East Palo Alto, etc.?

[crl]

There is a long, boring backstory. But here's the short version. We are considering buying something fairly small in the Palo Alto area. It would be a crash pad for dh a couple of nights a week to avoid a long commute on late nights, a place for the family to potentially spend one summer and eventually a place we would turn into a rental property.

So affordability, proximity to Palo Alto and safety are the keys here. Schools aren't very important, except to the extent that affects being able to rent the place out down the road. East Palo Alto is very tempting for the prices and location.

We are looking at crime statistics (which show homicide has decreased in East Palo Alto quite a bit recently) etc. But I thought I'd post here too, to tap into the SF area BBB wisdom.

Thanks for any information!
Catherine

[AnnieW625]

10 yrs. ago I would've said no way, but I really think that area is kind of on an upswing because the rest of the area is soo darn expensive. I would talk to a real estate agent in the area who is familiar with the sucess of rentals and the market in general and see what he thinks. If your DH is okay with it, as are you then I would go for it. I would also look at getting a not so nice car that you can put uber cheap insurance on to get him to and from work so just in case it gets stolen so a nice new car is not a target to be stolen.

[crl]

Thanks! DH has been in touch with a real estate agent suggested by one of dh's colleagues. The agent doesn't seem to think we are crazy, but, of course, he would like for us to buy something. ;). DH agrees with you about the price disparity in the area suggesting that East Palo Alto may be a reasonable bet at the moment. We had good luck buying in a kind of fringe area in Northern VA so we do have that in mind.

I think the big concern at this point is whether we would feel safe for me and the kids to be there over the summer. I'm not a super paranoid person and probably more comfortable in less than ideal neighborhoods than many (our previous fringe neighborhood actually had a drug dealing house a block away for a couple of months until the neighbors managed to get the cops to put a stop to it). But I would be at home alone with two small children a good bit, including potentially overnight at times.

Catherine

[RunnerDuck]

We lived in Milpitas for a while which is south of Palo Alto. I have pretty much the same reaction as Annie. Not so great years ago, much better now. What's great about it is Ikea is in Palo Alto and as beastly hot and sunny as it in in CA in the summer that's a great place to play indoors - there's also a place just north of there called Coyote Point where if if get a membership it's cheap (like $50) and it gets you in cheap or free to a ton of other places (free to Happy Hollow Zoo in San Jose for example) - it was the best membership deal we could find when we were out there. IF they are still open - seems like they were threatening to close every year we were there. It's small but it's a good way to spend an afternoon with kids - and you can see the airplanes land at SFO from there which is also fun. And right near it is a newish playground with a HUGE tall climbing structure.

Of course we left in 2008 so this all may or may not still be true but - EPA is getting better and it near some good stuff for kids.

[crl]

Thanks! This is super helpful! DS loves to swim so if we end up there for the summer, I'm thinking we need to find a pool to hang at too.

Catherine

[AnnieW625]

We lived in Milpitas for a while which is south of Palo Alto. ......What's great about it is Ikea is in Palo Alto and as beastly hot and sunny as it in in CA in the summer that's a great place to play indoors

I almost suggested Milpitas, and Mountain View too, and Ikea, which usually puts stores in up and coming areas. I might be wrong but wasn't there some childrens activity place over near The Great Mall in Milpitas?

[RunnerDuck]

When we lived there, no... or else I wasn't aware of it... there MIGHT have been a place you could check your kid at? but mostly there were just some random spots here and there where they projected stuff onto the floors and the kids could stomp on them... funny you mention that because here back in PA there is a mall called "The Mills." What was weird about the great mall was - I used to joke, it's not that great. It was a mile around (GREAT for indoor walking when the weather was too hot or too wet) but it was full of random crappy stores no one actually wanted to shop in. I'd always wonder how this place stayed in business.

Well the mills is .75 miles around and full of random crap stores you wonder how they stay in business, LOL... but it does have an awesome kids play area. I felt like I'd been zapped back to CA the first time I went there. Maybe the two are related and the great mall has a cool play area now?

What IS great about the great mall FYI is they have stride rite and carter's outlets and those two outlets are about the only outlets I have ever found worthy of the hype. Great selection and great prices.

Milpitas was a decent place to live. It could get smelly on certain days though ... we loved our location though. We could walk to the grocery store (save mart) and we have a nice 3 bedroom ranch in a family neighborhood. Granted we rented and it would have cost us like $650,000 to BUY that nice 3 bedroom ranch... which is part of why we moved back to PA... but there are things about CA I miss.

