Work in Fremont - Where to Live? (San Jose, Hayward: apartments, rent)

[michellewrong]

Hi,

I am a 20-something woman possibly relocating from NYC to Fremont for work.

I currently make 35K in NYC, my salary will likely stay the same. It's hard here but I have survived for the past 2 years by avoiding eating out/shopping all the time. My rent here (in Manhattan) is 900 for 1/3 of a 3 bedroom apartment, and I won't be able to spend any more than that in California. I will have a car, no worries there. Can I find a studio for around 900? It seems more likely that I will have to find a roommate.

What cities should I consider? I have a friend in Sunnyvale (google maps tells me this is a 30 min drive to my office, is it way worse during rush hour?), who I will stay with when I first relocate. It would be ideal to have a 45 min commute or less.

I'm not concerned about missing out on the fast paced constant social rush of NY, that is part of the reason I would like to get out of NY.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[StandingRoomOnly]

Forget making any commute, why not live in Fremont and rent a room in a house? On 35k a year you are going to need to keep all living costs as low as possible. If you want some sort of night life you can always take BART from Fremont to SF or elsewhere.

[justinbro2002]

if you can survive in NYC on 35k a year then you should be fine in Fremont. You could live with roommates or rent a room if Fremont for around what you were paying in NYC or less. You could rent a studio apartment in maybe union city or hayward for around $700 to $900 union city is right next to Fremont and hayward is the next town over from union city.

[ccm123]

Fremont is perfectly fine, although you won't have the city feel of NYC. With $900, you could easily find a nice place with a roommate, or rent a room in a home. I think it would be a stretch to find a studio for this price.

Fremont is convenient (BART station in town) and I would call it a family oriented city. It is generally safe and most any shops that you need are in town or close by (Milpitas, Newark, San Jose, etc).

[justinbro2002]

Here are a couple of studios listed on craigslist in hayward for under $800 a month. Depending on what part of Fremont you will be working in It is about 10-15 miles to hayward about 30 minutes during commute times.
SUNNY HAYWARD STUDIO
Very nice modern small studio (Furnished or Unfurnished - your choice.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by justinbro2002

Here are a couple of studios listed on craigslist in hayward for under $800 a month. Depending on what part of Fremont you will be working in It is about 10-15 miles to hayward about 30 minutes during commute times.
SUNNY HAYWARD STUDIO
Very nice modern small studio (Furnished or Unfurnished - your choice.

Hayward is kinda icky. I think it would be better to have a roommate and live in Fremont where the commute would be minimal.

[Cornhusker_CA]

Southern part of Newark is a safe and perfect place for commute, shopping, and also affordable.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by Cornhusker_CA

Southern part of Newark is a safe and perfect place for commute, shopping, and also affordable.

I'm not so sure about that. Newark has had quite an uptick in crime over the last few years, and I wouldn't consider the southern part of town to be the better part for sure. In fact, the apartments/townhomes off Cedar/Stevenson have been having constant crime problems lately (assaults, car break-ins, home burglaries, etc. even in broad daylight). There have also been numerous drug busts of pot houses and meth labs around central and southern Newark over the last couple of years. By far, Newark's nicest neighborhoods are The Lake and Rosemont in the northeast part of town, and even they are not immune to crime.

[Cornhusker_CA]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

I'm not so sure about that. Newark has had quite an uptick in crime over the last few years, and I wouldn't consider the southern part of town to be the better part for sure. In fact, the apartments/townhomes off Cedar/Stevenson have been having constant crime problems lately (assaults, car break-ins, home burglaries, etc. even in broad daylight). There have also been numerous drug busts of pot houses and meth labs around central and southern Newark over the last couple of years. By far, Newark's nicest neighborhoods are The Lake and Rosemont in the northeast part of town, and even they are not immune to crime.

You can easily see whether neighborhood is good or bad from local elementary school attendance boundary. Southern Newark kids attend James L. Bunker Elementary School; its API score is 853 in 2011. It is the best in entire Newark, its API score is better than six elementary schools in Fremont, and only behind Delaine Eastin Elementary in entire New Haven Unified School District.

I can easily list a long list of crime logs that you had mentioned from any neighborhood you might highly recommended, please don’t compare Newark with million home areas since Newark residents do pay for that kind of pricing.

You can go to Trulia.com, type any address you may concern about its safety. Southern Newark area is in colors of safe area.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by Cornhusker_CA

You can easily see whether neighborhood is good or bad from local elementary school attendance boundary. Southern Newark kids attend James L. Bunker Elementary School; its API score is 853 in 2011. It is the best in entire Newark, its API score is better than six elementary schools in Fremont, and only behind Delaine Eastin Elementary in entire New Haven Unified School District.

I can easily list a long list of crime logs that you had mentioned from any neighborhood you might highly recommended, please don’t compare Newark with million home areas since Newark residents do pay for that kind of pricing.

You can go to Trulia.com, type any address you may concern about its safety. Southern Newark area is in colors of safe area.

You're right that Newark does have quite a few well-performing schools. Newark still has a disproportionate crime rate to the size of its population. I've lived in Newark since 2009 and have become well aware of the high number of homeless people and drug addicts living throughout town. I actually am part of a neighborhood watch group and we hold meetings at my house in the Lake neighborhood. One of my neighbors helps arrange the meetings with me and she is a good friend of a Newark PD officer who also attends some of the meetings and keeps us filled in on crime issues in town. For Newark's size, it's definitely got quite a few crime issues that you wouldn't really expect to see in such a small residential community.

I'm not saying I'm afraid to live here. I actually like my neighborhood a lot and have great neighbors. Overall, I still consider my area to be reasonably safe and am not afraid to go for walks at night. I'm aware of its crime issues though and don't sugar coat anything. There have been about ten home burglaries on my street and the street behind mine in the last year alone. It's been enough of an issue that I put in an alarm, security cameras and extra locks on some of the doors. The crime situation has affected all parts of town and not just my neighborhood and often times it's residents of Newark that are committing the crimes in their own city.

As far as you mentioning about not expecting it to be like a neighborhood with million dollar homes, well, there actually are a few million dollar homes at the intersection of Lake Blvd./Jarvis ave. There was a homeless encampment directly behind those houses with lots of drug use and spillover crime into that area. The police finally cleared it out a few days ago...for now.

I'm not necessarily trying to steer people away from Newark, I'd just like somebody considering the area to be aware of some of its issues.