San Jose? (Santa Clara, Mountain View, Milpitas: apartment, rentals, crime)

[1Maddie2]

Just wondering about San Jose in terms of safe areas? I am an older single woman and will likely be working in Mountain View, which is a little beyond my budget for rentals so I am trying to find something more affordable. I have no children or pets and like quiet - don't need the busy urban scene but do want to be fairly close to a shopping area. I would like to be within a reasonable commute and I guess my ideal time would be 30-40 minutes. Any suggestions?

[ccm123]

The north side and west sides are generally safe. I would recommend the north side for a better commute to MV. You could also look into Campbell and Los Gatos, which are different cities.

[pch1013]

FYI, there's a San Jose subforum available -- you might want to inquire there too.

[mstnghu2]

As mentioned previously, you should probably post this in the San Jose forum for additional responses. I'd say as far as safety goes, San Jose crime varies more by zip code than anything else. Despite recent upticks in crime, it's still a safe city overall. In many parts of SJ, crime is almost non-existent.

As far as commuting to Mountain View goes, it will be rough no matter what. The further south and east you live in SJ, the worse it will be.

San Jose is a very big city and covers a lot of land, so you have many options. I'd say the worst zip codes you'd want to avoid would be 95122, 95116 and 95111. There are bad neighborhoods scattered throughout other parts of the city, but those three zip codes are generally crappy to really crappy.

North San Jose, south of Hwy. 237 has a lot of new residential development going up lately, but a lot of the places seem to be pricey. You'd have a decent commute though.

I'd also recommend Milpitas, but it's hard to find good rentals there. As the previous poster mentioned, Campbell and Los Gatos are also nice, although you probably won't find anything in LG on a budget. Santa Clara is also a good option.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

What's your budget? What size apartment?

I just retired from a resident manager job in Santa Clara. I rented out mainly really tiny studio apts - 250 sq feet - next to the university. The building is really quiet, though, as it's mainly graduate students and some working professionals. I left in November, and at that time we were renting the tiny studios for $1200/month including utilities. Santa Clara is a nice safe town with lots of shopping options. There's a little Saturday farmer's market, too.

If you can take the Caltrain to work, consider the towns along the Caltrain route:

System Map

The one named "Lawrence" is actually in Santa Clara, near Lawrence Expressway.

For particular neighborhoods in San Jose, if you decide to commute that far, definitely post in the San Jose forum. Lots of knowledgeable people there about San Jose neighborhoods. I lived very close to the San Jose border in Santa Clara, but didn't spend much time in San Jose, so couldn't advise you.

For fun, let's see what you can get in Santa Clara on Craigslist. I sorted it by lowest price first:

SF bay area apts/housing for rent classifieds - craigslist

BTW the other Caltrain station in Santa Clara is next to the university. So, if an apt is listed as being next to SCU, it will also be close to the Caltrain station.