rotoiti

OK, the title is a bit provocative, I admit. I am a US citizen (naturalized) so I don't need to read (very informative) Pulaski's Ways

So for the last 12 years I have been happily living in Atlanta (or rather ATL suburbs). Last year, my wife succumbed to allergies, this year my daughter (who is 7) was also diagnosed with beginnings of asthma. We decided it is time to move.

SF Bay Area is a logical place to move to (tons of jobs for software engineers). However, cost of living in CA is at least 30% higher than in GA and housing is prohibitively expensive (even after the "crash"). The company I work for has an office in San Jose so I could transfer there although I doubt if I can get cost-of-living raise just because I *want* to move to CA.

I am looking for recommendations for that area - like where to rent (or where NOT to rent), how is the traffic, is the public transport as good as it looks on the internet (Caltrain, Bart). Any and all general impressions of living in Silicon Valley would be greatly appreciated.

Also, any recommendations on Montessori schools with elementary program in the area?

Thanks!

Mummy in the foothills

Are you sure you want to move to CA? my allergies get worse by the year living here.
Maybe Arizona?

Sally Redux

Yes I'm not sure it will make any difference for allergies.

Michael

Currently there isn't tons of available jobs for software engineers in the Silicon Valley but if the past is any indication, the future should be bright. If you are a good software engineer, your company will not keep you very long without compensation for the cost of living in the area.

Schools for your children (child) would probably be a major consideration and the quality varies depending on your area. The following map may give you an idea of the school ranking in different areas.

http://schoolperformancemaps.com/ca/...30139%2C10%2C1

Only 250 schools can be shown at one time on the map so enlarge the map to see all schools. Click on secondary school checkbox if desired. Clicking on a marker will give the school district, name of the school, and other information about the school.

Besides Caltrain (20 minute schedule up the peninsula), AMTRAK (20 minute schedule up the east bay, BART (currently down to Fremont but extension to San Jose downtown and airport expected to be completed by 2018), and high speed rail from San Jose to San Francisco (stimulus money has been granted for completion by 2014), there is also 32 miles of light rail in the south bay as well as a pretty good bus system.

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

However even with all of that, the bay area is very large so public transportation will still be limited.

Like any large metropolitan area, traffic on the freeways during rush hour can be bad but will depend on where you live and where you work. If it is opposite to the flow of traffic, it will be light.

scrubbedexpat091

Have you considered other area's of the state? While tech sectors are smaller, they do exist.

Not sure what you do exactly as I am not in the tech field, but this ran in the San Diego paper yesterday.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...a-hiring-mood/

jackattack

Oooh, thank you for the school link.

I'm currently looking at moving within the Bay Area to move closer to work (Cupertino) and schools are a huge consideration. I've spent the last few months researching school rankings and test scores (which of course, don't replace actually going to visit and seeing what kind of brats actually attend the schools in question!). Anyway, in one glance I got to see a broad picture of the elementary schools and how they compare. I LOVE IT. It does match my own mental map but it's just good to see it all mapped out. I love the dark blue dots all the way up 280. Nice.

I wish that I'd discovered the site that a few months ago, although I guess that it wouldn't have made much difference since all the houses in the areas with the good schools are out of our price range anyway. I guess I'll just have to just mentally live in Saratoga or Los Gatos and continue with the long commute.

thank you

jackattack

I can't comment on the allergies bit since I don't suffer.
But for what it's worth our best buddies out here (one USC married to one Brit with GC) are in fact moving from Bay Area to Atlanta later this year. We're traumatised about them leaving but they're convinced that they'll get a better quality of life in Atlanta. They feel that they can't afford to live the life they want to live here. Both of them work and have good jobs, they also have two small kids.

Family health is of course crucial to quality of life, but don't underestimate the cost of living out here. Good luck with the search.

Michael

Where do you currently live? If it is further out than Fremont, you might want to look at the Mission San Jose district (along Mission Blvd) in Fremont which has very good schools and the area is beautiful. Also Campbell, the San Jose Almaden Valley, and Evergreen areas are nice and can also have pretty good schools (just pick your street carefully).

rotoiti

Thanks everyone for replying! Some really good info to be had in this thread.

Citing well known Atlanta joke: The pollen count is off the national scale for unhealthy which starts at 120. Atlanta is usually in the 2,000 to 4,000 range. Everything is yellow from March 28th to July 15th. If you have any allergies you will die. The air quality index in SF Bay Area is much better than in ATL so we're hoping a move will help with allergies. The fact my company has offices in San Jose helps also.

