Where do young families in Bay Area live - where nice homes are less than 1 million?

[shannybannany]

Look to Morgan Hill in the South Bay. Lots and lots of gorgeous homes for your budget and the commute is definately doable. My husband used to commute from Mountain View to Morgan Hill. The morning was a complete breeze however Friday nights could be rough.
Morgan Hill schools are very, very good.

Now.....As much as I loved Morgan Hill, we moved back east to be closer to my family. We DO NOT have children nor want any and Morgan Hill was Family Central, imo.
Good luck,
Shanny

[blue10]

Originally Posted by shannybannany

My husband used to commute from Mountain View to Morgan Hill. The morning was a complete breeze however Friday nights could be rough.
Morgan Hill schools are very, very good.

Not really. From the looks of it here, the schools in Morgan Hill are either average or below average:

[url=http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/achievement/ca/14312#CSTResults]Ann Sobrato High School Test Scores - Morgan Hill, California - CA[/url]

The 9th grade math score achieved just 6% - the state average is 18%.

[out of bay or bust]

San Ramon, Danville. Do not move past Livermore east. Sac is a sea of forclosures and there are not alot of jobs in the Valley. If you are moving back to the bay area don't ruin the move by going for the house insted of the city. You can always add on or up date a home you cant change a school district or your neighbors. I live in San Ramon and the schools are very good. Stay away from windemere or Gale ranch unless you and your kids are fluent in the Chinese and indian languages. Not saying the people or the subdivisions are not nice but I have a friend that lives there and his kids have no one to play with because all his neighbors do not speak english.

[lastguy]

only one kind of people had to live in bay area - computer engineers - who have little choice. otherwise, try to get rid of here. of course, climate here is very good - like other places in CA.

[david william 1st]

My advice is to be very picky and look a long time, making detailed systematic notes in a book or in excel, before before you finally decide. Define what you specifically like and do not like to see in your neighborhood. Walkk the streets do not just drive. Visit during 'long weekends' and on Saturday evenings. Its more than just the cost of the house - its your lifestyle at stake!

In my example, after 6 months looking, we bought a nice ranch house in east of Blossom Valley area, mainly because thats all we could afford in 1999-2000 dot com peak. Our friends generally think we live on a nice street in a nice neighborhood. But, after 10 or so years plus one violent break-in attempt last month, we are now realizing that this 'hood has gone too far downhill.

Instead of relying on our 10-year old "its only a bit rundown here and there" assessment from when we first bought, we recently decided to "re-shop" our own neighborhood to see the truth for what it is. Most of the houses still look nice enough we think. But a hard analytical study shows a steady stream of East Side San Jose move-ins (we think stimulated by easy-loan policy of mid-2000's) has eroded the house values and the neighborhood:

[1] we count between 1 to 2 cars per house parked along any street, many looking in rough shape.
[2] small groups of suspicious looking, thug-like characters loitering near the three corner strip-malls, some wearing hispanic gang colors
[3] the guy who repaired our break-in attempt told me that this neighborhood is great for his business
[4] we see at least 1 police cruiser per day in the area, obviously doing business, and it did not used to be that way
[5] Saturday 'front lawn sales' are actually weekly clearing houses selling used clothes, junk, etc (attracts even more undesirables)
[6] graffiti is a noticeable growing problem in our area
[7] Median prices of Cupertino and Almaden Valley housing dropped 5-10% from 2006 to 2012, while our 'hood dropped 40%. That's very telling!

We suspect that the findamental problem in our "hood" is a large cohort of un-parented and idle-headed youths whose parents both work, and likely have no study-discipline instilled in the house. I also conclude that to the untrained eye, this root problem can be not easily detected by Sunday house hunting trips.

A super good tool that I discovered is here:
https://www.city-data.com/zipmaps/San...alifornia.html
We made a spreadsheet based on incomes, population-types, apartment density, etc per zip code and that has proven a useful complement to the things we observe in our Sunday house hunting.

One final remark is "lots of young families with kids playing outside". This may well have been the case before the invention of internet and on-line community, but it is my observation that most scholastically disciplined and "going somewhere with their life" kids from famlies that I know in the Santa Clara valley are essentially "inside kids" except for specific sports or arts etc destinations - ie they don't just "play out in the street" any longer. At this point we are considering Willow Glen and/or Almaden. Who cares if the kids play in the streets, if what that really means is they lack discipline and proper parenting.

[OrangeSunset]

Livermore is a great place for families and affordable by bay area standards. There are good school and lots of activities for families through LARPD (Livermore Parks and Recreation). The community center is amazing with lots of swimming pools including a zero entry pool, which is perfect for kids. There is also a cute downtown, gorgeous wineries (over 40) and friendly people.
If you have a flexible working schedule or can work from home, Livermore would be ideal. Commuting to the south bay is tough but again depends where you need to go and what time.
Livermore has more seasons than other bay area cities with with colder winters and hotter summers . The average temperature is quite pleasant though, about 70 degrees year round. Expect temperatures to reach high 90's during heat waves during the summer. These heat waves normally last 2 or 3 days and then the temperature drops to high 80's. There is also lots of sunshine and it is rare to have a cloudy day in Livermore. More weather info here: LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA - Climate Summary

[Mach50]

When we lived in the Bay we found a lot of young families in the San Mateo/RWC/Foster City area, and the homes were in that price range. Not a lot of newer homes though, but well kept older homes.