Travel from Palo Alto to San Ramon (San Jose, Fremont: rental, low crime)

[usk]

Hi,

I shall be moving to US to work at PaloAlto. My husband shall work in San Ramon. We have kids aged 2 (need a day care) and 6 (need a school)
We prefer staying at/closer to PaloAlto keeping my commute minimal.
Could you please answer -
1) Is Palo Alto a good place for family to stay? (What I have been reading it sounds an extension of Stanford and seems mainly a hub of students)
What about day cares, schools, entertainment for kids?
2) How would it be for my husband to commute to SanRamon from Palo alto every day?
3) Alternately is there any good place in between which can be considered, San Jose?
4) Can you please also mention the rents in these areas for 2 bedroom home?
Regards, UK

[mstnghu2]

I wouldn't really consider Palo Alto to be an extension of Stanford, although the university does have a large presence there. Palo Alto is a nice place, but it's very expensive. Even by Bay Area standards, the prices are outrageous.

The commute from Palo Alto to San Ramon would mostly be a reverse commute, but would still be very long and would get tiresome very quickly.

Based on how far apart both of you will be working, you may want to look at places like Fremont, Newark and possibly Castro Valley. These areas would make your husband's commute less horrible, but unfortunately wouldn't help you too much. Although, the commute from most parts of Fremont to Palo Alto is not too bad if you time it right. If you're really looking to stay around Palo Alto, be prepared to spend a lot of money on rent and expect your husband to have a really crappy commute.

San Jose and other South Bay locations, although typically less expensive, would be even farther from San Ramon.

Check out Craigslist to get an idea of what rent prices are in the region. It really is THE place where most people look for rental properties in the Bay Area. Once you establish how much you plan to spend on rent, you will probably get some more suggestions here.

You may also want to post this in the SF and San Jose forums to get more local responses.

[gone down south]

There's no way to make that a good commute - San Ramon is tucked away on the other side of a large regional wilderness area, and you have to make a huge detour around it on heavily congested roads to either the north or south when coming from the Bay side.

[hsw]

Palo alto is the epicenter of silicon valley: perhaps world's wealthiest, most innovative corridor with most of sv's key offices nearby....and nearly all of sv's tech billionaires reside in pa and adjacent suburbs as do many less affluent Stanford faculty and grad students...so an economically diverse place with lots of iq

Perhaps most rigorous public schools in world are in pa given caliber of parents who reside in pa

San Ramon is an exurb that is home to chevron and not much else; probably an easy 45 min drive from pa to sr if one arrives at office at 6am and leaves after 6pm as more lower income workers tend to commute from sj or east bay toward pa in am and reverse out in pm

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

I wouldn't really consider Palo Alto to be an extension of Stanford, although the university does have a large presence there. Palo Alto is a nice place, but it's very expensive. Even by Bay Area standards, the prices are outrageous.

The commute from Palo Alto to San Ramon would mostly be a reverse commute, but would still be very long and would get tiresome very quickly.

Based on how far apart both of you will be working, you may want to look at places like Fremont, Newark and possibly Castro Valley. These areas would make your husband's commute less horrible, but unfortunately wouldn't help you too much. Although, the commute from most parts of Fremont to Palo Alto is not too bad if you time it right. If you're really looking to stay around Palo Alto, be prepared to spend a lot of money on rent and expect your husband to have a really crappy commute.

San Jose and other South Bay locations, although typically less expensive, would be even farther from San Ramon.

Check out Craigslist to get an idea of what rent prices are in the region. It really is THE place where most people look for rental properties in the Bay Area. Once you establish how much you plan to spend on rent, you will probably get some more suggestions here.

You may also want to post this in the SF and San Jose forums to get more local responses.

This is realistic.

I would pick Fremont which has many excellent schools and has a low crime rate and is far more affordable than Palo Alto, but is relatively close via the Dumbarton Bridge and your husband wont have to deal with too much traffic getting to San Ramon.

Also, something to consider. Many employers nowadays offer shuttle buses that pick up workers at various locations all over the Bay. If your husband will be working at Bishop Ranch(a major office park), you might want to ask your husband to find out if they have such a shuttle, or vanpool.

Good luck.