Relocating from Australia to Bay Area - need advice/tips!! (San Jose: apartment, low crime)

[martin1980]

Hi All,
I am a management consultant and will relocate from Melbourne to the bay area in August with my family (stay-at-home mom and 2 y/o daughter). We are looking for something affordable not too far from Sillicon Valley as that is where most clients for my company are located.
We are looking for a 2 BR place with a pool and outside area (preferably close to shops, restaurants, airport, CAL or BART station and park in the area for my wife and daughter to hang out during the week) and we definitely don't plan to spend $1800-$2000 a month on rent, in order to also have some money left to do anything fun in weekends.

Could anyone advise on best 'family friendly' areas to live around San Jose/Peninsula/East Bay which would hopefully help meet our requirements. So far we haven't been lucky, after numerous searches on craigslist and typical 'apartment living' websites. The other option we are currently assessing is to set up shop in Sacramento (i.e. more value for money) as most of my work is project based and across clients in California anyway.

Appreciate your advice on both options!

Thanks,
Martin

[roadwarrior101]

Going to be tough to fit all of your criteria with a price range that you are mentioning. Several nice cities along the Caltrain corridor offer what you are looking for (nice 2 bedroom apts, pool, nice downtowns with shops, restaurants, etc), parks.....

But, the $1,800-2,000 price tag is what they generally go for (or more in some cities), unless you want to live in a complete dump. You may be able to find slightly cheaper in South San Jose, but that's less convenient to Silicon Valley companies. You could look over in the Pleasanton/Livermore area.....both towns (especially Pleasanton) tick all of your boxes, at a cheaper price. Plus, you can then commute to the Silicon Valley via ACE train. There are other areas in the far east bay where you can find comparable prices, but public transportation to the Silicon Valley would be much more difficult.

[martin1980]

Thanks very much for the tips - what are the nicer, family-friendly cities along Caltrain corridor you would recommend? Also, would you recommend searching through Craiglist or are there other alternatives as well?

[18Montclair]

Every city in the valley is 'family friendly' in varying degrees. Your price point is prohibitive for much of SV but I think you might want to look in the city of Fremont just on the other side of the Alameda County line. Its the Bay Area's largest suburb(200,000+ population) with tons of housing options, a low crime rate, and one of the highest scoring school districts for a city its size, lots of family friendly amenities to choose from like excellent parks and recreation areas, lots of retail and Fremont is not far from SJ airport or even Oakland airport for that matter.

Another plus of Fremont is that is has BART, which is the subway that you can take from Fremont all the way to Downtown San Francisco.

Anyway, there are lots of nice places but Fremont immediately popped into my mind. Good Luck.