traceyclare

Hello All!

My soon to be husband and I will be moving to the Bay Area towards the end of July from the UK. Our visa's will be sorted by then and his company will be paying for us to stay in a hotel for 30 days so we will have time to search for places to rent.

He will be working in San Jose so we would like to live somewhere very close to a Caltrain station, kinda in between SF and SJ. The problem we are having is that we haven't visited any of these places and it is difficult to judge an area without having been there. So some advise on this would be greatly appreciated!

We would like a town that has a few nice restaurants and bars in the area but it a nice quiet-ish friendly community. It would be good if there were shops close by too.
We are looking to rent a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom place that has access to a swimming pool (if possible!).

Just to give you some background on us, we enjoy going to nice restaurants, drinking good wine, watching movies (so a movie theatre nearby would be good!), going on long walks, shopping and going to musical concerts.

We have been looking online at the following places: Burlingame, San Mateo and Belmont. But any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
We don't want to be spending a lot each month on rent, maybe around $2000.
We would just like to know what the facilities are like and what the areas are like generally.

I apologise if this subject has been posted before, I am new to this forum. I did search some of the older posts but to now avail.

Thanks in advance for your help!

traceyclare

meauxna

Not sure your current questions are covered in this thread, but your future ones are: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=667763

Look for posts from Steerpike (go to his profile and select 'view all posts' or narrow the advanced search to his nickname) as he has written a lot about the Bay Area cities & has some favs.

The crucial first thing will be the commute. Good luck & welcome!

Bob

Welcome to BE

Also, check out city-data.com for more info about towns you are interested in.

penguinsix

I would recommend, strongly, taking a look at maps.google.com when you have some areas in mind and getting a "Street View" of what you are considering. The valley is filled with 1960's one level rambler houses, somewhat beat up, but costing and absolute arm and a leg to own (some of the most expensive property in the country).

I've always liked Palo Alto as a bit of a city with some activity (not much mind you) but it had a street or two you could walk and shop on rather than drive and park.

Generally much of the valley is basic American suburbia. Drive to a big box store or a strip mall (if your husband is driving to work, you will likely need to budget for a second car).

md95065

If your husband is going to be working in San Jose I would strongly suggest looking much closer to the San Jose area first.

Personally I tend to think that Burlingame, San Mateo and Belmont would be bad choices - far enough away from San Jose to make the commute a pain without being particularly wonderful places to live.

Finding a 2 bedroom / 2 bath apartment / condo / townhouse shouldn't be too hard and there certainly is stuff available in your price range although really nice places could be quite a bit more.

wordfool

Menlo Park and Palo Alto spring to mind -- both relatively close to SJ and both with a fairly lively local scene (Palo Alto being the home of Standford University), Both are, however, expensive places to live, Palo Alto especially, so you might be a little shocked when researching accomodation. You might also look at Los Gatos, which is a similar distance from downtown SJ (but south instead of north and not on Caltrain line).

SJ probably has some nice areas, but in my 14 years living in the Bay Area I've not stumbled across them.

Overall, however, the peninsula is a fairly suburban place, so unless you live close to the shops and restaurants you'll either need a car (Zipcar perhaps) or bike since public transport is minimal. Great weather though!

MikeyT

Hi,

I'm doing the opposite (live in south SJ, commute by Caltrain to SF). Burlingame, San Mateo, Belmont etc are nice but a long commute to SJ. I'd recommend looking within San Jose area itself (some nice places around Santa Clara or South San Jose/Almaden Valley) or maybe Sunnyvale or Mountain View. Both these cities are served by 'baby bullet' express trains which make getting to SJ quick. Mountain View is also on light rail, and has a lovely downtown area with great shops and restaurants. There are decent apartments there too. Palo Alto is also very nice but more expensive.

Mike

traceyclare

Thank you all for your replies! You are all most helpful!

A few of you have said that the commute isn't brilliant from the Belmont area to SJ. What makes it such a nasty commute? Is it the length of journey? I was under the impression by looking on the Caltrain website that it would take about 40 minutes, am I wrong?

Any other suggestions of websites or books on the Bay Area that I could look at would be great!

