Can you tell me about San Jose, CA?

weenie · March 16, 2007, 4:16pm

So many opinions!!! Wow. Thanks everybody.

I just got back from a dog walk and FROZE my a$$ off. It’s bitter cold, windy, cloudy, and sort of a nasty sleet coming down. (We’re expecting a foot of snow by Saturday night. Yuk.) The whole while I was thinking, And I’d resist a move to California?!

Anyway, this is truly a long shot. I just wanted some ideas. I really can not imagine up and leaving my kids in the east! And my parents, my sisters, my friends…

It’s hard to think of living so far away from my kids that I could only fly. I’d be much more amenable to a move if it was driving distance. (Psychological barrier I guess.)

I’ve never pictured myself the California “type.” (Whatever that is - Do I need breast implants?) On the other hand, I might fit in with the liberal part. LOL

ucsd_ucla_dad · March 16, 2007, 4:17pm

I’ve also lived in the bay area before (Sunnyvale) and I travel frequently to Santa Clara (adjacent to San Jose).

<ul>
<li>Positive aspects</li>
<li>Relatively temperate weather but not perfect (one must go to San Diego for that :). San Jose itself is frequently between 90-100 in the summer. No snow.</li>
<li>4 hour drive to Lake Tahoe for superb skiing, mountains, hiking, camping, etc.</li>
<li>Less than an hour from San Francisco for the ‘City’ experience.</li>
<li>Less than a couple of hours from Monterey/Carmel for scuba diving and a nice scenic area.</li>
<li>Less than a couple of hours from the Napa wine country, beautiful coastline, forests, giant redwoods, mountains, etc.</li>
<li>Year-round greenery. No ‘dead’ look like in areas where it snows.</li>
<li>In the midst of a huge number of companies so if one doesn’t like it where they are or get laid off, there are many other opportunities nearby.</li>
<li>Two airports with good connections - SFO and SJC. Oakland is in the viscinity also with some connections.</li>
<li>Negatives</li>
<li>High housing prices</li>
<li>Awful traffic</li>
<li>Many of the cities/suburbs aren’t so beautiful looking. Some are okay but they’re very expensive.</li>
<li>Not much open space - fairly densely packed unless one goes quite far out.</li>
<li>Weather in the summer in and near San Jose is hot. The closer one gets to the coast the more temperate it is. Once one makes it all the way to the coast you can easily think it’s not summer due to the overcast and cold air (60’s).</li>
<li>Ocean water temp is always cold (50’s).</li>
</ul>

dmd77 · March 16, 2007, 4:20pm

It has been 12 years since I lived in Mountain View, CA and worked in East San Jose. I hated the schools I taught at and I hated the weather, so please take everything I say through that lens. I was thrilled to move to cloudy rainy western Washington. (Good friends live in Los Altos Hills, walk to Los Altos all the time–it’s a short walk from their house–and love the weather. Their kids are in private schools.)

It does not rain in the San Jose area from March to December. It is dry and dusty and brown. If you like relentless sunshine and hate the rain with a passion, it is a perfect place to live. Well, except for January and February, where it rains pretty much nonstop.

The population is extremely dense in the San Francisco to San Jose corridor–it’s about 50 miles by 15 miles and the population is 5 million or so. This means that services you could never get elsewhere are readily available. When we moved to WA state, the only thing I missed was the ready availability of high quality delivered meals. Well, that and the citrus fruit. And the organic produce I got delivered once a week from April to November.

Housing prices are horrifyingly expensive.

Bay · March 16, 2007, 4:22pm

The OP asked about San Jose, NOT San Francisco or “the Bay area.”

In my experience, there is huge difference in aesthetics, activities, weather and general desirability among these areas.

