Bay Area moms

[mjs64]

I'm looking for advice on "affordable" (ha!) places to live in south or east bay. I accepted a job offer (yay!) in Santa Clara! But we definitely can't afford to live there. We will be living on just my income until DH finds a job. We will be looking for 2 BR single family home to rent for now.

My sister lives in Oakland, so ideally if like to be somewhere between Santa Clara and Oakland. I know I'll have to commute and am hoping for one under 45 minutes.

Advice on cities to look in? Budget is more important than school districts; we imagine this place to be temporary.

Thanks for any help.

[crl]

Dh suggests Santa Clara itself or San Jose near the CalTrans station. He said also there are some new apartment complexes going up near the Dumbarton Bridge.

Will try to check with him for more details later.

Catherine

[baymom]

Parts of Redwood City are fairly affordable (not RW Shores, though) and it is somewhat midway from Oakland and Santa Clara. I think that may be a long commute, pushing on 45 minutes for sure, depending on your hours. Also, how about Milpitas? I *think* it's on the affordable side. You'd be close to work, not so much Oakland. Congratulations on the new job!!

[connor_mommy]

There's Milpitas, Union City and Fremont. These are along the 880 corridor, so it would be easy to hop on and head up to Oakland. And you wouldn't be too far from Santa Clara.

[mjs64]

Sorry I'm so late back to this thread, and thanks for the advice. I *think* we're going to look in San Jose itself. We really want to avoid apartment living, more so than we want to be close to my sister.

I thought I'd gotten used to HCOL moving from TX to SoCal 8 years ago, but the Bay Area seems to be a whole other level of $$$!

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

I work in Santa Clara and live in San Jose (Willow Glen). I have to be honest, the commute gets annoying. It is right at 45 min from where I'm at. I love our neighborhood, though.

[AnnieW625]

If you don't mind the train then I would look at the East Bay. DH worked in Santa Clara, but lived in Livermore and took the ACE train from the Livermore station. This was from 2000 to 2002, but the train is still a very popular option. Pleasanton is also a nice option and there is a train station as well. It is just about an hour on the train I think and DH really liked it. There is also Dublin, but IMHO that has a bit more of a bedroom community feel than the other two and I don't recall it having a particular downtown feel to it.

Fremont or Milpitas might be an option, but traffic is going to be horrible, and just for that 20 mile or so stretch the train was faster most days for DH. Also pockets of Fremont are not so great options for school.

When DH (then fiance) was still working in the area we were going to rent an apartment in Campbell (which was going to be close to my work location) or the Willow Glen section of San Jose. I think we were going to be paying $1200 for a 1 bedroom apartment in one of those two cities, but that was right at the end of the tech. boom and then DH got laid off in Nov., 2002 so I don't know if rents became lower due to the tech bust.

[crl]

Sorry I'm so late back to this thread, and thanks for the advice. I *think* we're going to look in San Jose itself. We really want to avoid apartment living, more so than we want to be close to my sister.

I thought I'd gotten used to HCOL moving from TX to SoCal 8 years ago, but the Bay Area seems to be a whole other level of $$$!

Yes it is! We moved here from the DC area and real estate here is just so much more expensive.

Catherine

[citymama]

Yay, welcome to the neighborhood! I would stay closer to work, if possible. I don't know about rental prices in Fremont, but they have good schools there, and it's halfway in between. Maybe some of the Fremont mamas can chime in.

[egoldber]

In depends on where you are in Santa Clara, which is a very spread out area. North San Jose and Milpitas are very close to northeastern SC (near Great America), but would be a long commute to the parts close to 101 and 237 or Lawrence and 280.

We have lived in Milpitas, Sunnyvale (Birdland), and South San Jose (Almaden). DH worked in north Santa Clara and it was a 10 minute commute from where we were in Milpitas (right at the base of the foothills). Sunnyvale was a lot harder but it would have been much easier if he worked closer to the airport.

[rlu]

so I don't know if rents became lower due to the tech bust.

No, rents are still really high in the "good parts" of San Jose, Campbell, Saratoga, etc.

[gibas23]

No, rents are still really high in the "good parts" of San Jose, Campbell, Saratoga, etc.

Yes. I think the rents are even much higher now with the increasing housing prices and the 2nd boom on the high tech industries on the area. We are currently renting our 3 br townhouse in Santa Clara for $3XXX. A house down our street advertised for $7,800 and it was snapped up in less than a month. How do someone willing to spend that much on a monthly rent is just beyond me.

OP, how about Beryessa area, it is south San Jose, borderline between Santa Clara, San Jose or North Valley San Jose area?

[mjs64]

In depends on where you are in Santa Clara, which is a very spread out area. North San Jose and Milpitas are very close to northeastern SC (near Great America), but would be a long commute to the parts close to 101 and 237 or Lawrence and 280.

We have lived in Milpitas, Sunnyvale (Birdland), and South San Jose (Almaden). DH worked in north Santa Clara and it was a 10 minute commute from where we were in Milpitas (right at the base of the foothills). Sunnyvale was a lot harder but it would have been much easier if he worked closer to the airport.

The job is *right by* Great America. I am so unfamiliar with the area though.

I'm flying out next weekend to look, so hopefully I'll get a bit better of a perspective. I don't know where to start though! We need to be there in mid-August.

Any neighborhoods where we might possibly rent an older house (2 BR) or less than $2000, or is this budget just absolutely realistic?

[gibas23]

OP, try North San Jose. You can take local streets to Great America. Something like this:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/3826009974.html


Any single family housing around Great America area is quite pricey now.

[doodlesmama]

We just relocated from Upstate NY to Fremont for DH's job. We looked at everywhere on the peninsula before deciding on Fremont. We found that the public schools were good and we could get a lot more for our money sq ftge-wise. We rent a newly built this year townhouse with just under 2000 sqft for probably about half what it would cost on the peninsula (we looked at Campbell, los altos, palo alto, cupertino, los gatos, MPK with private schools). My DH works in MPK and also considered his commute when deciding where to live, from Fremont to MPK it is a straight 15 min shot to work vs 40 min elsewhere we were looking. I have to say we really love the area, seems to be way more families than singles here. Good luck!

[egoldber]

I think you are going to have a hard time finding a SFH for $2K a month. You can probably get close to that with a town home or condo.

For a less than 30 minute commute I would stick with North San Jose (as north as you can get, look for "north san jose" and "berryessa"), Milpitas, and south Fremont. Fremont is also very spread out and you want something closer to 237 vs closer to Union City. You could also look in north Sunnyvale and north Santa Clara.

Order of expense will probably be.....

Milpitas
Berryessa/North San Jose
south Fremont
Santa Clara
Sunnyvale

You need to look at a map and consider the actual commute route. Factor in proximity to expressway/highway. A house close to commute route in a reverse commute direction can take 30 minutes off your commute.