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Old 05-15-2012, 10:13 AM
 
Location: Pleasanton, CA
2,406 posts, read 6,039,328 times
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Almaden Valley is just as close to downtown Los Gatos as some parts of Los Gatos are.
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Old 05-15-2012, 11:16 AM
 
4,321 posts, read 6,282,748 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mstnghu2 View Post
Almaden Valley is just as close to downtown Los Gatos as some parts of Los Gatos are.
Perhaps, I don't know the entire area. All I know is that after hearing a few of my co-workers rave about the area, I set my expectations high (perhaps unrealistically so). I just saw a typical Silicon Valley suburban area with older tract homes in the valley and very nice homes on the hillsides. It also looked like a few of the shopping centers there had seen better days and aside from the trails bordering the hillside, I was underwhelmed by the area in general. It was nice, but just not what I had pictured in my mind. I just get a much better feel for the community as a whole when I'm driving through Los Gatos.

To sum it up, Almaden Valley seems to lack the "Wow Factor" as a whole (although a few of the mansions on the hill are very nice and the schools are top quality). I can see why this area appeals to someone from other parts of SJ. However, I just don't think its as nice (by a longshot) as Los Gatos/Saratoga. I'd even go as far as to say that I like where I live (Mountain View) a lot better than Almaden Valley.

Last edited by roadwarrior101; 05-15-2012 at 11:29 AM..
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Old 05-15-2012, 11:51 AM
 
Location: Madison, WI
1,044 posts, read 2,768,190 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by roadwarrior101 View Post
To sum it up, Almaden Valley seems to lack the "Wow Factor" as a whole (although a few of the mansions on the hill are very nice and the schools are top quality). I can see why this area appeals to someone from other parts of SJ. However, I just don't think its as nice (by a longshot) as Los Gatos/Saratoga. I'd even go as far as to say that I like where I live (Mountain View) a lot better than Almaden Valley.
I agree on all of these points. I lived in AV as a renter to make tactical use of the schools, and moved out when this was no longer a consideration.

I previously lived in Mountain View and, to be honest, didn't detect much of a "wow factor" there, either, although at least it had a downtown. Maybe things have changed in the past few years, but at that time, renting in Almaden was far cheaper than a comparable place in Mountain View. By moving to AV, I was able to upgrade from a crappy 3-bedroom apartment to a fairly nice 4-bedroom house, and my rent stayed the same.
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Old 05-15-2012, 11:58 AM
 
4,321 posts, read 6,282,748 times
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Originally Posted by jbunniii View Post
I previously lived in Mountain View and, to be honest, didn't detect much of a "wow factor" there, either, although at least it had a downtown. Maybe things have changed in the past few years, but at that time, renting in Almaden was far cheaper than a comparable place in Mountain View. By moving to AV, I was able to upgrade from a crappy 3-bedroom apartment to a fairly nice 4-bedroom house, and my rent stayed the same.
That's my point. People aren't proclaiming Mountain View as the best thing since sliced bread, as they are of AV.
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Old 05-15-2012, 05:19 PM
 
42 posts, read 75,732 times
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I really like running through Almaden Valley using the Los Alamitos trail. It looks the best in the stretch where the valley narrows in width and on certain days, it has looked fantastic. I like Almaden Valley because it is actually a pretty narrow valley where you can easily see both sides of the valley at the same time.

The biggest drawback to Almaden Valley is San Jose only did its normal retail planning for that era for its time which is 5 strip shopping areas. Consequently there is no area within Almaden Valley that would attract outsiders to visit to shop and eat. With the hills and the narrow valley, they could have made very scenic retail areas.
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Old 05-15-2012, 05:37 PM
 
4,321 posts, read 6,282,748 times
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Originally Posted by SantaTeresaHills View Post
The biggest drawback to Almaden Valley is San Jose only did its normal retail planning for that era for its time which is 5 strip shopping areas. Consequently there is no area within Almaden Valley that would attract outsiders to visit to shop and eat.
That is my problem with San Jose in general. The city just seems to lack the character that you find in other cities in the west valley as well as the peninsula. I think they've done a lot to the downtown area and Willow Glen is a cute little downtown, but that's it.
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Old 05-15-2012, 11:27 PM
 
