patrick.net

Consider renting up in the Santa Cruz mountains instead. You'll get:

Much more land to play on
Have no noise to deal with
Can probably keep a dog/garden if you want
Cooler weather

The commute to MV/PA isn't too bad by SFBA standards. I had a coworker who lived up there and was able to get to Page Mill/El Camino in just under 30 minutes.

I saw a 1 bedroom walk-up for $3850 in Mountain View.

Take a night to consider that and we will discuss it in the morning.

Buy a nice 1990s construction double-wide mobile home and rent the land beneath it for $1500-$2000/month.

There are nice trailer parks in Sunnyvale and Mountain View.

Most of your neighbors will be slumming it driving ordinary Audi/BMW/Mercedes cars not S/M/AMG models but life is about more than status symbols.

sc mountains are not an option... MV is midway between our jobs.

I wouldn't mind, but wife has DQ'd mobile home.

So something like the above isn't going to work?

In the end, you are going to get 2 bedrooms for your price, but certainly not a townhouse/duplex/sfh.

You aren't going to get a garage, and you aren't going to get renovation.

It's also going to be near Whisman. Which is a superfund area. It means the semiconductor industry used to dump toxic chemicals into the soil there, and volitiles are being released into the atmosphere, so much so that businesses have to have special ventilation systems to scrub work environments.

Don't tell that to the people who are selling and buying homes in that area though. Because home prices don't reflect that.

If you want a garage, not a Multi, or renovation, or a safe environment to live in, you really have to increase the budget to $4k

Am I the only one that finds in ironic that anywhere else in the country, a trailer is where the the poor people live, but in the Bay Area, it is considered 'normal'?

Diomedes777 says

Am I the only one that finds in ironic that anywhere else in the country, a trailer is where the the poor people live, but in the Bay Area, it is considered 'normal'?

Why don't you say, BA rich are actually poor as other poor in the country!

Diomedes777 says

Am I the only one that finds in ironic that anywhere else in the country, a
trailer is where the the poor people live, but in the Bay Area, it is considered
'normal'?

You are talking CA in general and SF (area) to be specific where reality and normality refuse to meet. When a 1100 square foot, 30 year old house can fetch from $600K to well over $1 million - yeah, it maybe what is real in SF but it's certainly not normal (if you were to ask 100 people who didn't live in CA or NY).

Diomedes777 says

Am I the only one that finds in ironic that anywhere else in the country, a trailer is where the the poor people live, but in the Bay Area, it is considered 'normal'?

I don't think anyone in the Bay Area considers it "normal." It's still where poor people live here. drew_eckhardt's comment seemed sarcastic enough to me, at least. That said, I heard that people spend a lot more on mobile homes in the Malibu area.

funny how the meaning of the word "condo" has changed over the years. Now it's just another word for apartment.

found a good map of the site mentioned above

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/23/17068747-epa-findings-at-toxic-california-superfund-site-concern-area-residents

any other local problem spots to be concerned about?

donjumpsuit says

WTF? How did they manage to squeeze 2bdr into 840 sqft?

Straw Man says

WTF? How did they manage to squeeze 2bdr into 840 sqft?

That doesn't seem too difficult to achieve. Standard 1950s houses in certain parts of LA were 2BR/1BA 900 sqft. Tiny kitchen + relatively small dining area that was not separated from the living room.

There are plenty of apartment buildings with 600-650sqft 1BR apartments, so adding another bedroom could keep you below 840 easily.

buffer says

sc mountains are not an option... MV is midway between our jobs.

I wouldn't mind, but wife has DQ'd mobile home.

Where are the jobs?

buffer says

any other local problem spots to be concerned about?

If you need to get to shoreline, and you find a place where you have to take the 84 a few miles, look at the morning traffic to determine if you can handle it.

Actually, its a good tip for all (and your wife).

I mean, you want to be equidistant from both your jobs, but really what you want is to know when you would be travelling in traffic hours, and plan equal commutes based on the time it typically takes.

buffer says

unny how the meaning of the word "condo" has changed over the years. Now it's just another word for apartment.

In the east coast, apartments are in buildings. Probably to keep the heating efficient.
Then a 'condo' development would be two story duplexes stuck together with garage or other parking in suburban areas.

