Question about the Neighborhoods in SJ: Likely Moving to the Silicon Valley/San Jose from LA in the next year (Santa Clara: apartments)

[KatiFaerie]

I'm a single woman who currently lives in suburban LA and has a woefully underpaid job at one of the local studios. I live in the Studio City-Sherman Oaks area and am looking for something comparable which I expect to cost more. I have family up there and there is no reason for me to stay down here anymore.

I expect that the rents will be a little higher but I am not sure how much. I have also been reading that salaries in LA are stagnant or even ridiculously low, therefore higher rent may not be an issue. I know I had to take a huge paycut to get a job after The Recession (yes, I capitalize it).

The part of LA where I live is pricey but nowhere near the priciest. My sources up there say San Jose may be a tad cheaper than say Menlo Park. Of course this all depends on where I end up working but if The Recession didn't get them I should still have a few contacts at Adobe's HQ in San Jose from my days as the tech liaison at another of the local studios. I also have a contact at LinkedIn which is in Mountain View which I know is beyond overpriced. A friend of mine just left Zynga but that is in The City and I have no interest in living or working in The City even if I could afford living on Billionaire's Row. The City is solely a shopping destination for me.

The point is I am not coming in totally blind or resourceless, just poor by Bay Area standards What I need to know is about the areas in San Jose. Studio City/Sherman Oaks for those who are not familiar with LA is a Starbucks (and other much better coffee shops) on every corner, pilates, yoga studios and barre every other block, cute boutiques I currently can't afford and an Apple Store every 5-10 miles. Typical affluent California suburb but in LA its all a suburb except downtown. I don't like downtowns - that's another thing I don't want to live downtown but I don't mind working there or being close.

I grew up in Los Feliz to give you a different idea of a compatible location.

Also, are people as transient up there as they are down here, for example, do people who do not have kids and are not anchored to a school district move when they switch jobs to avoid a commute? And how bad is the traffic? Is it really reaching LA levels? Remember I live near the 101-405 interchange and I laugh at other states so-called traffic. I know what real traffic means.

Any info would be appreciated.

[milvine]

Hi,

I moved to San Jose last year. It all depends on your finances. Me a my husband were just looking for 2bd and a school district didn't matter so we decided to live in Santa Clara. If you have a lot of money to spend I would recommend Mountain View, Los gatos or Palo Alto.
I have wrote a bit about rental prices in my blog: milvine.com

I hope it goes well for you

[ccm123]

Well, LA has much more housing selection (and prices are more reasonable) than in the Bay Area. The housing market (rent and buy) here now is quite tight and prices have risen to high levels. I know it's not good news for you, but that's the situation right now. Rents won't be a "little higher", they will generally be higher, likely by as much as 25%, or more. Many people moving from LA and other parts of the country have "sticker shock" when coming to the Bay Area. I lived in SoCal for many years (I'm a Bay Area native, though) and every time I moved from LA back to the Bay Area, houses were higher priced and much smaller than in LA. The Bay Area is much more "compressed" than LA is and folks are accustomed to the smaller homes and apartments.

The salaries here are generally higher than in LA, so that should help you make up some ground.

Traffic is still much better than in LA. LA's rush hour is 24/7, here in the Bay Area, it is generally only heavy during commuting hours. But, the rush hour traffic here is no picnic by any means and it's just as bad as in LA.

[ccm123]

In terms of neighborhoods, Los Gatos, Palo Alto, San Mateo, and Mountain View all have nice downtown areas.
You could also look for a place in San Jose (generally, stay out of East San Jose) such as in Willow Glen, which has a nice downtown area.