San Jose v. San Mateo (San Francisco, Oakland: crime, homes, transfer)

[Xandar]

Which Neighborhood is more hip and happening?

[Bisaro TMF]

What? These are not Neighborhoods. They are cities, and one is the third largest city in California.

[justmeinca]

Originally Posted by Xandar

Which Neighborhood is more hip and happening?

I live in San Mateo. You are not hip enough to live here.

[Chuck5000]

Justmeinca just schooled you.

Well, I'll bite. Both are on approximately equal levels of non-urban hipness. Good amenities, good choice of restaurants, comparable to a single neighborhood in SF or Oakland, but less groovy Note that San Jose is much, much bigger, and the happening part of its rapidly evolving downtown core is small, but that is definitely going to change over the next 5 to 10 years. So San Jose is more of an investment in the future, whereas San Mateo right now is closer to being built out (it's old, actually) and is much closer to San Francisco. Surprised that anyone would be comparing the two, they're too far apart.

[robinlmorris]

I would never live in San Jose or the south bay.... not enough good food, too many strip malls, too spread out, and too hot for me.
I live in San Mateo. I moved here because of great food and weather. It is also nice and compact so I never have to drive.

But as others have said, it is a weird comparison. It costs much more to live in San Mateo than San Jose. Also, I don't really know about hipness.... I work in Mountain View and a lot of my coworkers with family live in San Jose as it is affordable. Most of the younger people live in Mountain View or somewhere north (many in SF).... this is just my observation.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by robinlmorris

I would never live in San Jose or the south bay.... not enough good food, too many strip malls, too spread out, and too hot for me.
I live in San Mateo. I moved here because of great food and weather. It is also nice and compact so I never have to drive.

But as others have said, it is a weird comparison. It costs much more to live in San Mateo than San Jose. Also, I don't really know about hipness.... I work in Mountain View and a lot of my coworkers with family live in San Jose as it is affordable. Most of the younger people live in Mountain View or somewhere north (many in SF).... this is just my observation.

I'm not going to waste my time picking apart the above post. This assessment of the South Bay is inaccurate on many levels though. I'll just leave it at that.

Anyways, there's no real way to answer the OP's question. You could fit about 10 cities the size of San Mateo into San Jose's city limits. The two cities aren't really comparable in any way.

I don't know a ton about San Mateo but what little time I've spent there (downtown mainly), I found it to be a nice place. The city does has a generally favorable reputation in the Bay Area as far as safety, livability, weather, etc. goes.

San Jose is very big, much bigger than many people who aren't familiar with it realize. It's got everything from dumpy higher crime areas to bland suburbia to historic neighborhoods to McMansion developments to country estates to a pretty decent urban core (despite many peoples' opinions on this board). Comparing San Mateo to San Jose is pretty much impossible because there are far too many variations in SJ's neighborhoods/districts. If the OP picks a specific neighborhood/district in San Jose, it would be easier to give comparisons.

[jk88cal]

Originally Posted by robinlmorris

I would never live in San Jose or the south bay.... not enough good food, too many strip malls, too spread out, and too hot for me.
I live in San Mateo. I moved here because of great food and weather. It is also nice and compact so I never have to drive.

But as others have said, it is a weird comparison. It costs much more to live in San Mateo than San Jose. Also, I don't really know about hipness.... I work in Mountain View and a lot of my coworkers with family live in San Jose as it is affordable. Most of the younger people live in Mountain View or somewhere north (many in SF).... this is just my observation.

Some incorrect statements. Others are opinion, although I disagree, but that is your take.

Good neighborhood in SJ (i.e. West SJ) is just as expensive as San Mateo. Per Redfin, homes sold in SM has median price of $930k at $698/sq ft. For West SJ, it's $990k at $677/sq ft. However, you could find cheap place in certain neighborhoods in SJ. Though I doubt your colleagues live there. And you probably have a lot of coworker living in SJ because there are 10x more people in SJ than SM and MV.

As for food, it's personal opinion. I can find better food in SJ than SM. But SJ is bigger and has more choices; so it's not even fair comparison. Benefit of SM downtown is that we can park and then decide what to eat. In SJ, we already decided ahead of time what to eat and drive there.

With all that said, I prefer to live in SM over SJ too. I just prefer how the neighborhoods are laid out. I don't like the way residential neighborhood are set up in San Jose, where SFH neighborhoods are clustered and divided by large roads.

[comingbacktocali]

hipness is a personal thing and isn't transferrable. you either are or are not and it really doesn't depend on where you live.

[robinlmorris]

My post was my anecdotal opinion, so it can't be "incorrect"... I am a complete food snob that hates driving, so that is why I have the opinions I have. Yes there are good restaurants in San Jose... it is huge. I'd have to drive a ton to visit them as they are spread out.... Also I like fine dining, and I'd be shocked to find anything as good as Wakuriya in San Jose (there are two Michelin star restaurants in SM and none in SJ). But if you are not a complete food snot like me, you probably have a different view of "good food".

Also, there are good and bad neighborhoods in San Mateo too... Here is a good neighborhood in SM: https://www.redfin.com/zipcode/94402 Median prices are near 1.5M, so good neighborhood to good neighborhood, SM is way more $$$.

Regardless, clearly the OP was not really interested in getting any advice.

[Xandar]

Thanks for the responses. I'm not familiar with the neighborhoods within San Jose. My job is in San Jose and I think it's too far to commute from SF. I was looking for cool neighborhoods that are happening in the South Bay as an alternative to SF.