We are considering to settle since our kids will be in school in about one year. We are considering from Cupertino to Menlo Park. But it looks like West Sunnyvale (94087 - Homestead High) or Mountain View (94040) seems versatile in case of we move from our current jobs. We are currently working in Cupertino & Mountain View, but we expect we might need to go up to North as much as Redwood City and South as Cupertino / Los Gatos. As much tempting as moving up to the City, I think we might be just boring couple in South Bay.
Our criterions are good schools, 3bed 2bath minimum (prefer 4/2+), 1600 sqft minimum, good size backyard 6000+ sqft, good neighborhood, commute time < 30 mins and hoping to spend less than 1.7M.
There is no doubt that 10212 Santa Clara is well within your limit. If you do not qualify for 2M, this is better.
Los Altos with 2700 sqft (old home) with 10k is a great choice in the long run. I am not eligible to this limit. Otherwise, I will close my eyes and buy Los Altos ! It has its own value.
3Br/2Ba, 1600 on 6000, 100% can get for $1.7 mil
Fyi, my primary is 3Br/2Ba, 1666 on 7800. 4 adults.
For easy access to both Cupertino and MV, best is West Sunnyvale (Cherry Chase/ Cumberland/ West Valley elementary). However, SFHs are slightly older than Cupertino, though price at Cupertino in terms of $/sqft, because of Googlers, Facebookers and Apple recently have leased some offices in West Sunnyvale (along Mary Ave, North of CTE). Inventory is ridiculously low now.
I have some friends in the Sunnyvale neighborhood that feeds into West Vally Elementary School. It is a nice family neighborhood. I think $1.7 for a sfh there is doable.
Yea, Los Altos is definitely desirable, even at 1.7, property tax is heart sinking. We can probably pull off some equity from the investment property to reach to 2, but I am debating on whether we should do or not.
In you guys opinion, will it retain better value in long term?
The Stokes house in Cupertino is too close to freeway. About the Cherry Chase neighborhood, the middle school is not very good. It has a great elementary, bad middle, and OK high school.
How about going deeper into Cupertino to the Monta Vista area?
My impression is that Homestead is a good school, but not among the best. Certainly a rung or two below Monta Vista and Lynbrook.
I posted a link to UC Berkeley admissions data on this forum a while back. You can query the database how many students from each high school applied, how many got accepted, and which races they are.
I suppose you don’t need to worry about high school for a long time to come. Maybe the middle school is more pressing.
SJ attended Homestead . In the long run, Homestead has more room to improve (in % term) than already very good schools, so if home prices follow good schools, houses near Homestead would rise faster than those already have good schools. This was the initial strategy adopted by me, bought a SFH near MVHS, then Cupertino High,then Lynbrook or Homestead but price rises too fast before I can gather enough doughs. The SFH going to Cupertino High rises faster than the one going to MVHS in both absolute and % term . At the moment, lost interest in buying any because of extreme low inventory… buying in Austin suburbs and monitoring South Bay.
As more and more highly paid professionals come to South Bay, all schools would be very good eventually
You can short by State for easy sorting. Yea, Homestead High is lower than Monta Vista, Lynbrook and Cupertino High. But also weird to fund Palo Alto schools lower than these three. And couldn’t find MVHS.
These magazine ratings can be very arbitrary. That’s why I used real hard admissions data. My theory is that schools sending more kids into Berkeley are better than ones that send fewer.
Thanks! I don’t think I saw that one yet. I assume private university like Stanford doesn’t have that data. And wanted to see how that two list stacks up if there is one.
I hope you are right. Right now my old San Jose house feeds into Evergreen Valley High. It’s the worst among the “good” schools, so surely has the most room for improvement.
C’mon kids! Hit the books and push up my property value!!
If you have friends whose kids are enrolled at high schools which you are interested in, ask them.
Lynbrook has website (open to its students and parents only) which has application/admission/enrollment statistics of its students for all colleages/universities.
I am sure other schools have similar information open to their parents/students.
. In the long run, Homestead has more room to improve (in % term) than already very good schools, so if home prices follow good schools, houses near Homestead would rise faster than those already have good schools. This was the initial strategy adopted by me, bought a SFH near MVHS, then Cupertino High,then Lynbrook or Homestead but price rises too fast before I can gather enough doughs. The SFH going to Cupertino High rises faster than the one going to MVHS in both absolute and % term 
. At the moment, lost interest in buying any because of extreme low inventory… buying in Austin suburbs and monitoring South Bay.