Fremont vs. San Jose? (San Francisco, Oakland: apartments, crime, house)

[Sassy Muffin]

We are looking for a house to buy. Currently we live and work in Santa Clara. After searching in San Jose/Santa Clara/Campbell etc. we decided to also look a bit east... Is Fremont a good place to live? As far as I know, it has good schools, but when I'm checking crime in the area, it seems super high... What's the true picture? Is it a good place to live, or it's better stick to South Bay?

[ccm123]

Fremont is generally a good area and there are no really bad areas. The south side and the areas closest to the hills (I-680), are the best areas of Fremont.

Don't expect any exciting nightlife in Fremont, it is a family oriented, kind of boring, suburban town.

Fremont has Mission San Jose High School, one of the best performing high schools in the state, with an API of 996.

Many Silicon Valley commuters have discovered Fremont and the commute from Fremont into Silicon Valley in the morning, is pretty heavy. The reverse is true in the afternoon.

I lived near Stevenson Blvd and Paseo Padre (right across from Central Park and Lake Elizabeth) many years ago and never had any issues at all.

[mstnghu2]

Although it's considered part of the East Bay, Fremont almost feels like an extension of the South Bay to me. It directly borders Milpitas to the south and is an easy drive (assuming non-commute hours) to San Jose.
Fremont is a perfectly fine place to live.
I'm not sure where you're getting your crime information from, but overall Fremont is very safe. There are some sketchy apartments throughout town and there is a small amount of gang activity and you will notice gang graffiti in some areas. Overall though, Fremont is just a typical bedroom community that just happens to cover more land area than both San Francisco and Oakland and has over 200k people. It's really an overgrown suburb in the way that the South Bay pretty much is.
Schools are generally very good throughout town and in the Mission San Jose and Warm Springs districts, you'll find some excellent top-performing schools.
I'm really not concerned about somebody considering me to be prejudiced on this board, so I will say that you should be aware that the population in Fremont is mostly East Indian and Chinese. This may be an issue for you. Personally, it is an issue for me because I do prefer diversity and many of these people are recent immigrants who have different concepts of what is considered proper behavior in this country. The population is pretty much Indian, Chinese, Afghan and a tiny sprinkling of Latino/White and even tinier sprinkling of black people. My wife and I are white and are typically the only white people just about everywhere we go. My wife and I actually live in Newark (which is a separate city completed surrounded by Fremont) and I was shocked by the racial diversity in Newark when I moved here. My neighborhood has quite a few different cultures represented and it's nice. It's weird that the demographics could be so different from Fremont, but they are. Most people in Fremont are pleasant enough, but you will find some of the cultural differences to be challenging at times. It's actually one of the reasons my wife and I won't settle down in Fremont and plan to eventually leave the area even though she grew up there as well as her parents. I highly recommend that if you want to get a very strong taste of "Fremont culture" that you spend a couple hours at the Costco on Auto Mall Pkwy. You will understand my post perfectly after that. Honestly, I don't want this to be construed as a racist-themed post, but I'm just being very real.
I've worked in Fremont for over ten years and lived most of my life just south of it in Milpitas. I have a lot of life experience here and know the city like the back of my hand. Overall, it is a nice place to live, but there are quality of life issues here that I think are quite unique to many other parts of California due to the large population of very recent immigrants. You should be aware of it. For the record, I prefer living next to "FOBs" than I would to gang bangers/criminals or white trash for that matter.
Good luck in your search. Fremont may actually be a great place for you to live and I just wanted to present you with the facts.

FYI, "FOB"= "Fresh Off the Boat"

