La Rinconada (San Jose, Fremont, Sunnyvale: apartments, rental market, crime)

[chongaponga]

What is your perception of La Rinconada? What words come to mind?

[mstnghu2]

Are you referring to the La Rinconada Country Club area of Los Gatos? If so, it's a nice area. All of Los Gatos is nice, even the areas with dumpier old houses and apartments.

[chongaponga]

Thanks mstnghu2. It looks very nice and I'm thinking very expensive! We could be moving to CA. Husband's job in Cupertino, 2 elementary school kids and me, stay-at-home-mom/photographer.

Thoughts on commute to Cupertino and rental market (3k-3.5k/month)

Is Mountain View completely different to say Saratoga?

[mstnghu2]

Yes, all of Los Gatos is expensive. Based on your price range, you probably could find a place in your price range. Depending on how big of a place you need though, you may need to adjust your expectations. Los Gatos is a very nice town, but can come across as a somewhat pretentious area.

Saratoga is almost immediately south of Los Gatos...the tiny town of Monte Sereno is squished between them. While Los Gatos to me seems to have a more family-oriented youthful type of atmosphere, Saratoga tends to seem to have an older population and has much more of an "old money" type of feel to it. Personally, I think Saratoga is one of the most beautiful places in the South Bay. Unfortunately, it's out of my price range.

Mountain View is nothing like Saratoga. It's cheaper, but prices are still on the higher end of things. MV has a decent downtown with quite a few good restaurants and other hangout spots. The demographic is mostly a mix of young tech workers and families with kids and is somewhat racially diverse. There are some slightly sketchy parts of MV, but overall it's a very safe community.

Cupertino is a nice place. It's safe and schools are top-notch. The demographic is predominantly Chinese immigrants. It's one of two cities in Santa Clara county (Milpitas is the other) with a minority-majority population. That may or may not matter to you. Personally, I'd like my kid to be around lots of other cultural groups, so I prefer an area that's more diverse.

If commuting distance is not of utmost concern, I'd look into the Almaden Valley area of San Jose (try the search feature here as well since they're are quite a few threads about AV). Almaden Valley borders Los Gatos and has a very similar feel. It would probably add about 10 minutes to your husband's commute vs. Los Gatos.

[chongaponga]

Great information mstnghu2. Commute is very important. It's currently 1hr. 20 min and one of the reasons we want to relocate. Ironically the other was we found CT to be expensive and we could be heading to the one state which is more expensive!

Also, the Mr. thinks that for the first year of getting ahold of hiss responsibilities hours could be long, so another reason to be close.

We love diversity and want the kids to grow surrounded by it. We run away from "pretentious" we are very down to earth but value safety more than anything. A good public school system, of course.

What do you think of Sunnyvale?

[Billy Millennium]

Sunnyvale is just okay, in my opinion. Sunnyvale's reputation is of a boring non-descript large suburb. It has a downtown area and some stuff along El Camino Real, but I haven't spent much time up there. I noticed some liveliness in their downtown (revitalized I heard) when I went to a restaurant there for the first time last year. Three high schools in Fremont, Wilcox, and Homestead High. Homestead (correct me if I'm wrong) is probably considered the better school of the three.

Overall, it's not a bad place by any means. It is a fairly large city, so neighborhoods will surely vary. Less desirable and more run down ones too I'm sure. Crime is low there. You can check it out when you're looking at Mountain View. Downtown Mtn. View is very close to Sunnyvale by taking El Camino Real.

[GoldyViolet]

Homestead is definitely the best highschool in the Sunnyvale area. Sunnyvale area on the Mary Ave side is nice (borders with Mtn View.) Sunnyvale area on the Mathilda side bordering into Santa Clara is not as nice.