[therandomguy]

Hi. I moved to the Bay Area last week. I'm a family guy with little kids. I split my time between San Mateo and San Jose. Regular tech job. In about 6 months I will start lookin for a house to buy. I don't mind upto 50 mins of commute each way. Any recommendations?

[evgen]

Having just left the Bay Area for the UK I will have to second the recommendations made by others to look in the Campbell and Willow Glen areas. Throw the Cambrian area of San Jose into the mix as well (you will end up with lower house costs due to not being in the prime areas but it is otherwise equivalent.) The primary and middle schools are highly ranked, the high school for that area is a bit sketchy but improving. 280 and 85 are close and light rail out of downtown Campbell gets you to Didiron station in two stops for easy access to Caltrain. San Mateo is up 280 to 92 and across; not a great commute when traffic is ugly, but better than just about any other path in that direction.

[kjackson2012]

It depends on your down payment and your salary. Does your wife work? Are you open to sending your kids to a mediocre school or do you want them to attend a private a school?

All areas with good schools will run you over 1M for a house. A place that isn't ghetto with mediocre to bad schools will run you about 750k.

[therandomguy]

School district is important. How about if I increase my commute time? Would you say San Ramon or Pleasanton are bad options?

[hack_edu]

Those cities are way, way out there and absolute commute gridlock hell. You also need to understand just how dense the suburban strip-mall monotony gets once you cross the hill...

[dzink]

East Bay (Walnut Creek / San Ramon area) has houses ~700-800k in top 1% of school districts in the country. Check zillow where each house for sale has assigned schools and their ranking. Commute is 45 min to city by Bart and 1hr to south bay.

[rgovind]

I think South San Jose/Campbell and Fremont (via Dumbarton) should be good bets for you.

[cmccabe]

You probably want to live in the San Jose area. There are a lot of good neighborhoods like Willow Glen or Campbell. Get a place close to I-280 rather than US-101. 101 is not as well maintained and it's crowded all day.

San Mateo is not a bad place to live, especially if you like urban areas. Rent is more expensive there, though, and there is more traffic.