13,212 posts, read 21,827,501 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SantaTeresaHills View Post
I really like running through Almaden Valley using the Los Alamitos trail. It looks the best in the stretch where the valley narrows in width and on certain days, it has looked fantastic. I like Almaden Valley because it is actually a pretty narrow valley where you can easily see both sides of the valley at the same time.
Bingo. Somebody gets it. I live in that narrow end of Almaden and it's great. On one side we have the Quicksilver Park with hundreds of miles of trails through the Santa Cruz foothills. On the other side, we have the Creek Trails (there are actually a couple of forks of the creek). And there are trees and flowers everywhere. Big nicely landscaped homes. Sure, the homes are 30 years old, but they're fairly nice for tract homes. Out the southern end of Almaden we have McKean Rd past the reservoirs and leading to a network of great little roads to Morgan Hill and Gilroy for bicycling and motorcycling. You can even get out to the coast that way. Go north, and you're in urban hell if you like that sort of thing. Really we have the best of both worlds out here. Plus, we're just minutes from downtown Los Gatos. The only real downside is the sucky commute into the valley, or even to north San Jose.

Mountain View by comparison is a soulless cement city with 60 y/o cheap tract homes build on cement slabs with tiny lots barely bigger than the homes. It's completely land-locked in the middle of urban hell. I can't believe folks are comparing the two.
Quote:
The biggest drawback to Almaden Valley is San Jose only did its normal retail planning for that era for its time which is 5 strip shopping areas. Consequently there is no area within Almaden Valley that would attract outsiders to visit to shop and eat. With the hills and the narrow valley, they could have made very scenic retail areas.
That's a very interesting observation. Oh what could have been! But then you'd never be able to touch this place.
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Old 05-16-2012, 01:12 AM
 
483 posts, read 1,559,609 times
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Almaden Hills Estates, while nice, is one of the cheaper parts of Almaden Valley. The reason it's cheap is because it doesn't feed into the top schools (Leland, etc). Most of the homes in AHE are Shapell so they're pretty good.

AHE is WAY cheaper than LG and Saratoga. They are not in the same price class so there's no point in suggesting LG/Saratoga to him. Gee, why not suggest Atherton while you're at it.

What's so special about LG? I live in Saratoga so I can afford to live in LG but I don't want to. Yeah it has a quaint downtown with overpriced restaurants, big deal. They also have the Ferrari/Lambo dealer with the absolute worst prices in the USA. Everything's overpriced in LG. LG is a really snobby place, second only to Shallow Alto
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Old 05-16-2012, 01:32 AM
 
13,212 posts, read 21,827,501 times
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Originally Posted by josh u View Post
Almaden Hills Estates, while nice, is one of the cheaper parts of Almaden Valley. The reason it's cheap is because it doesn't feed into the top schools (Leland, etc).
I was wondering about that, it's pretty far out of Almaden. Great area though and closer to the freeway. Sounds like a good place to be if you don't have kids.
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Old 05-17-2012, 02:53 PM
 
Location: Santa Clara
3 posts, read 5,005 times
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Wow! It seems I've incited a lively conversation about Almaden and it's neighboring communities We were originally considering Saratoga and Los Gatos, but since we couldn't find what we wanted, have since expanded our search to Almaden. My main concern is the extra commute distance, since most of our activities take us to Santa Clara and upward through Cupertino/Los Altos. I believe we'd have an additional 20+ minutes on hwy 85 to deal with...longer during high traffic times. Since this is a long term situation we're looking at, I want to be sure that extra time on the road will be worth it, to come home to a lovely home in Almaden. Incidentally, we spend many weekends patronizing restaurants in downtown Los Gatos and Santana Row, but commuting to either wouldn't prove to be a hardship, since it's the weekends we tend to go there. One further question to the Almaden experts....aside from Almaden Hills Estates area which I began this thread with, what other desirable sections of Almaden have nice homes on larger lots that you would recommend and why?
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