Also, I have tried to search for posts by Steerpike and can't find any posts where he talks about the cities of the Bay Area. Would anybody have a link to these please?

penguinsix

http://www.city-data.com/forum/san-jose/

Great site.

Michael

If you husband is considering using public transportation to get to work, you may want to look at places along the light rail system.

http://www.vta.org/schedules/lr_inte.../lrBusMap.html

If he is working in downtown San Jose, that is the Paseo de San Antonio/Santa Clara stop. The San Jose Diridon stop is where all trains (Caltrain, Amtrak, and light rail) meet. If he works in North San Jose, the stops would likely be around Orchard, Metro Airport, or Cisco Way.

If you are looking for places along the light rail, I'd recommend looking at downtown Campbell, downtown Mountain View, downtown San Jose, or North San Jose (north of Orchard area).

Other places to look at that aren't along the light rail may be Los Gatos or Palo Alto.

If you have children, school districts will be important and then I wouldn't necessarily recommend certain areas.

Giantaxe

It depends where in relation to a Caltrain station your husband is working and what transportation there is to the office from the station - San Jose is a big place! If he's close or the company has some kind of shuttle, it's fine. If the commute is driven, it's definitely not great: 101 is horrible, although depending on where you live/work, 280 is a (usually longer, but less congested) alternative. Assuming you're set on the peninsula (not sure I would be myself in your position) I'd add Menlo Park to the list of places you're looking at. I'd say Palo Alto too, but it's very expensive and I doubt you'd get that much for $2k rent. A lot will depend on whether you're looking for a single family home or an apartment. If the latter, you're going to find it much easier in general for that rent.

MikeyT

traceyclare,

It's really a personal choice for you and your family. Depending on where your fiance's work is in SJ, you have to factor in getting to and from the Caltrain stations, so a 40 min train ride could turn into a commute of 1hr+ if he has to take a bus or light rail to/from the station. Belmont/San Carlos are also not served by express trains which adds to the commute time.

Belmont area is very nice (as is San Mateo - I lived there for a year), so the commute sacrifice might be worth it to you. I just recommend checking out other places further south (using the links given by others) as it could save you some hassle down the road. Mountain View is one of my favorite towns so I'm biased I guess.

Good luck!

FreeBird11

I've lived in San Jose for about 6 years now. The south bay area is basically suburbia with a lot of traffic.

For American standards towns and cities are close together here but if you're from Europe you may find it difficult to get around without a car.
Fortunately buying and owning a car is quite cheap here.

I don't see any reason to live in San Mateo and surrounding areas if your work will be in SJ.
San Francisco is nice to visit but once you've done that twice you will realize that there is no need to live nearby it unless you love "the city".

For 2000 you can rent a pretty decent place around SJ. That amount can get you a townhouse or large apartment.

I forgot to talk about public transportation. It's more developed and accessible here than most places in America . However I still find it very inefficient and slow. You will need a car, trust me.

Forgot another thing, the San Jose area is quite large. Stay clear of most of east san jose (dodgy) and south san jose (very nice but may be far).

MrsOwen

Hi There

Subject to Visa approval my husband and I will be moving to Los Gatos, my husband will be working in Campbell and I will be working in San Fran!! I know, long commute, but we LOVE los gatos and we are only 20 ish minutes from the sea, we currently live on the sea front in the UK!

We have already got a lovely 2 bed, 2 bath apartment for $2250 per month at the Maison Massoll Apartments, walking distance from Los Gatos and about a 10 min drive to San Jose.

When we were over in March they had 1 other apartment available too, just in case you are interested! And they do 3 months rental terms, so our plan is to live there for a few months before deciding where to settle on a more permanent basis, possibly nearer San Fran if the commute gets too much for me! Although I commte 5 hours a day currently!

Good luck with your search.

philmitch

hello, having just completed a similar exercise mountain view sounds a good fit. We looked at some of the resort style places and contacted local real estate agents to give us a few to choose from. Also Yelp.com can give you reviews.

there is a lot available, I am told the end of school year is next month and this is a trigger for people moving around.