in Chicago and Santa Clara.

Thanks,

dave99203

Well I have only visited Chicago once, but here are the things people like/dislike about the general area:

Pluses:

--Great weather: low to mid 80s in summer (sunny and dry almost all summer long), mid to high 50s in winter. It rains about 60 days a year, although it does vary a lot from year to year.

--Multicultural/International feel (lots of people from different parts of the world here.

--Lots of different ethnic restaurants and grocery stores

--Great access to outdoor recreation--nearby beaches and mountains. Access to other parts of the Bay Area (San Francisco for cultural stuff, although Silicon Valley does have a modest cultural scene as welll).

--Low crime. SJ and surrounding cities generally have low crime. Even the slum areas of East San Jose would be considered livable compared to the bad areas of Chicago.

--Cities in the Valley are generally well run and less corrupt than other Bay Area cities like Oakland and San Francisco. Given Chicago's bad reputation, I'd say it's a safe bet that any city in the valley is better run and less corrupt than Chicago, but I don't absolutely know that. The state of CA is a whole other story--the legislature is the worst combination of corruption and incompetence.

Minuses:

--High cost of rent/mortage. One bedroom apartments would be in the $1100 to $1600 a month range. (Plan on the upper end of that range. If you get something lower, you'll be pleasantly surprised)

--High sales/income taxes for mediocre/poor public services. The homes in the best school districts can easily be $1M plus (although maybe a little lower now). Sales tax is 9.25%. Gas at the cheap stations is about $3 a gallon as of 9/27. The state of California has the lowest bond rating of all 50 states---rated BBB..which is a couple of notches above junk status.

--Lots of traffic. If you live close to work, it's much less of a problem. Probably no worse than Chicago. Santa Clara is generally conveniently located for many employers in the area.

--hyper competitive work atmosphere. Unless you work for the government or in a low wage job, it's expected that your life is supposed to revolve around your job/career. If often takes two high powered careers to buy a home in a half decent school district. A lot of people feel they don't get to raise their kids because of demanding careers.

--earthquake risk. A lot of Californians blow this one off, but we are overdue for major earthquakes in both SoCal and the Bay Area.

--Public transportation is not very good. You have to plan where you live very carefully if you expect to take mass transit to work and actually have it be convenient. Since many employers are located in suburban style office parks, mass transit is often not a viable option.

I'd also say that despite the ethnic diversity, Silcon Valley is generally thought of as kind of bland. The Valley is a one industry area--driven by tech. Tech people tend to be of the same kind of mindset no matter where they come from.

The housing stock is cookie cutter suburban bland and not particularly well built.

The people are not really friendly, but not really unfriendly. People aren't mean or aggressive, but they don't go out of their way to help each other, either.

[humboldtrat]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

If you bothered to read the post you'd see he's got a job offer.

So why is he asking about the job scene ?

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by humboldtrat

So why is he asking about the job scene ?

I think maybe because he wants to know what the overall market is like and the kinds of jobs available. He should have beem more specific about his industry.

[NorCal Dude]

Santa Clara...Think naperville with more Asians and and IT industrial presence.

[dave99203]

Hi All,
Just wanted to say thanks to all you folks out there who have given me valuable information about the good and bad things to expect while making a transition form the chicago scene to santa clara.

Thanks once again and my appreciation.

dave99203

[BayAreaHillbilly]

If you don't want to commute far, there are other nearby communities to consider for living. Sunnyvale, San Jose, Campbell, Cupertino, Milpitas.

If you can tolerate a longer commute there is a quilt of nearly 100 communities encompassing some 7 Million people, ringing the Bay, in various intermontaine valleys, along the coast, and even intruding into the western edge of the Great Central Valley.