Help what should I do regarding job and moving to Central Valley (San Jose: transplants)

[sweetiebt]

here is my issue. My husband and I are originally from the Monterey area...moved to the DC area to finish college abount 7 years ago and now have a 2 year old daughter. We want our daugther to be close to family (they live in Prunedale, Salinas, Monterey). My husband is in the midst of getting a job for Monterey County working in the Probation department (would be working in Salinas). This is all great except that of course I would rather not live in Salinas! I would love to live in Monterey, Carmel, PG etc but the job market for me in those cities is NOT good! There are not many accounting jobs in the Monterey area and the ones I have come across don't pay squat...basically I would be MUCH better off in the San Jose area...much better pay and many more opportunities. So...that is the dilemna. Whether I get a low paying job in Monterey (more expensive) or we live in Morgan Hill or Gilroy and I commute to San Jose and make $$$ while my husband commutes to Salinas. Raising our daughter in a safe environment with a good school system is the most important. We are looking to eventually buy a house (within a year of moving) but can only afford maybe $400-450k...maybe $550k if I get a great paying job in San Jose. What would you recommend? How would you compare Monterey, PG etc to the Morgan Hill/Gilroy area. We like the suburbs, so Morgan Hill/Gilroy has that going for it...but my concern is with safety and school systems compared to Monterey/PG etc. What would you do?

[Harrier]

I can't answer your specific question - but the first thing you should know is that Morgan Hill and Gilroy are not located in the Central Valley.

[sweetiebt]

Oops....you are right...changed title

[Hawk J]

For 20 years my bro & his family lived in Gilroy close to Christmas Hill Park. Five days a week he drove to Seaside High School where he taught classes. It worked for them & some other folks i know who commuted.

Drive a car that gets good gas mileage.

I used to hear about many folks who lived in Los Banos area & drove to work in San Jose.

'Where there is the Will, there is a Way'.

Best of Luck to you.

[MtnSurfer]

We have a number of folks where I work (Seaside) who commute in from San Jose, Morgan Hill, Aromas, Prunedale, etc... One coworker who lives in Morgan Hill has 4 children, three of which are in the public schools. They generally like that area for families. Though the commute can ge old after a while. He just worked out a deal to telecommute for part of the week which really helps on the driving.

Take a look at this map to see the better schools in these areas:
http://schoolperformancemaps.com/ca/

Hope that help some,

Derek

[ferretkona]

Originally Posted by sweetiebt

here is my issue. My husband and I are originally from the Monterey area...moved to the DC area to finish college abount 7 years ago and now have a 2 year old daughter. We want our daugther to be close to family (they live in Prunedale, Salinas, Monterey). My husband is in the midst of getting a job for Monterey County working in the Probation department (would be working in Salinas). This is all great except that of course I would rather not live in Salinas! I would love to live in Monterey, Carmel, PG etc but the job market for me in those cities is NOT good! There are not many accounting jobs in the Monterey area and the ones I have come across don't pay squat...basically I would be MUCH better off in the San Jose area...much better pay and many more opportunities. So...that is the dilemna. Whether I get a low paying job in Monterey (more expensive) or we live in Morgan Hill or Gilroy and I commute to San Jose and make $$$ while my husband commutes to Salinas. Raising our daughter in a safe environment with a good school system is the most important. We are looking to eventually buy a house (within a year of moving) but can only afford maybe $400-450k...maybe $550k if I get a great paying job in San Jose. What would you recommend? How would you compare Monterey, PG etc to the Morgan Hill/Gilroy area. We like the suburbs, so Morgan Hill/Gilroy has that going for it...but my concern is with safety and school systems compared to Monterey/PG etc. What would you do?

Are you sure you can qualify??

[sweetiebt]

Good question...I guess if I ended up "settling" for a lower paying job to be in Monterey then I wouldn't be able to afford as much house...we may not even get approved for a $400k loan. Hmm...another reason to get a better paying job in San Jose where we would be able to qualify for at least $400k. I just want to make sure our quality of life won't suffer from living in Morgan Hill/Gilroy and commuting to San Jose while my husband commutes to Salinas. Any perspective on Morgan Hill safety/schools? Any recommendations for good parts of Morgan Hill vs. bad parts?

[jaijai]

You may want to post your San Jose and vicinity questions on the San Jose sub-forum as well.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by sweetiebt

Good question...I guess if I ended up "settling" for a lower paying job to be in Monterey then I wouldn't be able to afford as much house...we may not even get approved for a $400k loan. Hmm...another reason to get a better paying job in San Jose where we would be able to qualify for at least $400k. I just want to make sure our quality of life won't suffer from living in Morgan Hill/Gilroy and commuting to San Jose while my husband commutes to Salinas. Any perspective on Morgan Hill safety/schools? Any recommendations for good parts of Morgan Hill vs. bad parts?

Morgan Hill actually is a very nice community. I wouldn't consider it to be unsafe, but there is some crime. There is a small amount of Latino gang activity that mostly spills over from other places, but Gilroy is worse in this respect. Most crimes committed in the city are property crimes. There aren't necessarily bad parts of town, but there are some low-income apartments that tend to be problem areas.
I have a friend who was a property manager at one of them and the residents were mostly East San Jose gangbanger transplants who brought their thuggish ways with them to Morgan Hill. Other than that, most of the town is actually very nice.
There are many newer developments with large well-kept homes. There are also many luxury custom homes in the area. On the east side of town in the hills is Lake Anderson, where many custom lakeview homes are. Basically, Morgan Hill is a "agricultural/country-ish/suburb" of San Jose. It's somewhat of a well-kept Bay Area secret since many people probably don't realize how nice it is.

The "feel" of Morgan Hill is that it's very rural and is basically like living out in the country even though it's directly south of San Jose. I really like that about it. The development rules in the city are very strict and only a relatively small number of buildings/homes are allowed to be built each year, which has kept the suburban sprawl under control.

It does stink like manure often times throughout town due to the continuing agricultural presence.

I do know that most schools are not great in MH, but not terrible either. That's about all the knowledge I have about them. I'd check school score websites for that info.

As far as your budget goes, you will have a hard time finding a nice home in Morgan Hill in a nice area. One of my best friends has lived in MH for about fifteen years and is currently looking to purchase a larger home for his family and is having a very hard time finding something suitable within his $500k budget. You probably could find a home in your price range in Gilroy, but I'm not a huge fan of Gilroy. Gilroy is not bad, but it does have a somewhat high gang presence for a city of its size. Your commute to the Monterey area would be a little bit shorter though, as opposed to commuting from MH. You may also want to consider Hollister, which is cheaper than Gilroy and even easier to get to the Monterey area. Hollister is very similar to Gilroy in many ways but smaller and even more out in the middle of nowhere. Most people in Hollister go to "exciting" Gilroy for dining/shopping/entertainment etc.