First time home buyer - Fremont / Almden Valley/Cambrian ? 1.5M budget

Bay Area
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Experts guide me with your opinions …

We are first time home buyers. Plan to work in palo alto to sunnyvale. Have kids needs good schools (if not excellent) and both of us will work so should definitely be able to plan pick up and drop of kids.

Realtors suggest following areas

  • few pockets of fremont - concern crossing bridge is increasingly getting painful.
  • Almaden valley - commute can be problem but quality of life for family quite good.
  • Cambrain park - almost not available.

Please suggest if any other zip code . price max 1.5M

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Berryessa area of San Jose has 1-2 good elementary schools. The middle and high school are pretty good. I’m not sure how the commute on 237 is.

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Almaden is not holding up its value against West San Jose. Try 95129. If that’s too expensive then go for 95130.

I wouldn’t consider anything in San Jose other than those 2 zips.

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Stay away from Fremont, Almaden Valley and Cambrian park, both are tough commute for you. With this 1.5M budget get some new homes (or even Town homes) being built in Sunnyvale or Mountain View.

My suggestion is stay as close as your work, horrible traffic conditions.

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1.5 will have new townhouse in MTV, i think. Maybe relatively older ones, not sure.

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Can 1.5 buy a townhouse in PA?

How about Belmont and San Carlos? Schools are pretty decent.

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Looks like it:
https://www.zillow.com/homes/recently_sold/Palo-Alto-CA/townhouse_type/19501366_zpid/26374_rid/globalrelevanceex_sort/37.539949,-121.846276,37.223494,-122.424431_rect/10_zm/

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Wow. 1.5 can still buy a TH in PA. That’s the best bang for the buck!

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Um… not really. People go for PA because we all want that glamour lifestyle. A townhouse takes the glamour out of that.

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what glamour lifestyle? The one where people envy you live in PA so you must be rich?

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Yes, exactly.

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That 1.5M TH has pretty decent yard space for a TH. Hack, it’s better than many so-called SFH in SF already. People live in PA for schools and commute. A cheap (yes, 1.5M is cheap for PA) roof over the head in PA is really, really good value for the money.

Rent estimate is only 4500. You can argue it makes more sense to rent than buy in PA.

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HOA $650 <-- what a waste

Much slower appreciation. No renovation potential.

No thank you! I’ll stick with my condos in Concord… :laughing:

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It’s now worth 1.85M. Not sure why it was sold cheaply at 1.4M only a couple months ago

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Palo-Alto/765-Loma-Verde-Ave-94303/unit-A/home/1652827?utm_source=myredfin&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ios_share&utm_nooverride=1&utm_content=link

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Depends on the size of the house.

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Ok wait a minute. Why is everyone telling me that Fremont is a good idea then?

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Need more info. Grade level of kids, how many bedrooms/baths, what minimum square footage you’re ok with.

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You’re comparing two different addresses (725 vs. 765)

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I remember PA TH selling for barely over 1M, maybe 1.05 or so 2 or 3 years ago. Appreciation is not slow. I don’t know why people keep telling me TH and condos appreciate slower than SFH. The opposite is true. If I am wrong show me the data. I would like to correct my mistakes too.

If you work in PA, living close to work is a VERY big deal, especially for 2 working parents. It means a much, much better quality of life.

And most important of all, are you telling me I can afford PA now??? :heart_eyes:

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kids - one 4th grade and other will join elementary in 2019. Atleast, 3BHK. Ok to commute for an hour.