The whole time I was there I complained about how I missed winter and snow. Let me tell you winter as an adult with 3/ kids is WAY different than winter as a kid... LOL

[Globetrotter]

Our elderly neighbors (who we didn't really know as they were renting out their house most of the time we were here) sold their house, made their money and moved to a condo in EPA for their retirement. It is an up and coming neighborhood, from what I hear. It got a bum rap years ago for having a very high homicide rate, but keep in mind it is a SMALL city so the stats sound worse than it actually is. Ikea is right there - my kids love it!

I honestly don't know what it's like to LIVE there, so I can't speak to that. The location can't be beat, and I suspect there may be good pockets within the city. Have you looked on City-data.com? Definitely check out that forum!

The Great Mall has some stuff for kids, including a bounce play area and some small play areas. My kids loved to run around there! As far as outlet shopping goes, there is a Gap (though recently I haven't been impressed), Gymboree (nothing great), Children's place, Banana Republic (thumbs up!) and the usual Carters and Stride Rite, Marshalls, Coach, etc.. There is also a Sears outlet that sells Lands End. Milpitas has some good areas, one in particular near the hills. If you want to be close to PA, consider Mountain View also. There is a cute downtown (castro street) and it's reasonably safe and "affordable".

[Melanie]

Be sure to check out the city-data forums. I was asking about that and someone mentioned it is much better now and there were only 10 murders last year. OMG! In a city that size 10 murders isn't a good thing, IMHO.

[egoldber]

I worked in Milpitas for almost 10 years and we rented a house there for 3 years. I loved that 5 minute commute. We lived at the base of the foothills right across the street from a large park. It was truly beautiful there and we never had any smell from the Alviso area where we were (very close to North San Jose, but still Milpitas).

BUT Milpitas is NOT close to Palo Alto IMO. That stretch of 237 from Milpitas to Palo Alto is a wretched, wretched commute.

ETA: We lived essentially at Landess and Piedmont. I used to walk my dog every day at the base of the hills along Piedmont. Truly beautiful.

[crl]

Be sure to check out the city-data forums. I was asking about that and someone mentioned it is much better now and there were only 10 murders last year. OMG! In a city that size 10 murders isn't a good thing, IMHO.

Hmm, I'll have to go check the data again, but I think 10 is an old number. I saw online that it looked like they were going to make it through 2010 with just one. When I looked at the 2009 data I was more concerned with the burglary rate.

Catherine

[Mom to Brandon and 2 cats]

I would not live in EPA. That's just me. Too much gang activity. Last year, there was a major drug/gang bust that involved several police jurisdictions.

I would rather go a bit north and live in Redwood City (Redwood Shores is nice). Palo Alto is expensive, if you can head more south, the cheaper is gets. Menlo Park is next door, but expensive, and the cheaper side of Menlo (Belle Haven area) is not so great, although better than EPA.

Good luck with your decision.
Jennifer

[connor_mommy]

I would not live in EPA. That's just me. Too much gang activity. Last year, there was a major drug/gang bust that involved several police jurisdictions.

I would rather go a bit north and live in Redwood City (Redwood Shores is nice). Palo Alto is expensive, if you can head more south, the cheaper is gets. Menlo Park is next door, but expensive, and the cheaper side of Menlo (Belle Haven area) is not so great, although better than EPA.

Good luck with your decision.
Jennifer

Me, too! I live in Mountain View. It's less expensive than PA. The schools are good also. The downtown area is nice, so is Los Altos. You don't have to go far to get to Target, Walmart, Costco and Trader Joe's. In the summer, it's nice to drive to Santa Cruz and Monterey.

[crl]

I would not live in EPA. That's just me. Too much gang activity. Last year, there was a major drug/gang bust that involved several police jurisdictions.

I would rather go a bit north and live in Redwood City (Redwood Shores is nice). Palo Alto is expensive, if you can head more south, the cheaper is gets. Menlo Park is next door, but expensive, and the cheaper side of Menlo (Belle Haven area) is not so great, although better than EPA.

Good luck with your decision.
Jennifer

I think those are all possibilities if we move down permanently, but for a crash pad/future rental more than about 10 minutes drive does not make sense. And the prices also start to not make much sense for us either as I think most of those places are going to run over $500k?