Here on the west coast. They call those 'condo's' single family homes. No shit, I see side by side duplexes listed as 'houses' all the time. The picture from the front on the listing typically cuts off the other house. And all housing is highly dense like a 'development' back east.

And what I found a picture of is a "walk-up". Like a condo, but strung together with outside access to individual units, because it's never too inclement here.

Also multilevel apartment buildings fall down and go boom when the earth quakes.

buffer says

sc mountains are not an option... MV is midway between our jobs.

I wouldn't mind, but wife has DQ'd mobile home.

Then let her pay.

New Renter says

buffer says

sc mountains are not an option... MV is midway between our jobs.

I wouldn't mind, but wife has DQ'd mobile home.

Where are the jobs?

stanford and milpitas

mell says

buffer says

sc mountains are not an option... MV is midway between our jobs.

I wouldn't mind, but wife has DQ'd mobile home.

Then let her pay.

oh, she will... just not yet

corntrollio says

Straw Man says

WTF? How did they manage to squeeze 2bdr into 840 sqft?

That doesn't seem too difficult to achieve. Standard 1950s houses in certain parts of LA were 2BR/1BA 900 sqft. Tiny kitchen + relatively small dining area that was not separated from the living room.

There are plenty of apartment buildings with 600-650sqft 1BR apartments, so adding another bedroom could keep you below 840 easily.

Do a search on Redfin of houses in Lakewood, CA.

Nice enough area with a ton of post war build that hasn't been modified.

2bd/1ba 800 sq ft apartments are super common.

donjumpsuit says

In the east coast, apartments are in buildings. Probably to keep the heating efficient.

Then a 'condo' development would be two story duplexes stuck together with garage or other parking in suburban areas.

Here on the west coast. They call those 'condo's' single family homes. No shit, I see side by side duplexes listed as 'houses' all the time. The picture from the front on the listing typically cuts off the other house. And all housing is highly dense like a 'development' back east.

And what I found a picture of is a "walk-up". Like a condo, but strung together with outside access to individual units, because it's never too inclement here.

Huh--I always though a condo was an apartment that you own rather than rent.

donjumpsuit says

Here on the west coast. They call those 'condo's' single family homes. No shit, I see side by side duplexes listed as 'houses' all the time. The picture from the front on the listing typically cuts off the other house.

Some listings call those "duets," which I assume is meant to be a classier name than "duplex" or something similar.

Why not look at Fremont or Newark? One of you will drive about 10miles south to Milpitas, the other can drive west across the Dumbarton bridge and through east Palo Alto to Stanford.
There is freeway congestion, but if you can work slightly offset hours from standard commute, it's not so bad. There are some bridge buses, and BART will be going down from Fremont to Milpitas/San Jose in a couple years. I think there are also buses from BART to light rail in Santa Clara County.
You can get a whole 3 bedroom house in Fremont for about 2400 a month .....

found a map and article:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/23/17068747-epa-findings-at-toxic-california-superfund-site-concern-area-residents

any other problem sites in the area to be concerned about?

Poppie says

You can get a whole 3 bedroom house in Fremont for about 2400 a month .....

I rent a 4/2 in SSJ for that.

Without traffic its 25 minutes to Stanford. There are also Caltrain baby bullets and a VTA express bus if I decided not to drive. To Milpitas is about 20 minutes reverse commute up 680.

New Renter says

Without traffic its 25 minutes to Stanford.

But with traffic...

Actually, Caltrain is a good option on that route. Stanford has a shuttle bus from caltrain to the campus so it's reasonably convenient.

Santa Clara is probably cheaper than MV, as long as you aren't in the cupertino school district section (southwest). Central SC is pretty nice, although doesn't have a lively downtown like mv. North SC, around 101, is, well, cheaper.

Google maps now has a facility where you can look at "typical traffic" conditions for different days and times. So you could fool around with that to see different options.

SiO2 says

But with traffic...

It sucks. That's why the rent is cheaper.

How flexible is your schedule?

SiO2 says

North SC, around 101, is, well, cheaper.

"Cheaper" is a polite way pf putting it...