San Jose (population about 1 million)- hot summers, fairly uninteresting environment

San Francisco (pop about 600,000) - more temperate weather, many sites and things to do

“The Bay area” - this generally encompasses both cities, plus the Peninsula, Oakland, and other areas.

ucsd_ucla_dad · March 16, 2007, 4:25pm

jmmom:
I’m no fan of San Diego traffic but the traffic in the general bay area (the south side, east side, and north side) is awful by any measure. Anywhere around commute time it’s stop/go - at least it is every time I go there. As with any populous area, one must consider the traffic patterns when selecting an area to live to make sure the commute isn’t too terrible. When I lived in Sunnyvale my workplace was also in Sunnyvale and I rode a bicycle to work in < 10 minutes so in that case, the commute traffic was a non-issue.

katwkittens · March 16, 2007, 4:30pm

“Housing prices are horrifyingly expensive.”

That’s the key word: Horrifyingly

As I mentioned when sis/bro-in-law sold their itsy-bitsy “dog” house on the postage stamp lot they were able to purchase their NEW home, and put enough away for 2 children’s private college expenses and their retirement all in one transaction. He ended up getting a job in IT that paid MORE than in the bay area snd she finally found employment which made use of her degrees due to the many nearby surrounding universities. It gave them so much more feeedom then they anticipated.

Kat

ucsd_ucla_dad · March 16, 2007, 4:30pm

People not familiar with California need to understand that there’s a huge difference in the climate compared with the majority of the US. Even within a small area, the weather varies greatly every couple of miles one goes inland from the beach. There are many times I went scuba diving in Monterey when it was in the 90’s in San Jose and warm until I was within 2-5 miles from the coast. Once I got to the beach in Monterey, it was generally overcast and in the 60s.

Alumother · March 16, 2007, 4:53pm

Many people work in San Jose and don’t live there. Cupertino, Los Gatos, come to mind.

Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Redwood City.

It is hot in San Jose in summer, but dry. Dry is in fact different than not dry.

And as I said, if you want a big house, you gotta be a multi-millionaire here. But if you spend most of your time outside, you don’t mind the little house.

Traffic frankly is traffic. New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, is traffic ever good in the centers of industry? Do not forget we are the heart of the technology industry - Redmond, Rte. 128 do not compare.

But it is also true that I feel love for the Bay Area of my childhood. When the road from Palo Alto to San Jose went through orchards, rather than past Intel, McAfee, Google…

And I never liked the East Coast. Too many mosquitoes and too much stuff growing in the summer. Give me the sere serene hills of my childhood.

I don’t care for Southern CA either. Too recent.

So there you go. To each his/her own. Just come and see if you like it.

ucsd - microclimates. Yes. Why San Bruno and Pacifica are so fogged in you can’t see and San Jose is brightly sunny.

zagat · March 16, 2007, 4:55pm

CA has an amazing number of micro climates. There’s a town I’d love to retire to on the coast that’s pretty much 80 degrees and sunny year round. One town over, also on the coast, is usually 10 degrees cooler and often socked in. In bay area towns there are dramatic temperature, wind, sun and rainfall differences in small areas.

In the Bay Area, the towns around the airport are windy and foggy. That’s unusual weather 10 miles due south. SF is cold in August, San Jose hot, hot, hot.

However, it is some of the best weather in the US. If I were rich and could afford a beautiful home in one of the uncrowded, no strip mall/fast food towns and could afford the water to keep a garden green, I could be perfectly happy there…

mikemac · March 16, 2007, 5:50pm

ucsducladad wrote in post #22 a lot of what I wanted to say. Funny thing, though, I think of a lot of his positives as quasi-negatives. My suggested SJ bumper sticker has long been: “San Jose - not far from the places you actually want to be”.

As for downtown SJ, it’s deadsville. They keep trying to vitalize it (no “re” needed since it was never vital) but the strings of empty storefronts downtown along the light-rail line and surrounding areas show they aren’t succeeding. The natural beauty either works for you or it doesn’t. The “mighty Guadeloupe” river doesn’t match up against what you have in upstate NY or most of the country.

It doesn’t rain continuously in Jan and Feb like someone said, only a few days on and off. And weather changes slowly, no clear skies turning to storms in a blink of an eye. 2 stories: the first time I was back East I saw some dark clouds off in the distance, didn’t worry about it (eg. do something sensible like bring an umbrella). An hour later I got drenched! In the bay area it will be hazy one day, more white clouds the next, finally the rain shows up. Second story, it doesn’t rain in the bay area. Heavy drizzle at best, called by the locals “rain”. You don’t even need to bother with an umbrella if you’re walking 30 yards from a car to a building; back east I’ve been in downpours where it looks like someone is literally pouring buckets of water out of the sky.

