Comments on: Rent: $4200/month. Sale Price: $1.6m. El Cerrito

By: muggeseggele

muggeseggele — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:48:56 +0000

Hi,

I live in EC – just bought an awesome property there. I smile everytime I pass (BART) by the tiny little (& old) houses in Albany… I enjoy my almost 2k sqft (4 bd/ 2 bath) for an affordable price.

For the money I saved I could afford a private school – but why? Madera Elementary (9 out of 10) is good enough.

Sometimes it helps to read your kids a book or just spend some time with them – awake the curiosity in them. Then they ’survive’ a mid-level school and still get their PhD from a decent University.

By: madhaus 94087 Did I mention Cupertino schools that's right Cupertino

madhaus 94087 Did I mention Cupertino schools that's right Cupertino — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:14:56 +0000

You guys are over-reacting. Since you guys take so much pride in your Cupertino branded schools, I honestly didn’t know that there’s a part of Cupertino that doesn’t have good schools for itself.

What are you talking about? I never mention anything about the school district!

By: Real Estater

Real Estater — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:10:24 +0000

>>you’ll have to grant that RealEstater’s posts are uncannily Pavlovian. He remains unmatched at triggering reactions.

By: madhaus aka guitar hero

madhaus aka guitar hero — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:05:15 +0000

I see some bad loans recasting
I see double monthly pain
I see unemployment lasting
I see bad times today

Don’t buy a house for years
Unless you wanna be in arrears
There’s a bad loan gonna rise

Heh heh. I can definitely play that one.

By: Factcheckin

Factcheckin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:47:47 +0000

(Re: Tuscany in El Cerrito.) And when John Fogerty (Creedence) started raking in the dough, he bought a house in Kensington…on Sunset Drive, just up the hill from El Cerrito.

Kensington kids *do* go to El Cerrito High School. Unless, of course, their parents put them in Head-Royce or send them back East to Phillips-Exeter.

Check out Kensington. Its truly Burbed quality…in a artsy/f.rtsy sort of way.

By: mrbogue

mrbogue — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:44:19 +0000

…I can use your song as a lead-in if you tell me what tune you had in mind…

hehehe Madhaus, I was actually using this tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOsLdT4slsk

alittle Southern Californian history right there…

By: DreamT

DreamT — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:34:34 +0000

madhaus – you’ll have to grant that RealEstater’s posts are uncannily Pavlovian. He remains unmatched at triggering reactions.

By: madhaus 94087 better than Rancho Stinko Nada

madhaus 94087 better than Rancho Stinko Nada — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:15:15 +0000

DreamT, great minds think alike, or at least weakness seldom differs.

You know, you can lead a donkey to water, but you can’t make him burro.

By: madhaus +22 karma from song parodies

madhaus +22 karma from song parodies — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:11:07 +0000

Wow, look at that. Not only is it uglier than a box of triscuits, it’s got the one school in the district whose API scores went down last year: Sedgewick! Plus an added bonus, worst middle school in the district!

You’re not proposing that Rancho Rinkydinky is the “real Cupertino,” are you?

RE, did you notice when this house last sold? 1993! For $195K. Around that time I bought my house for over $300K. Hmmm… you think even then people figured out this part of Cupertino wasn’t that Special?

That place is even smaller than my shack, but one good thing! The lot size is just like those in Palo Alto! Undersized! A whopping 5300 sf! And if you buy this place you will get the pleasure of watering your own lawn, because if you don’t, it’s fixin’ to die soon.

burbed, you should feature that house. It put the Ech! back in Eichler.

By: DreamT

DreamT — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:09:02 +0000

RE – Rancho Riconada is now back to being in the ‘real Cupertino’? In any case I am convinced both Sunnyvale CUSD and Santa Clara CUSD are better deals than the neighboring Cupertino.
* Better be in one of the best neighborhoods of a city than in its worst
* Paying a premium only to have a different zip? No thanks
* 3/1 and 5304sqf is comparatively smaller
* Greatest ROI potential based on expected improvement in city planning, school scores and current valuations? Cupertino is already on the frothy side, so less attractive.

By: Real Estater

Real Estater — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:58:43 +0000

One interesting thing is that there’s some part of Cupertino that is actually cheaper than Sunnyvale/Santa Clara with CUSD. For example:

http://www.movoto.com/real-estate/homes-for-sale/CA/Cupertino/18816-Pendergast-Ave-100_814604.htm

In that case wouldn’t it better to just live in the real Cupertino?

By: madhaus +22 karma from song parodies

madhaus +22 karma from song parodies — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:45:20 +0000

DreamT, I think I’ve got that middle ground with middle level Cup schools. I hope. My older kid commented on the Mexican kids who often don’t seem interested in getting decent grades, but that there’s not that many of them compared to all the whites, Asians, and Indians, the latter two tending to go for good grades, along with 2/3 of the whites.

