

Ask HN: Living/working in Cupertino? - brk

There exists a possibility that we'll (wife and I) be relocating to the Cupertino area from the Boston suburbs in the next 6 months.<p>Knowing very little about the area, I was hoping that somebody could offer some insights or recommendations on the local housing scene.<p>Would like to keep the commute &#60;40 minutes (let's just use 1 Infinite Loop as a theoretical destination).<p>We have 2 properties currently that are valued at about $750K together, so would like to stay in that price range +/- maybe $100K.  Less dense/populated is better, but flexible on that.<p>Any suggestions or thoughts?
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grellas
My office is in Cupertino and I live on the Peninsula. It is a great commute
if you can take 280 (always against traffic) and it is about 30 minutes door-
to-door (say, up to the Redwood City/San Carlos area).

Anything in Cupertino will very likely be over $1M, mostly because it is a
nice area and also because it has a much sought after school district, one
which can command a couple of hundred thousand dollar difference for otherwise
like houses that are even across the street from one another.

There are homes in the South Bay that are in the range you indicate, and
perhaps some nice ones, but you will likely be disappointed by what you will
find in that range. If you go too far east, the prices might go down but the
commute will likely be miserable if you drive during peak hours.

Going north, Palo Alto is beautiful but way out of range, as most of Sunnyvale
and Mountain View will likely be as well.

Going further north, you can find some reasonable suburban homes in the San
Carlos/Redwood City area that are within range and the commute fits so long as
you can take 280 for the drive down (not so with 101, where the commute is
often bad, even going south in the a.m.; the area, btw, is quiet and the
neighborhoods nice, lots of younger and 40ish-type couples). The weather
around the Valley is very consistent and temperate year-round - it averages
perhaps 10 degrees cooler up toward the mid-Peninsula and so you should like
it slightly on the cooler side (still 60s to 70s year round, on average) to
live up there.

Note: not written from a hacker perspective (I am not a hacker) but from that
of someone who has been in Silicon Valley for 40+ years.

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evgen
The Mountain View area is nice and will give you a very sweet reverse commute.
I would suggest putting that high on the search list. Another possibility is
Campbell, the commute will involve heavier traffic, but it is a shorter trip
than Willow Glen or LG.

~~~
evgen
Another factor that I should also probably add to this is that if you and your
wife are looking for convenient night-life and a less suburban existence you
are probably better off looking hard at the Mountain View & Palo Alto area.
Some of the areas we have been talking about (LG, Willow Glen, Campbell, etc)
are much more suburban house-with-a-small-yard and might be a better fit for a
family that is considering kids in the near future. If this is not something
you see in the short-term then MV and PA will give you access to more
activities and events for singles and young couples. Castro St. in MV and
University Ave. in PA have more bars/clubs/restaurants and both areas are more
convenient for trips into SF including the option of taking the train in.

