Where to live with budget of $1.3M and good schools?

[xza8]

The demand for Brookside is not super hot but it is still hot. They are already selling Phase 5/6 of 8 or 9 so people may be holding back until there is more news as right now it seems "new" to people. The prices already went up $100K in the past year so that's not bad. It has an awesome community feel "away" from the city whereas new homes in Los Gatos, PA and MV are near busy intersections. $1.5M can get you a new single in Los Gatos but you'll be across a busy plaza. $1.6 could have got you a new semi detached in PA but you'll be on El Camino Real. $1.5M can get you a new single in MV but you'll be beside the MV station. Did you see Plan 1... It's amazingly designed + the feel of a nice community + top schools + the price for a 4+1 new detached sure outweighs being across a small landfill that is expected to close in 5 years. I've been in the area a few times, even drove up to the entrance / scales and did not smell any garbage. Neighbours in the older community a block away does not claim to smell anything either. Don't miss out on this gem. Btw, Brookfield is a respected builder.

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by Sc49er

And puh-lease, what makes you think I don’t appreciate my good fortune? Spare me that lecture and condescension please. If the thread and my questions irritate you, feel free to skip the thread will ya?

Wait a second here… out the outset you said:

Originally Posted by Sc49er

I would love to get some advice/opinions... Thanks in advance for your input!

And then someone gives you their honest opinion and you get annoyed at them for it. My opinion is that you have a comfortable home with lots of equity, a "dream" commute and an academically-inclined child, so quit second guessing it and "stay put" like you said. If the schools are really that bad maybe sell your house and buy a cheaper one so that one of you can quit working and stay home to work with the kids to give them whatever the school system can't. With $1.3 million (or whatever's left after buying your cheaper home) you could probably afford to pay a scientist from Stanford to come down once a week to mentor your geeky son personally. ('geeky' was her choices of words, not mine)

Originally Posted by Sc49er

my son's strengths and interests... a huge science geek… being a geek

… or was that not the opinion you were looking for either?

[zombocom]

Originally Posted by Sc49er

Do you know what the 85 commute is like during peak hours? Is it better/worse than 101? Thanks!

85 is pretty bad - my wife had to use it to commute. We now live only 8 minutes from work - all that extra time during the week not stuck in a car has a pretty positive impact on quality of life.

If commute and school quality are your main factors, have you contemplated moving into a town home or something smaller? You might want to think about that, and if it would make you happier than having a larger home, but a longer commute.

You should test the commute. Get up early, drive out to where you're thinking about buying, and see what the commute is really like.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by Sc49er

Do you know what the 85 commute is like during peak hours? Is it better/worse than 101? Thanks!

About the same or slightly lighter than 101 if you're heading north, breezy/open if you're heading south... and reverse that for the afternoon/evening commute. At least that has been my experience, although (thankfully) it's rare I have to commute during actual rush hours - but when I do, it always sucks if I'm heading in those directions! What usually takes me 15 minutes without traffic will take 30-45+, so it is pretty much stop & go most of the way.

[wsugrad03]

I'll just toss this out as an extreme outlier to look at because I work with people in Mountain view that live there and really like it. Have you considered Pleasanton? Schools are a solid 9's and 10's, and for $1.3M, you can live extremely well out there. Your quality of life compared to other areas will probably be much better with exception to commute. The commute will probably take you 1hr to reach Mountain View by vanpool/carpool. But if you're looking at Scott's Valley to Mountain View, you're probably looking at a 1 hour drive anyways.

[neutrino78x]

I wouldn't spend 1.5 million dollars on housing, but if you insist, Campbell near the light rail presumably has good school districts, and that should give you a better commute. You could live in Almaden Valley and be near the light rail, too.

Of course if you can afford to spend 1.5 million dollars on a house, you can probably send your kids to private school and live wherever you want.

Plus 1.5 million is the starting price on penthouses in The 88, a high rise in downtown.

