Moving to San Fran Area and working for Apple: What Neighborhood or other cities should we call home?

[511pf]

Downtown San Jose is very up and coming, which means it has some amenities as well as a number of issues. The short version - not a lot of pedestrian activity during the day, lots and lots of partying between 11 PM and 2 AM, 7 days per week. Fairly high crime, and the population of homeless and mentally ill people tends to stand out because there are so few other pedestrians. Downtown San Jose does have a nice library, movie theaters, some performing arts theaters, really nice museums and occasional fun events. The best advice I can give you is that if you live in the core of downtown, live facing the courtyard or you'll hear screaming, fighting and brawling all night.

[rimmerama]

Originally Posted by Scaxter

Also, why is the rent in San Jose so much cheaper than other areas. I'm seeing 2 bedrooms for about $2k vs. $2,500-3K. Crime? Further distance from SF? Makes me a little suspicious....

Thanks!

San Jose is one of the safest cities of its size in the U.S, and much safer than S.F or Oakland.

That being said, just like any city, there are some bad areas. However, 2,000 for a 2 bedroom should be in a perfectly safe part of the city. The rule of thumb is to live in west or south San Jose.

Two areas of San Jose I've always liked are Willow Glen, and the area around the Rose Garden. Most single unit homes, though...

[OrangeSunset]

If you are planning on having a family I suggest sticking with Mountain View. The downtown San Jose area is zoned for not so good schools so you know. I would look into Palo Alto and Los Gatos as well. They all have cute downtowns and good schools. If you are thinking private school San Jose would be a good option. Go to GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community for more info.

[krudmonk]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

Typically, the closer you get toward SF, the more expensive rent gets. It's also possible that some of the apartment ads you've seen for SJ places could be in bad areas. If you post some of the zip codes/addresses where the SJ apartments are located that you've seen, I can tell you if those are bad areas or not.

No, rents in SJ are higher than you'll see further up the peninsula, out of SF proper. It has more to do with "bad" areas, as you said. There are simply more of those in SJ compared to the rest of the valley.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by krudmonk

No, rents in SJ are higher than you'll see further up the peninsula, out of SF proper. It has more to do with "bad" areas, as you said. There are simply more of those in SJ compared to the rest of the valley.

Maybe that's true with apartments, but I didn't see that to be the case at all when I was looking for a rental house back in 2009. Anything north of Sunnyvale was on average $100-200 more per month for a house equivalent or smaller/dumpier than the house I ended up renting in Newark.

[mayorhaggar]

Originally Posted by krudmonk

No, rents in SJ are higher than you'll see further up the peninsula, out of SF proper. It has more to do with "bad" areas, as you said. There are simply more of those in SJ compared to the rest of the valley.

You live in San Jose and I don't, but from what I've seen prices San Mateo County are almost the same as in SF, maybe 5% less especially if you're along the 101/280 corridor. (somewhere like Pacifica or Daly City is cheaper maybe because of the fog) San Jose has expensive parts but doesn't it have pretty cheap rentals in decent areas as you go east? And even Los Gatos has pretty doable rents, though buying a house there would be very tough. Fremont has cheaper rentals too, houses are pretty pricey though from what people here have said.

[momtojj]

Have you considered staying in Cupertino itself. I lived there and it's a great place to raise kids and has the best schools in the country!

[DocGoldstein]

Cupertino is nice, but unless your husband is going to work for Apple as a high paid executive, you will probably be renting for a long time. $450,000 would barely buy a 1 bedroom condo, even if it exist. There are maybe 10-20 homes for sale in Cupertino right now.

Cupertino looked at the 2006 bubble and barely blinked.

[cdrr]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

Cupertino is nice, but unless your husband is going to work for Apple as a high paid executive, you will probably be renting for a long time. $450,000 would barely buy a 1 bedroom condo, even if it exist. There are maybe 10-20 homes for sale in Cupertino right now.

Cupertino looked at the 2006 bubble and barely blinked.

TY for the info, but can u define "high paid executive" - whats the min $ ?

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by cdrr

TY for the info, but can u define "high paid executive" - whats the min $ ?

Depends on the specific company/industry, but a "high paid executive" around here probably makes $250K+? Just off the top of my head, based on what the high-level execs I know are currently earning.

The OP is pretty old now (from 2011), so housing is even more expensive now... their goal of $450K to purchase a home wouldn't even get you a crappy condo in the East Bay! And in Cupertino? Try $1M at minimum for anything livable.