Los Gatos / Saratoga vs Palo Alto / Mountain View / Los Altos

I love Emerald hills. Woodside ambiance fir half the price. And only 7 minutes to Sandhill road. And 30 minutes to SF

Not sure if South LA has that high of premium over nice area of MV (which I understand is south of El Camino). We were debating South Los Altos when we were buying in Peninsula.

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What I gather from this input is “not Palo Alto” :joy:

@Boolean stays in PA :wink:

Your requirement is not public school, so no reason for paying PA price. Basically you get more space in LA than PA for your $. Having said that, we did end up choosing PA over LA for two reasons other than school, feel more urban than suburban feel like LA, closer to other Peninsula cities. We could save 10-15 mins than living in South LA, doesn’t seem a lot, but if your commute is now 15 mins, it doubles. We go to SF, San Mateo and still not far to Sunnyvale / Cupertino for more Asian varieties. One surprise we didn’t think initially was more bike friendly than we thought. We can bike to Library, Farmers Market, Restaurants etc.

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I live in north Los Altos. It’s a nice place very much like Saratoga. But it’s expensive and not worth it unless you bought 10 years ago.

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Prices have skyrocketed but why not worth it?

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These days you are already ahead if you just bought 6 months ago. BA RE is a better place to store your wealth than cash.

Because you can use the down payment and property taxes you pay here in living a better life, traveling, buying some luxury, having some nice vacations etc. Most people I know who recently moved here stretched their budget to buy 4M+ homes which basically look very ordinary. To get an impressive house here you need to spend 6M+.
And now after spending 4+M they still live in a shack and they have become debt slaves. Both husband and wife keeps working and they cut back on even basic things life eating out. No vacations. If your NW is 5M+ and you earn 1M comfortably without slogging out like a donkey then you should live here. Else for half the price there are equally good neighborhoods. And you don’t have to slog like a donkey.

Life is much more than rat racing to a silly bubble where you don’t belong or can’t afford.

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Buying a 5M house in Los Altos or Palo Alto is not throwing money down the toilet. Buying a 1M house in the middle of a flyover state is. Obviously buyers need to be able to afford the mortgage payments without over-stretching themselves. But looking at the stock performance of tech companies I don’t think these 5M houses will have problems finding buyers.

@manch

Read between the lines.
I live in a $6M+ house in North LA. And yet afford to buy luxury, have nice vacations, etc.

Los Altos and Saratoga are too rural looking for my taste. I am with @Boolean. I like PA more.

But how do you know all this? :slight_smile:

I know at least 3 people who bought in last 1 year. They all bought for status symbol and stretched.

I also saw a dozen recent sale of very run down unlivable houses for 4M within few blocks of me and I thought the buyer will remodel it or rebuild it before moving cos anyone who cares about quality of life won’t live there. But then I saw them moving in those conditions - a few painted the house though. I can’t expect these people to be spending on luxury :joy:.

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Why not buy a cheaper house by ocean in Socal, put the rest in equities and allow you to better chance to semi-retire.

I don’t see point in putting majority of cash flow into housing equity on Peninsula. Not the best bang for your buck.

For most people if they have to work here it makes sense, but I think in my situation, it’s not optimal.

Also keep in mind that luxury homes are a terrible investment. I have seen homes that did not appreciate at all in prime Los Altos and Los Altos Hills over last 20 years while every other shack in run down areas in San Jose and East Bay has quadrupled.

Investing in luxury housing or the most prime location is a bad move.

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But we are not retired yet. We still a) need to live in some house and b) send the kids to some school. So the choice really just boils down to: do you spend the money to buy a house in a good school district and send kids to public schools; or spend a little less on your house but send kids to privates instead.

There are pros and cons to either. Also a good school district tends to mean there will be less crimes around and neighbors tend to be nicer.

It’s a spectrum and different people land on different spots.

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Min price in PA is 3M, LA and Saratoga 3.5. 5M is not “luxury” in LAH by any means. If you are talking about 20M and above then maybe.

Ditto to what @manch above - one thing to add - commute time (yea, it can vary in new flexible WFH environment), but still the less time you have to commute, the more time you can spend time with your family which increase your quality of life.

Having said that I agree with people should be using commonsense what they can afford. I am definitely against of house poor - if you can’t do decent vacations or enjoy life because of mortgage, you definitely can’t afford that house and shouldn’t risk for status. Also, people buying in LA or PA in recent year might be upgrading using their equity from other BA municipalities.

No, I mean do you buy a house in a great school district in Bay Area, or buy a house in a great school district in SoCal for a million or 2 less. Invest the excess in equities, spend in on lifestyle, etc…

Is the Bay Area peninsula lifestyle that much better than coastal SoCal?

I’ve lived in both places. I would definitely prefer Peninsula to a lot / most of southern California. But right on the coast is quite nice. If you don’t have to commute much, I think many would prefer it not including the price savings.