Any recommendation for this new comunity, Avenue one (San Jose, San Francisco: townhome, transfer to)

[phoenix_new]

Avenue One , San Francisco / Bay Area, CA

[mstnghu2]

What exactly are you wanting to know?

[phoenix_new]

I don't know anything about that area, neighberhood, schools etc...

[neutrino78x]

It would be great to live by the light rail. Easy commute.

[sonarrat]

There's pretty much nothing there right now. Hard to say how it will shake out. They have a model of being a small, walkable community in the style of Santana Row. It's all down to project management, economic conditions, market forces to predict the future for Avenue One. I can say that the area on the other side of 85 is already worth $800s-900s for newer homes so it is well priced.

[phoenix_new]

Thanks, I might be moving to bay area soon from Arizona, and I don't know much about that area.... We are a family of 4, with 2 kids age 7 and 3.... so My specific questions are:

1. How is this location, assuming work place is in Sunnyvale and I commute by car.

2. How are the schools in this neighborhood?

3. Is it worth buying a townhome in this price range in that location?

4. What kind of reputation this are has in bay area?


Really appreciate your comments

Thanks

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by phoenix_new

Thanks, I might be moving to bay area soon from Arizona, and I don't know much about that area.... We are a family of 4, with 2 kids age 7 and 3.... so My specific questions are:

1. How is this location, assuming work place is in Sunnyvale and I commute by car.

Commute by car sucks. Ideally you would want to live in north San Jose or in Sunnyvale. This location is in south San Jose. I don't have a car, but from what everybody on here says, it sucks to commute via car around here.

The light rail goes to Sunnyvale, so in theory you could simply walk to the light rail and ride that to where you work. Possibly take a bus, bike or corporate shuttle from the nearest light rail. I know that Lockheed, for example, has a stop on the light rail.

AMD's headquarters is in Sunnyvale, I believe you would have to take a bus from the light rail for that. Or take light rail to Tamien, then transfer to Caltrain, get off on Sunnyvale and take a bus.

Transit tends to take about the same amount of time as driving during rush hour. The great benefit is that you can do other things on the train. Kick back and relax, watch a video, browse the web, play a game, post on City-Data. I've never experienced the anger on transit that people describe for driving during rush hour. There's free wifi on Light Rail, too.

In theory, it would take 26 minutes to drive from Cottle Light Rail to AMD headquarters in Sunnyvale (based on the distance, average speed 55 mph). In practice, with rush hour traffic, at least an hour. Transit would take around 1.5 to 2 hours.

2. How are the schools in this neighborhood?

Not sure off hand. I don't have kids. I believe it would be San Jose Unified School district, which isn't one of the "good school districts". It's not a BAD school district, but it's not elite either. But buying a single family home in a good school district is going to be like a million dollars. I'm not kidding. 800k to 1+ mil.

Glider Elementary School appears to be in the area and has 8/10 on greatschools.org, check it out

GreatSchools.org Search

If that link doesn't work, I did a web search and the zip code for the Cottle Light Rail Station area appears to be 95123, so just put that into greatschools.org.

3. Is it worth buying a townhome in this price range in that location?

I think, if you can afford it, not a bad place to live. I would like to grow up next to the light rail where I can go to a mall or a museum without having my parents drive me.

4. What kind of reputation this are has in bay area?

Well, the Cottle light rail station has a hospital right there (Kaiser, which as a very good reputation), some residential areas, and HGST (hard drive design lab owned by Western Digital) is there. HGST was originally owned by IBM, then Hitachi, now WD. I think IBM still has a Cottle Road Research Facility that is separate from HGST.

I've worked in the area (I work for a charity) and it didn't seem bad.

Note, most people in this forum have a different opinion of living here than I do. Here's what they would say:

"If you have kids, the only valid option for housing is to buy a single family home in a good school district. This is very expensive and would require a 250k income. Therefore the cost of living in Silicon Valley is ridiculous. If you make less than 250k and cannot buy a single family home in an elite school district, you therefore live in poverty."

That's basically the attitude people have. But I think the Cottle Light Rail area, which is where this project is located (they market it as being close to Cottle Light Rail) is a good place to live.

[neutrino78x]

oh okay I found the IBM Research Facility in South San Jose. Looks like the Cottle Road stuff is all HGST, not IBM.

IBM's is off Bernal, referred to as the Almaden Research Facility.

IBM Research - Almaden, Visitor Information

[bobby_guz_man]

This area is full of gangs and very ghetto-ey. I would not bother with it. Frankly, I'd stay away from San Jose--too many gangs and ghettos here.

We have 29 homicides this year! In a city of a million! The only other cities that have more homicides per capita, for this year, are San Francisco and Oakland!!!!

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by phoenix_new

Thanks, I might be moving to bay area soon from Arizona, and I don't know much about that area.... We are a family of 4, with 2 kids age 7 and 3.... so My specific questions are:

1. How is this location, assuming work place is in Sunnyvale and I commute by car.

Horrible. South San Jose to anywhere farther north than downtown sucks, IMHO. If you're going to live in South San Jose, you want at least one of the following to be true:

• You work no farther north than downtown
• You can work from home a few days a week
• You can commute at off-peak hours

2. How are the schools in this neighborhood?

You can easily check this yourself, by determining which schools your children will attend, and then look them up on greatschools.org.

3. Is it worth buying a townhome in this price range in that location?

Only you can answer that.

4. What kind of reputation this are has in bay area?

Have you spent any time there yet??? Maybe it's like, worth a trip out to see for yourself? I don't live in that exact area, but I do go to the Orchard Supply Hardware and Lowe's in that area all the time, as well as dine at Castillo's (Mexican), Bill's Cafe, and Sonny's Restaurant (Vietnamese) frequently. It seems like solidly middle class and safe (though most of the country doesn't consider $700k entry point for a SFH as middle class).