Hi Silicon Valley Mamas!
My husband just accepted a position in Mountain View and I was wondering which would be a great neighbourhood that is within biking distance to MV? We have a two year old so someplace family friendly would be ideal.
Thanks!
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I would say the whole bay area is pretty family friendly. You can consider living in MV, or the next town down is Sunnyvale. Where are you moving from? Where you end up living may just depend on your budget for housing.
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Mountain View, Sunnyvale or Palo Alto. Very Pricey though!
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I don't think you can go wrong anywhere... just avoid East Palo Alto and Oakland but even those places are getting better.
If you can get and stay in MV that's probably your best bet. Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Redwood City, San Mateo and others I can't think of right now are also very good and very close to MV. Like @wheres_c: said very pricey!
Palo Alto and Los Altos are very very very pricey ... because of the school district. If you have the money... and looking for an investment those would be the cities for you.
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Here is a map hopefully this helps
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There are parts of Oakland that are awesome (Lake Merritt etc)... But really it comes down to what your price point is. You'll basically be between Los Gatos (pricey) and Saratoga... Just as pricey!
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Does it have to be biking distance? DH worked in Cupertino and we lived in San Mateo. It's a commute but much more affordable. Is also look into San Carlos, Sunnyvale, redwood city
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Thanks everybody! We're coming from Vancouver so it will definitely be an adjustment. I thought Vancouver was expensive but Silicon Valley even more so!
@luckypenny: preferably biking distance. My hubby likes to bike he doesn't like city driving.
I've been looking at craigslist so I should expect anything above $2500 for at least a 2 bedroom right?
@Raindrop: We are planning to rent for now. Especially if we don't know whether we will stay here longer than 3 years. Depends how the hubby likes his new job.
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@clery: Oh that's good! I thought you were asking about committing to buying a house... but yeah renting anywhere would be great!
I hope you like it here.Funny thing about today... we just had a 3 year drought and today we are getting the storm of the century... 3-5 inches of rain and 30 mph winds. I'm sure other people from other parts of the world are kind of giggling at us. Almost all of DH's co-workers stayed at home.
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@clery: is $2000 a month for a 2 br apt in your price range? That will help us help you. There are some sketchy parts of Mountain View that are less... But you are trading price for safety.
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@clery: I think rule of thumb is live closer to 280 - anywhere west of el camino is going to be nice.
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@Mrs. Jacks: I think we are willing to do $3500 maximum for rent. But hopefully we can find something cheaper. We are arriving in late Feb and DH's company has set up temporary accommodations for us for a month.
I assume most people use craigslist to find a place to rent?
@luckypenny: Thanks for that!
@Raindrop: We get tons of rain here in Vancouver so we are quite used to being wet!
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When I was renting I used
http://www.apartments.com
http://www.apartmentguide.comI would just type the city I wanted to rent in... it gives floor plans.... average cost the number of the managing office and availability. These are for apartment complexes though.
I'm sure Craigslist will give better deals though.
One of my friends always scores really good deals on Craiglist but for some reason I just wanted to do apartment complexes.http://www.zillow.com - my friend just used this to rent a house recently, I was surprised. It worked out well for her.
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@clery: we found all of ours via Craigslist it's a really competitive market so be sure to go to listings with a check book, credit report, previous landlord references, 3 recent pay stubs and we even had a cover letter. It really helps to have all those things so you can take the place immediately and show the landlord you are serious and stable candidate
good luck!
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@clery: I also recommend just going to the leasing office of any apt you think you may like. They don't always post on CL. The leasing office will be able to tell you when they expect to have availability.
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@clery: I think you should be able to find something in your target area, then. Your next decision should be if you want large complex or smaller and more intimate...
Do be careful on Craigslist too. There are some apartment scammers on there, though I always had really good luck.
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@Raindrop: @luckypenny: @Pumpkin Pie: @Mrs. Jacks: Thank you very much for the tips ladies! It is greatly appreciated! DH's company has him also working with relocation company so also hope that they would be helpful.
This is my first move away from family and its quite overwhelming!
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@clery: I think you'll like it here.
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I agree with pumpkin pie. It's a really great place to raise kids and there is SO much to do. I definitely miss it
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@Mrs. Jacks: I had no idea Los Gatos was so expensive! I had a boyfriend from there in college and the house he grew up in was older, smallish--very middle class. But I just looked at Zillow and most homes are well over a million!
Has it exploded in the last 1-2 decades? Cause I dated that guy waaaaay back in 1998-99.
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@Anagram: it's CRAZY expensive there. And oh so beautiful.
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I wrote out this long post and it didn't get posted... Ugh.
I don't have any advice about Silicon Valley, but I have some tips in finding a new home/apartment.
Long story short, if you use Craigslist or other home/apartment hunting sites be very careful if someone tells you that you can't see the house because they are away in Atlanta for missionary work. I heard a bunch of responses that mention Atlanta and it was an immediate red flag.
While I was cautious about Craigslist and thought I would be scammed more in CL. I was almost scammed by using hotpads.com Scammers take legitimate listings and posts new 'fake' listings after the real listing is removed. They even create email addresses that are very similar to the real owners names.
Anyway, as time was ticking down to the deadline where I had to give my former apt notice and almost being scammed, we ultimately did find our current home on Craigslist. It was the perfect location and timing (new listing).
Good luck to you on finding your new home!
Oh, when I relocated to Seattle, I used an relocation specialist and apartment Hunter. She was paid by my company and she showed us a bunch of apartment complexes within our budget and in different locations. We ended up staying at our last apartment for 5 years so it was a good find.
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@Anagram: me jacks grew up in Los Gatos and the town sort of grew ip with him. Starting in the 80's it exploded. So they have a little three acre ranch in town surrounded by multi million dollar homes. It's super weird!
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@bluestriped bee: Thanks for the advice!
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I have lived in San Jose, Morgan Hill, Concord, and Richmond, all around the bay area. Craigslist has been a great resource for us when it comes to places to live.
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@clery: walled you some info
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