[ebrooks]

Originally Posted by Sc49er

We are a family of 4, with an elementary schooler (third grade) and a baby and live in a great neighborhood in Santa Clara. Our elementary school is great, but middle is so-so and high school even worse. We bought our 2000+ sq ft home new, and at this point it has appreciated nearly 90%. We feel very fortunate. We also have a dream commute - 10 minutes tops for both of us - we can walk to work if we choose to. I mention all this to make the point we have some excellent reasons to stay put overall!

We are evaluating our options at this point and trying to decide if now is a good time to move, and if so, where to. We would like to move to another single family home with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths ideally, or at the minimum, a 3 bed 2.5 BA home.

With a budget of $1.3M Palo Alto/Saratoga/Los Altos appears to be out of our reach. We are not really interested in Cupertino - a very high pressure academic environment is not a good fit for our son.

We came across Brookside homes in Almaden Valley on Guadalupe mines road and are tempted by the fact that the schools are Los Gatos schools, and these are brand new homes with a floor plan that includes a first floor bedroom. The first floor bedroom will be hugely appreciated by our parents who have mobility issues when they visit. The concern however, is that it is located across from the landfill/recyclery. This reminds me of Milpitas and the awful smell though when we visited, there was none. Also, though they have been selling homes since last September , and the prices don't seem to have appreciated much. This concerns me. Between this and the landfill, I am wondering if the demand is weak and worry that investing in a home there may be a bad idea?

The other option we came across are some amazing homes in the Los Gatos mountains. At the $1M+ price point, there are some very nice properties to choose from. The school district is Los Gatos and Loma Prieta Elementary and CT English middle school are quite close to the homes we are considering. We have lived in the mountains before, but in a starter home in Redwood Estates and it was not an experience we want to repeat. However the homes at the $1 M + Mark seem very nice.

The flip side is unless things have changed, it's hard to get service people to come up there, it can be lonely, and I am wondering if it will be hard to find nannies/babysitters willing to come to us in that location. When we lived in Redwood Estates previously we were child-free 20 something's, a totally different lifestyle than our present one with 2 active kids.

I would love to get some advice/opinions. Are there other options we have not considered? Issues we have not thought about? Private school is not an option for cost reasons. Thanks in advance for your
input!

"With a budget of $1.3M Palo Alto/Saratoga/Los Altos appears to be out of our reach." You can't find a house for 1.3 mil? Give me a break.

Read more: https://www.city-data.com/forum/san-j...#ixzz2y2VhOwzt

[ebrooks]

"With a budget of $1.3M Palo Alto/Saratoga/Los Altos appears to be out of our reach." You can't find a house for 1.3 mil? Give me a break.

[ebrooks]

Originally Posted by Sc49er

Bobby, apology accepted. I think there is a difference in what my goal is and your perception of my goal. I am not trying to "pick a place" to live. Instead, what I am trying to do is to educate myself about the different options available. I will subsequently do my own research from the identified zipcodes before picking a place.

The reason I am looking at the exceptional school districts and not just the very good is because of my son's strengths and interests. He is not into sports at all and is a huge science geek. I am trying to figure out how best to support his interest in science and am therefore looking for schools that offer advanced classes and science clubs, where being a geek will not make him stick out like a sore thumb. He is prime bully target material as things stand, given his personality. Cupertino is unfortunately ruled out. Hence my search for other schools just as strong academically, but without the suicide rates and emphasis on sports. He would probably thrive in a collegiate prep private school but that's out of our reach - we are ineligible for scholarships but realistically can't afford the $45K per year tuition with 2 kids and college expenses to follow.

With the common core, they are replacing the STAR tests with computer based assessments. It's a highly controversial topic that many teachers are very upset about, google it.

Local123, I know what you mean. I worked the phone banks for my local bond measure and while I did hear some folks say what you pointed out, I was appalled at the number of wealthy families who refused to vote for it because their kids go to private school and they didn't want to pay more by way of taxes even if it was less than $100. Some were willing to be swayed when I pointed out good public schools will directly impact their property values but many were not. One person went so far as to point out that Woodside and Atherton property values were doing just fine despite crappy schools. I could only conclude I was the one in the wrong place - not wealthy enough to afford private school, but white collar enough to prize a quality education.

No apology was owed. This guy is oh so well heeled and full of it. There are still regular people in the Bay Area. Try to be one.