The school with the 1000 API, Faria, is almost entirely Asian (95%, includes Indian subcontinent).

By: DreamT

DreamT — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:56:24 +0000

madhaus – SC/CUSD is Eisenhower elementary (API 894) and Hyde middle (API 829). I agree with your analysis for the middle school hit. At the same time, these numbers improve pretty much every year (Eisenhower: 2001=835, 2002=839, 2003=863, 2004=874, 2005=885, 2006=884, 2007=894) so when purchasing in CUSD, current API doesn’t tell the whole story.
Also there’s a healthy middle ground to hit between the public-school attitude of some SJ east-side schools (where it’s cooler to fail even if you can succeed) and the elitist attitude of some Cupertino schools (where you’re not expecteed to succeed if you don’t look Asian).

By: madhaus +22 karma from song parodies

madhaus +22 karma from song parodies — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:37:13 +0000

Thanks DreamT, I had absolutely no idea that “w00t!” meant anything other than “yippie!” Burbed never links to anything and neither did any other use of the term. I will check it out.

I’d say less than half of ‘87 is CUSD as well. The zip is still high because Cherry Chase is the best scoring elementary school in the Sunnyvale school district, so those houses sell for about 10-20% less than CUSD. Between CUSD and Cherry Chase, that easily covers more than half the zip, but I don’t know where to verify the actual numbers.

Here’s a Sunnyvale school district map. The SSD schools in 94087 are:
– Cherry Chase (entirely in 94087), API 941
– Cumberland (2/3 in 94087), API 865
– Ellis (1/3 in 94087) API 822

All 3 of these schools feed to Sunnyvale Middle, API 797.

The Cupertino schools are (all entirely in 94087):
– Nimitz, API 848 (2nd lowest in district)
– Stocklmeier, API 930 (highest enrollment in district)
– West Valley, API 924 (possibly oldest physical plant in district)

All feed to Cupertino Middle, API 901

The Santa Clara district schools in Sunnyvale:
– Laurelwood, API 887
– Peterson Middle, 786

I don’t know how much your SC/CU schools diverge. Looks like the hit comes more in middle school than elementary for both Sunnyvale and Santa Clara districts, Cupertino keeps their numbers up by adding Montclaire (Los Altos city limits, API 969) kids into Cup Middle. Cherry Chase scores better than all 3 Sunnyvale city elementaries in CUSD.

By: DreamT

DreamT — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:57:37 +0000

madhaus – on woot.com, check the daily wootcast on the right (“stupid six” today). You never noticed burbed saying “woot” on his daily postings?
There’s very little of 95051 that is in CUSD, even compared to 94087 – it wavers north and south of Pruneridge then abruptly stops before Kiely.
Cannot claim it is a problem in itself, but zip-level statistics don’t begin to give an idea about it. So I wouldn’t call 95051 a CUSD district, it just has a tiny chunk of it in it, and the prices, sales and related trends bear little ressemblance to the rest of the zip. No doubt all zips have this issue on their edges.

By: San Mateo Home Sellers in Trouble

San Mateo Home Sellers in Trouble — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:56:12 +0000

Oh, since we’re talking about songs and stuff. Creedence Clearwater Revival is from El Cerrito. Another random factoid is that I did go to Albany High even though I lived in El cerrito. The way my parents managed that is to rent in Albany for one year so I was already enrolled in Albany schools, and then they bought in El Cerrito, very close to the Albany border (actually the Welcome to El Cerrito sign is in front of our house). So as a continuing student I was allowed to stay in Albany. At that time houses in Albany were already 20% more than El Cerrito. So I think that’s a good strategy for people who want to get into the better school districts. Just rent there, and then buy a house really close by in another county.

By: madhaus did I mention Cupertino schools?

madhaus did I mention Cupertino schools? — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:47:36 +0000

Thank you, mrbogue. I can use your song as a lead-in if you tell me what tune you had in mind.

Sorry about the previous post, I don’t know how it got cut up like that.

By: madhaus did I mention Cupertino schools?

madhaus did I mention Cupertino schools? — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:46:25 +0000

Renter4, thank you. You’ve have some wonderfully apt comments, so your appreciation is genuinely welcome.

DreamT Thank you too and, um what’s “on woot”? You sure you want to hear me actually perform that? Some real estate bull is going to make noise about this being “old people” music.

Is the Pruneridge line the CUSD/SC break? You probably have the same problem in ‘51 that we have in ‘87, everything here (almost) north of Fremont is Sunnyvale, not Cupertino, school district (plus a little bit of Santa Clara in the east).

By: mrbogue

mrbogue — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:44:34 +0000

hats off madhaus, I didn’t know there was an extended 12″ mix.

By: Renter4

Renter4 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:56:55 +0000

Nicely done, madhaus.