How bad is a commute from Fremont to, say, San Bruno? In theory it is 30+ miles, so a lot of driving every day. Is it a pain to cross the bay on one of the bridges?

Edited to add: my wife might be getting a job offer from one of the heavyweights in Silicon Valley, that's why I am asking about San Bruno. If we decide to move out of ATL it most likely will be SF Bay Area. That's why having your insight is so important. Keep it coming please

Michael

If you will be working near downtown San Jose or north San Jose, a commute from the Mission San Jose district in Fremont will be pretty easy (680 to Montague Expressway to 1st Street) but the commute to San Bruno will likely be terrible

You could look at Half Moon Bay (out in nowhere by the ocean) for a much better commute to San Bruno but it is probably not going to be very good to San Jose. Most of the other cities along the peninsula are pretty expensive.

Since you would be working in San Jose and she'd be working in San Bruno, I'd look at the possibility of finding a place near the end of the light rail line in Campbell and have her take the light rail to downtown San Jose and switch to Caltrain to go to San Bruno. You may also possibly be able to take the light rail to downtown or north San Jose if your work is near the line or you like to bike or take a bus.

The following are some pictures from my living room deck when I lived in the Mission San Jose district of Fremont.

jackattack

I currently live in Half Moon Bay and am somewhat wary of leaving the coast by moving to South Bay.

Currently in consideration are Palo Alto, Los Altos, Saratoga and Los Gatos all of which should give a less than 20 minute commute combined with good schools. Anything more than a 30 minute commute and we might as well not move and just live with the drive over 92 and down 280 (which has to be one of the most gorgeous commutes anyway, quite a bit nicer than the M25)!

Peanut is going to (private) school in Palo Alto but we'd switch her to local elementary if there was a good one nearby. At this rate it is going to be cheaper to keep her in private school for 12 years than buy a house close to a 10 ranked school!

fatbrit

I think Phoenix is the Benadryl capital of the world. Locals pop them like Smarties.

Michael

Those are all very nice cities but cost a lot of money to purchase a home. Since those cities are only 20 minutes away from your work, I suspect you work in Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Mountain View, or possibly Santa Clara.

Your drive is definitely very nice and being out on the coast is cooler than around the bay.

You must live on the ocean side of highway 1 since Kings Mountain Elementary is a top ranked school but the other elementary school is not very highly ranked. Although ranking isn't everything, Kings Mountain must be fairly decent.

penguinsix

We debate moving to Silicon Valley frequently in our house, but currently have held off for a couple of reasons. Our major concern right now is the state of the State of California. Cutbacks and reductions in government services are having an impact in the schools, and we are wary about buying a ridiculously overpriced house in the Valley only to goto a school that doesn't quite meet our standards. Cupertino, btw, has a good school district but also has a number of hyper-competitive recent immigrants (primarily from China and India) that have made some of the schools a bit stressful (kids who don't play sports, extracurriculars, just study study study). And while I may be a bit old fashioned, the current possibliity of legalized marijuana, and the de facto legalization for 'medical' reasons is something I wonder about as I consider the environment in which my children will be raised. Of course for others the mere possibility of legalization is one of the reasons they want to move there, so to each his own.

I'm actually moving to Hong Kong in about...72 hours (in SFO at the moment on a bit of a vacation) and when we are ready to return to the US we're going to reexamine where we want to live. We also are considering some North Bay areas like Petaluma, Napa and Sonoma, but our main factors for finding a place will be schools, the "culture" in which are kids will be raised, then housing costs, taxes, and jobs.

jackattack

Yup, I actually live just north of HMB and you deduce correctly, work = Cupertino. There are in fact quite a few people at work who live Coastside but I don't know of any of those who have elementary age kids.

Kings Mountain is a great (and small) school but the link you gave has it placed incorrectly. It is in fact up on Skyline nearer Woodside than HMB, it's not really that close to us.

I can see there are some great schools (in terms of ranking) in Mission Valley like you mentioned. I'm sure the hills there would make it feel a little less like the flat, grid based suburbs which we are trying to avoid. The idea of living in Sunnyvale/Cupertino is not appealing.

I love the coast and feel very lucky to be able to live overlooking the ocean while having a great job at a Fortune 100 company. There aren't many (any?) place in Britain where you can do that.