There is one nice section of San Jose I’m surprised nobody has mentioned called Willow Glen. It’s not part of downtown San Jose, but has a nice dowtown district. But it tends to be warmer there; temperatures get more comfortable as you go north, esp. closer to the Bay.

Much more opens up to you if your work hours would be flexible. Rush hour it can take 45 minutes or more to go a distance of only 15 miles. For sure you’d want to test out the commute before buying something. But if you can show up at the office around 10am then you can live in one of the neighborhoods farther afield that have nice downtown blocks such as Burlingame, San Carlos, etc. As you go up the Peninsula closer to SFO it gets cooler and eventually foggy. Many of these communities are along the Caltrain line, so if your job in downtown SJ is near the line then you could commute in via train even if your job hours are more traditional.

A lot of these towns have pages on wikipedia that can get you started on exploring.

patient · March 17, 2007, 12:52am

I’ve been gone from this site for a while, but am also a long-time Bay Area resident and agree with the positives and the negatives listed by all the other posters.

If your husband is thinking of taking a job in San Jose, he may find the commute up to the Peninsula (the Los Altos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park areas) a bit taxing. For slightly less expensive areas, the Rose Garden area of San Jose is quite nice I think, and there are parts of Mountain View that are nice too. I love going to Santana Row to shop and stroll, but it is just a little pocket of Europe in the midst of really unattractive strip malls and shopping centers. Mountain View has a fantastic restaurant row (Castro Street, not to be confused with the other Castro in the City), and a nice Performing Arts Center. There has been a blog on our local newspaper site recently about why Mountain View’s parks and city facilities, library, etc., are so much better than Palo Alto’s (it’s because of the big box retailers that have found homes in Mountain View and not Palo Alto). Honestly, downtown San Jose at night scares me.

Also, as mentioned above, Los Gatos and Saratoga, though quite hot in the summer, are lovely. I like the way they are nestled against the hills. Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Los Altos are the flatlands, and although they are pleasant, you can’t get a home with a view unless you go into Los Altos Hills, Woodside, Portola Valley, etc. Agree with the prices listed for these places.

Alumother, did you really grow up here? I only have known the area since 1975, and it has even changed so much since then. Palo Alto used to be just all professors and “people in Birkenstocks driving Volvos (or riding bikes) and listening to NPR.” Now it is so different–a lot of stock option babies building mega mansions and tearing down lovely old homes in the process. I get sad, and sometimes a little jealous ;).

I know a few good realtors if you need referrals.

mootmom · March 17, 2007, 1:28am

Willow Glen and the Rose Garden district are quite lovely indeed, with lots of character.

The warmest month of the year in San Jose is September. And if there are more than a half-dozen days per summer in the upper 90s or triple-digits, it’s a rare year. I was so very happy to get out of the “three Hs” from my years in NY state (“hazy, hot, and humid”) – the heat here is dry in a way that means you don’t feel it as much. And there is ALWAYS a gentle breeze to move some of the heat away. I almost never arrive home sweaty at the end of the day.

The rainy season is roughly October through April. During the months of May through September, it is unlikely to rain. With the green hills on one side (to the west, where the clouds roll onto land from the Pacific and drop their moisture on the way in from Santa Cruz) to the “golden” rolling hills on the other side of the valley, San Jose is in a lovely location. It’s weird how I feel my heart just sort of warm up and bring a smile to my face as my plane cruises into SJC (San Jose Airport) after visiting my family on the east coast.

Another weird thing out here: no thunderstorms! I was used to the booming, rolling, crashing thunderstorms of the east (and elsewhere, I imagine, although I’ve only ever lived in the east), and when I got out here, I observed that the storms came in without thunder! When there is thunder, it’s weird: it’s one loooooooong low rumble, not a proper CRASHING set of thunderclaps! And then everyone the next day is asking everyone else if they “heard the thunder” LOL! They have no clue what real thunder is all about. But it’s cute that they get so excited.

