Moving to San Jose area, neighborhood suggestions please (Ontario, Santa Clara: apartments, rentals)

[OfTheTrees]

My husband and I are moving to the San Jose area from Ontario, Canada. We are looking to rent a 3 bedroom for around $2000. We'd like to avoid apartment living, although were not opposed to a townhouse or duplex. And we're open to areas nearby, say within 30-45 minutes commute. Any suggestions?

[bobby_guz_man]

Where will you and the husband work?

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by OfTheTrees

My husband and I are moving to the San Jose area from Ontario, Canada. We are looking to rent a 3 bedroom for around $2000. We'd like to avoid apartment living, although were not opposed to a townhouse or duplex. And we're open to areas nearby, say within 30-45 minutes commute. Any suggestions?

Unless you can live in Hollister, I don't see you finding a 3 bedroom house, and not even likely an apartment in your price range.

The commute is so bad in the Bay Area, that 30 - 45 minutes doesn't equal much distance, unfortunately.

We need more details to help you.

[OfTheTrees]

I was afraid $2000 wouldn't work, we could pay a little more but not much. My husband will be working downtown.

Is commuting from south of San Jose, like from Hollister, any better than other areas nearby? How about nearby East Bay, affordable?

We need the extra bedrooms for our soon to be born baby and would like to have a home office, but we could settle on a 2 bedroom. Whats apartment living like in San Jose, family friendly?

I think living in a nice apt/home in a nice area, is more important to us than being in close proximity to downtown.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[zombocom]

well, Hollister is far from san Jose (about 45 miles), and he would still get stuck in traffic.

average price for a two bedroom in san Jose is about 2,100.

[easybay]

I would center my search on apartments in west/south San Jose or Santa Clara. If you upped your rent to $2400-2500 you would probably find something in the price range. And trust everyone here on the board - proximity to downtown will be important, the traffic here is insane. It's going to be tough being a new mom in a new city/country - without having to deal with your DH leaving to work 1 1/2 hours early and coming home 1 1/2 hours late. Look for homes/apartments on Craigslist - Rivermark area of Santa Clara is nice (we rented at the Carlyle) with a ton of young families or around Santa Clara University. I drive by a nice apartment building - Park Central in Santa Clara when I go to the post office.

[bobby_guz_man]

Since your husband works in downtown, is he open to taking public transit?

If he is, then the light rail runs through downtown. It is not incredibly fast but generally does a decent job as long as the starting points and end points are close to the stations. In this case you would want to look for a place anywhere that has quick access to the stations.

You can go to Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to check up on the schedule and maps of the routes. The fee is currently $2 one way, but you can buy a monthly package for $80 that has unlimited rides.

I live in South San Jose and about a 15-minute walk to the station. Once I reach the station it takes about 12 minutes for me to be in downtown and jump off at the station close to my workplace, another 5 minutes on foot takes me to my office. Total time is roughly half an hour. If I bring my bike then I shave off about 10 minutes. No traffic to deal with, and the trains are always on time, give or take 2-3 minutes.

If he prefers to drive, then pretty much you can stay anywhere in San Jose. Downtown is located in practically the center of San Jose, so you're going to only need about 30 minutes max to reach downtown from even the furthest points of the city.

For example, this morning I drove from my home in South San Jose to my downtown office, at around 8:30 AM. Using Almaden Avenue, I made it to the office 15 minutes later.

As far as areas of San Jose to rent, all areas are OK, none are BAD. The only three to avoid are the East San Jose neighborhood, the neighborhood around Seven Trees Avenue, and the neighborhood directly to the south of Downtown aka Ghetto Glen.

[bobby_guz_man]

And in general, the cheapest rent would be in various neighborhoods of San Jose, and in Gilroy. I find that rent in other cities are generally higher than comparable neighborhoods in San Jose.

Rent in Morgan Hill surprisingly is not much cheaper than San Jose's

[sezzam]

South San Jose, around the Santa Teresa hospital is quiet, has decent 2BR rentals for about $2200-2500, close to light rail. Downtown is ~15 min by light rail; shopping within 10-minute drive.

[SantaTeresaHills]

Check out the Palm Valley apartments near the Kaiser Hospital in San Jose. We've visited friends that had a unit there and the apartments and grounds are very nice.