Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Jose
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 11-25-2007, 04:53 PM
 
38 posts, read 138,832 times
Reputation: 32

Advertisements

I wasn't sure if I should be posting in the Bay Area or Silicon Valley forum for this question...I have recently posted questions about Sunnyvale, and now I am looking for answers about the Palo Alto area. I can't seem to find many apartments/houses for rent! Am I missing something? I've looked on Craigslist, Rent.com and the Mercury news (?) with no luck. The very few I did find were above $3800 for a 3 bedroom...is this the norm? I am hoping not.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 11-25-2007, 07:08 PM
 
30,896 posts, read 36,958,653 times
Reputation: 34526
Quote:
Originally Posted by lookingtoleaveNY View Post
I wasn't sure if I should be posting in the Bay Area or Silicon Valley forum for this question...I have recently posted questions about Sunnyvale, and now I am looking for answers about the Palo Alto area. I can't seem to find many apartments/houses for rent! Am I missing something? I've looked on Craigslist, Rent.com and the Mercury news (?) with no luck. The very few I did find were above $3800 for a 3 bedroom...is this the norm? I am hoping not.
Yes, this would be appropriate place to post questions about Palo Alto. Although Silicon Valley doesn't have exact boundaries, Palo Alto would normally be considered part of it.

I'm not surprised that you can't find affordable place to rent in Palo Alto. Silicon Valley is expensive as it is. And Palo Alto is one of the most expensive parts of Silicon Valley. It's a popular place to live because of all the tech companies and Stanford U. nearby. It also has more charm than most Silicon Valley towns / cities...but you most definitely will pay a high premium for it.

$3800 for a 3BR sounds high to me, but since I'm not in the rental market for a house in that area, I'm not sure.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-25-2007, 07:40 PM
 
Location: San Jose, CA
7,688 posts, read 29,154,335 times
Reputation: 3631
Palo Alto is insane. A population of 60,000, but currently only a piddling 41 homes on the MLS, of which 32 are over $1 million. The rest are ALL condos. Nowhere else around here is both that big and in such high demand.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-25-2007, 07:45 PM
 
38 posts, read 138,832 times
Reputation: 32
Well, let me say that we would be looking to rent for at least the first year. Are the condominiums typically owned or rented out? If so, any idea of the prices in this area? I cannot find any information that is valuable whatsoever.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-25-2007, 08:13 PM
 
Location: San Jose, CA
7,688 posts, read 29,154,335 times
Reputation: 3631
Rentometer, by iiProperty: enter an address and get rental comps back!

This will give you an idea. I put in a "low-end" 3-bedroom condo in an area that's a little bit too close to East Palo Alto, and it spit out a median price for comparables of $3775. It's expensive with a capital E.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-25-2007, 08:19 PM
 
38 posts, read 138,832 times
Reputation: 32
YIKES. What am I going to do?? We have to move out there, on July 1st actually. I was looking at Sunnyvale, (you have replied to questions I had about that area) but my in-laws have strongly suggested we look at Palo Alto or Mountain View, mainly because of better schools. We are very fortunate that they are going to help us out for the 1st year, but after that we're on our own, and obviously I don't want to drown in debt. Holy crap, this might suck...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-25-2007, 10:51 PM
 
3,245 posts, read 6,300,862 times
Reputation: 4929
Quote:
Originally Posted by lookingtoleaveNY View Post
YIKES. What am I going to do?? We have to move out there, on July 1st actually. I was looking at Sunnyvale, (you have replied to questions I had about that area) but my in-laws have strongly suggested we look at Palo Alto or Mountain View, mainly because of better schools. We are very fortunate that they are going to help us out for the 1st year, but after that we're on our own, and obviously I don't want to drown in debt. Holy crap, this might suck...


Mountain View schools do not offer any advantage over Sunnyvale schools. Just check the test scores. Palo Alto has very high scoring schools (with huge academic pressure),just budget $5000/month for a minimally livable house.


School Rankings for the City of Mountain View

School Rankings for the City of Sunnyvale
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-26-2007, 12:47 AM
 
30,896 posts, read 36,958,653 times
Reputation: 34526
Quote:
Originally Posted by lookingtoleaveNY View Post
YIKES. What am I going to do?? We have to move out there, on July 1st actually. I was looking at Sunnyvale, (you have replied to questions I had about that area) but my in-laws have strongly suggested we look at Palo Alto or Mountain View, mainly because of better schools. We are very fortunate that they are going to help us out for the 1st year, but after that we're on our own, and obviously I don't want to drown in debt. Holy crap, this might suck...
Send your kids to middling or slightly above average schools. Save the difference on rent and supplement their education with private tutoring.

Alternatively you could find a way to earn more (often not easy). Or not move here.

When you live in California with kids, there are no easy decisions, that's for sure. A lot of people decide that having to make such Catch-22 decisions is just not worth it and move out of state...or they take a pass on moving here in the first place.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-26-2007, 10:03 AM
 
Location: San Jose, CA
7,688 posts, read 29,154,335 times
Reputation: 3631
Quote:
Originally Posted by lookingtoleaveNY View Post
YIKES. What am I going to do?? We have to move out there, on July 1st actually. I was looking at Sunnyvale, (you have replied to questions I had about that area) but my in-laws have strongly suggested we look at Palo Alto or Mountain View, mainly because of better schools. We are very fortunate that they are going to help us out for the 1st year, but after that we're on our own, and obviously I don't want to drown in debt. Holy crap, this might suck...
Live in the part of Sunnyvale that has Cupertino schools? That should still be less expensive than Palo Alto.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-26-2007, 01:53 PM
 
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
6,957 posts, read 22,311,234 times
Reputation: 6471
My son seems to be doing OK in the Redwood City schools (Woodside High). Rents are much better there than in PA and it's only a few minutes commute. Sonarrat could tell you all about RWC. I lived on a boat there for several years and enjoyed the town well enough for a "big city" experience.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Jose

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:31 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top