College-aged kid moving to San Jose-please advise (Oakland, Sunnyvale: rentals, crime)

[jencatt]

Hi. I am the mom of a college-aged kid moving to CA to be near San Jose City College and 4 year universities nearby. Tell me, what are safe and affordable areas over there. I looked on Rent.com and I see Sunnyvale has some properties that are around $1800 for a 2bdrm. I don't know that area very well (I'm from LA, but I live in MN now). Any advice is appreciated!!!! Also, where is the best place to find roomates???

[AnythingOutdoors]

San Jose and its suburbs are generally very safe, but there are pockets of "bad" areas (if you can even call it that). E.g. the area southeast of downtown (near towards Spartan Stadium and Happy Hollow Park) is a little rough. Not sure about Sunnyvale proper, maybe others can chime in with specific neighborhood recommendations. But overall, I would avoid industrial areas (in and adjacent) and use Google Streetview... what you don't want to see are bars on doors/windows or lots of graffiti and/or trash.

[ccm123]

OP, Sunnyvale is generally a safe city. I have lived there in the past and there are no dangerous areas to speak of. Of course, parts of the city may be more desirable than others. Sunnyvale is basically in the heart of Silicon Valley with a large “techie” population - engineers, business people, etc.

I think the rents for a nice 2 bedroom unit are higher than what you indicated, roughly $2,600-$5,500 per month, from my experiences. You may want to research the rents again in the area, as $1,800 sounds low, especially for a 2 bedroom unit. Perhaps, a studio could be obtained for $1,800 a month.

Sunnyvale rents are not inexpensive, as the area is desirable and convenient to live (close to major Silicon Valley employers.)

Good luck!

[gizmo980]

Will your kid have a car? Because public transit here SUCKS, so if they're not going to live near campus they'll want a vehicle.

That being said, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Mountain View, etc, are all very safe towns - I can't even really point to a "bad" area of them, but of course some streets are better than others. Sunnyvale is particular is very safe, but also quite boring for a young person. They might like Mtn View better, as it does have a vibrant downtown. Or San Jose itself, particularly right around SJSU. Maybe avoid East Palo Alto, but even EPA isn't that bad now lol. I lived there way back in 2003-2007, and it was just a little rough around the edges.

Craigslist is still the go-to for roommates and rentals, I think. Maybe I'm wrong, though, since I haven't had a roomate for over a decade.

[Snackmaster]

I just looked at Rent.com and the only rentals I saw for under 2K were studios in that area. Most 1 or 2 bedroom units were $2500-3200. So, I don't know of any cheap places in Sunnyvale and I don't know of any with a low cost of living. It's in one of the highest COL places in the country. I would see if the college offers any subsidies.

Sunnyvale is pretty far from the most crime ridden cities like SF, Oakland and Richmond. I don't know of any better option than Craigslist for roommates.

[artillery77]

Crime is very low here. There literally isn't a bad part of Sunnyvale....maybe a less posh part. Your kid will be fine.



If you've got a 2 bedroom that isn't a complete dump for $1800, jump on that. That's a steal. It's almost too good to be true though. Maybe a garage unit? I'd investigate that a bit. Sometimes you'll get subletters that aren't paying their rent even if you're paying and the defaulting tenant is pocketing the cash on the side. Frankly, in the last crash there were some underwater homeowners doing the same.