[imcurious]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

Although it's considered part of the East Bay, Fremont almost feels like an extension of the South Bay to me. It directly borders Milpitas to the south and is an easy drive (assuming non-commute hours) to San Jose.
Fremont is a perfectly fine place to live.
I'm not sure where you're getting your crime information from, but overall Fremont is very safe. There are some sketchy apartments throughout town and there is a small amount of gang activity and you will notice gang graffiti in some areas. Overall though, Fremont is just a typical bedroom community that just happens to cover more land area than both San Francisco and Oakland and has over 200k people. It's really an overgrown suburb in the way that the South Bay pretty much is.
Schools are generally very good throughout town and in the Mission San Jose and Warm Springs districts, you'll find some excellent top-performing schools.
I'm really not concerned about somebody considering me to be prejudiced on this board, so I will say that you should be aware that the population in Fremont is mostly East Indian and Chinese. This may be an issue for you. Personally, it is an issue for me because I do prefer diversity and many of these people are recent immigrants who have different concepts of what is considered proper behavior in this country. The population is pretty much Indian, Chinese, Afghan and a tiny sprinkling of Latino/White and even tinier sprinkling of black people. My wife and I are white and are typically the only white people just about everywhere we go. My wife and I actually live in Newark (which is a separate city completed surrounded by Fremont) and I was shocked by the racial diversity in Newark when I moved here. My neighborhood has quite a few different cultures represented and it's nice. It's weird that the demographics could be so different from Fremont, but they are. Most people in Fremont are pleasant enough, but you will find some of the cultural differences to be challenging at times. It's actually one of the reasons my wife and I won't settle down in Fremont and plan to eventually leave the area even though she grew up there as well as her parents. I highly recommend that if you want to get a very strong taste of "Fremont culture" that you spend a couple hours at the Costco on Auto Mall Pkwy. You will understand my post perfectly after that. Honestly, I don't want this to be construed as a racist-themed post, but I'm just being very real.
I've worked in Fremont for over ten years and lived most of my life just south of it in Milpitas. I have a lot of life experience here and know the city like the back of my hand. Overall, it is a nice place to live, but there are quality of life issues here that I think are quite unique to many other parts of California due to the large population of very recent immigrants. You should be aware of it. For the record, I prefer living next to "FOBs" than I would to gang bangers/criminals or white trash for that matter.
Good luck in your search. Fremont may actually be a great place for you to live and I just wanted to present you with the facts.

FYI, "FOB"= "Fresh Off the Boat"

Horribly racist and inaccurate.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by imcurious

Horribly racist and inaccurate.

I stand behind everything I said and have extensive personal experience and find nothing I posted to be inaccurate. I can assure you that many people living in the area feel exactly the way I do but don't say anything out of fear of being called racist. I'm actually not racist, so I couldn't care less if somebody wants to make ignorant assumptions. For the record, I've actually been to both India and China in case you're interested. You probably read two sentences of my post and then cried "RACIST!".

[Carlite]

Both Fremont and San Jose have large Asian Indian and Chinese populations. San Jose also has a large Latino and Vietnamese community. Population diversity (and great food) are part of the story in the Silicon Valley. I would agree that Fremont connects more to Silicon Valley--that's where the largest share of its residents work.

It's hard for me to see a huge difference in character between the two cities. I'd look at the specifics--where do you like the house better, where do you like the neighborhood. You can look at your commute, but a lot of people change jobs a lot.

[kdog]

Originally Posted by imcurious

Horribly racist and inaccurate.

How so?

[bayarea07]

I do not think mstnghu is being racist,he is presenting the facts as he see's it and i must say that i would agree with his post.
Even though i would be considered Fresh out of the Boat indian (been here for 8 Years only) :-) but fact is Fremont is mostly chinese and indians.

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

I stand behind everything I said and have extensive personal experience and find nothing I posted to be inaccurate. I can assure you that many people living in the area feel exactly the way I do but don't say anything out of fear of being called racist. I'm actually not racist, so I couldn't care less if somebody wants to make ignorant assumptions. For the record, I've actually been to both India and China in case you're interested. You probably read two sentences of my post and then cried "RACIST!".

[bayarea07]

@imcurious - Grow Up Dude and learn to make distinction.

[justinbro2002]

Imcurious is somewhat correct Fremont is a majority Asian but this would hold true for most of the bay area as well. And I can speak for the shear joy a trip to the pacific commons costco is. I haven't lived in Fremont for about 5 years but my family still lives there and I only live 15 miles away in Livermore and this area has gotten far more diverse in the 5 year I have been here.

The 2010 United States Census[3] reported that Fremont had a population of 214,089. The population density was 2,443.7 people per square mile (943.5/km²). The racial makeup of Fremont was 70,320 (32.8%) White, 7,103 (3.3%) African American, 976 (0.5%) Native American, 108,332 (50.6%) Asian (18.1% Indian, 17.8% Chinese, 6.7% Filipino, 2.5% Vietnamese, 1.8% Korean, 1.0% Pakistani, 0.8% Japanese, 0.6% Burmese, 0.1% Thai, 1,169 (0.5%) Pacific Islander, 13,605 (6.4%) from other races, and 12,584 (5.9%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 31,698 persons (14.8%). Among the Hispanic population, 11.0% are Mexican, 0.6% Puerto Rican, and 0.5% Salvadoran. Non-Hispanic Whites were 26.5% of the population in 2010,[4] down from 85.4% in 1970.[5]