Thanks!
Catherine

[smiles33]

I only drive through EPA down University Ave to the Dumbarton Bridge but I would not want to live there. Is your primary concern getting your DH a crash pad? I would just rent a cute cottage or in-law unit from one of the estates surrounding Stanford. College Terrace or faculty ghetto often have rentals with separate entrances. If you want to invest in buying, it just doesn't seem wise to focus on EPA even if the stats are better because the perception remains poor.

[LexyLou]

I would not live in EPA. That's just me. Too much gang activity. Last year, there was a major drug/gang bust that involved several police jurisdictions.

I would rather go a bit north and live in Redwood City (Redwood Shores is nice). Palo Alto is expensive, if you can head more south, the cheaper is gets. Menlo Park is next door, but expensive, and the cheaper side of Menlo (Belle Haven area) is not so great, although better than EPA.

Good luck with your decision.
Jennifer

I agree. If it's a crash pad for your husband, maybe, but still. I wouldn't want my out of town family staying there while visiting.

It is definitely better than it was 10 years ago, but just because things look prettier, doesn't necessarily mean it's safer.

[kozachka]

I only drive through EPA down University Ave to the Dumbarton Bridge but I would not want to live there. Is your primary concern getting your DH a crash pad? I would just rent a cute cottage or in-law unit from one of the estates surrounding Stanford. College Terrace or faculty ghetto often have rentals with separate entrances. If you want to invest in buying, it just doesn't seem wise to focus on EPA even if the stats are better because the perception remains poor.

I would not buy a place in EPA. When I was recently looking for a rental place in this area, there were a lot of properties offered in EPA and I avoided them because of schools and because of safety. I work off 237 and Milpitas in nowhere close to Palo Alto.

Have you looked at Mountain View? Not sure about prices to buy, but if you want to be very close to Palo Alto, and somewhat affordable that's where I'd look. Next down would be Sunnyvale, it has good and not so good school areas, which have more affordable houses. We have friends who live there and have kids in private school, it turned out to be a better deal for them. Certain areas of San Jose are quite nice, but it's a longer commute to Palo Alto.

I'd rent instead of buying. Once you factor in the cost of buying and selling a property, maintaining it etc., renting becomes more attractive IMHO.

[kwc]

Thinking about your situation, I wouldn't do it.

I know you are trying to mitigate the commute for your DH since you don't plan to move for a bit but I think trying to look at it as a solution to multiple problems (crash pad for DH, investment, place for you guys to hang in summer) means it probably won't work that well for any of them. Sorry if that comes off as too blunt. We've thought about getting a 1 BR/ studio in the City for DH to crash/ fun place for us on weekends but have rejected the idea a couple of times.

If you really think DH needs a crash pad, I agree with renting a room/ studio/ cottage. My DH often works late/ has to travel and he says the last thing he wants to think about is furnishing/ maintaining/ even cleaning up after himself. And the sad truth is that the later my DH works, the shorter the commute (35-40 min without traffic) so he would not be likely to actually "crash" there... so checking in on a place we owned might actually turn into an obligation/ one more thing your DH had to take care of.

I also do not think it would be a great place for you to hang out in the summers (and remember, I used to live in the foggiest part of SF so I remember the summers). Part of the legacy of decades of municipal mismanagement is a lack of good parks and walkable areas, roads are crummy, not a ton of community activities. So you'd have to drive to PA, Menlo or Mt. View anyway. I know that you also have a tight community in SF and, though the weather is great and there are a lot of things to do in MP/PA/MV, it's not as fun to do it without your friends (and you would not be meeting people here as easily if you were just here every once in awhile/ kids not in school).

I would also not buy in EPA. I do think it is safer than it was, and there could be an upside but it's not an ideal/safe investment for most. It's not that easy to rent out a place in EPA and I have no idea what will happen for resale until the economy rebounds. MV has a lot of condos/ townhouses that are just a bit further away which would have more resources and probably better resale value.

For us, the commute is not great but it only became untenable for me when I was commuting with 2 kids (hence our move down south) and it's not as bad for DH as long as has his XM radio/ podcasts. I actually sometimes envy him his alone time in the car.

Maybe just wait a bit and see how the commute is for your DH and for your DS, and whether your timeline for moving changes or not? I know it's hard to sit and worry that it will suck. :(