And you should see them in the winter when the rain in the Valley becomes snow at the top of the mountain peaks rimming the area – those are the days when I wish my eyes were cameras.

Oops. I’m rambling. Come visit, weenie. It’s especially lovely this time of year.

Alumother · March 17, 2007, 1:36am

Yes. I really grew up here. Moved out at the age of 4 in 1960. Dad was a professor at Stanford for what, 40 years? It has changed - I too remember Ken Kesey and the VW vans and the birkenstocks. But I feel like the real place creeps out. Drive 237 for example, from 101 east around Milpitas. You know how when it rains suddenly the wetlands take the highway back over? Egrets feeding in the puddles? The real place is just holding its breath waiting for us to leave.

patient · March 17, 2007, 11:02am

You could say that about the entire planet. :eek:
There are some roads I avoid driving and 237 is one of them! There is some split in the road that utterly freaks me out. (Bad sense of direction person)

Anyway, although I didn’t grow up here, my dad did, in Hollister (a bit south of San Jose), on a ranch with rolling hills and apricot orchards. I know what it is like to run out the back door of the house and go pick ripe apricots off the tree. (Ripe apricots are a taste that cannot ever be duplicated by the store-bought variety; out of this world) I get sad when I think that our area used to be like that too. One long road in our area, Middlefield, I believe is named that because that is what it used to be–a road in the middle of fields!

somemom · March 17, 2007, 11:43am

Patient-Ah yes, fresh orange juice every morning from the oranges off our tree…back in the day, growing up, I miss that! Nothing tastes like produce ripened on the tree/vine!

weenie · March 17, 2007, 1:45pm

Spent the morning perusing real estate online. :eek: I figure we’d have to spend about $1,250,000 for a comparable house to what we live in now. That would be an extra $100,000K/year extra in salary for status quo. Good figure to know.

Does anybody know anything about real estate appreciation/depreciation in the area? (Or is that a loaded question?)

patient: Funny that you would say that about the entire planet - I thought the same thing when I read it. I suppose it’s all relative, but where I live is pretty much wrecked by sprawl and ugly (and unnecessary) development too.

mootmom · March 17, 2007, 2:23pm

Well, weenie, we bought a house here in 1997. I was appalled at the first digit in the price of the house, but we swallowed hard and went house-poor for the first couple years. We have, over those 10 years, replaced the roof, windows, garage doors, fence, solar equipment ;), and kitchen in the house.

I have no qualms about our house purchase anymore: this month, houses in the neighborhood are selling for almost triple what we paid 10 years ago. Your Mileage May Vary.

weenie · March 17, 2007, 2:44pm

But what about the so-called “housing bubble?” Would we be buying at the highest point right now? That could be bad! Plus, oh, we’re just too old to be OK with living house poor. We’ve already done that! lol

mominva · March 17, 2007, 2:48pm

patient,
In Brooklyn NY, in the 1960s, I remember running around the corner to my granparent’s house. In the back yard, my Italian Papa carefully tended to an apricot tree. You are right, the aroma and taste cannot come from the supermarket ;)

Weenie, I am jealous of your potential move.

JHS · March 17, 2007, 2:57pm

Weenie:

If there was a housing bubble, I’m not sure there is anymore. By the time you would be buying (this spring, summer, fall, although you might want to rent for a bit to check out the area), I think you would be guaranteed not to be buying at the top of the market.

Prices in the general Silicon Valley area have risen pretty astronomically over the years – no one who has been able to hold onto a house for more than a few years has ever lost money on it, I’ll bet. There was definitely a dip in the market 5-6 years ago, when the tech bubble burst. (The traffic got a lot better on 101, too.) But within a few years things were as bad as they ever were.

A few weeks ago, I argued strenuously that universal home ownership was not necessarily a great idea. But I wasn’t talking about Silicon Valley.

Can you tell me about San Jose, CA?

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