Comments on: Santa Clara county home sales are going gang busters!

By: SiO2

SiO2 — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:46:40 +0000

Madhaus,
there seems to be a premium for Saratoga (elem, goes to saratoga high) vs CUSD. Maybe $50k or so, not as big as the obvious premium of CUSD over Moreland or Campbell. Hard to tell, there’s not really that many sales that you can look at comparable houses.
I’d prefer Saratoga over CUSD. With CUSD there’s the chance that you get the shaft and end up not at Blue Hills but somewhere farther away. School is still good but inconvenient. And Saratoga has higher per pupil spending so they get more amenities, like the new auditorium at Saratoga high.

By: madhaus

madhaus — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:21:43 +0000

SiO2, there’s a school right on Titus, it’s one of the 5 CUSD alternative schools, so people from all over CUSD go there. It’s a K-8 program. And yet there are places literally across the street that CAN’T go there. How nuts is that? I think the same thing happens with Miller and Hyde middle schools, they are amazingly close to each other, and Hyde is on Bollinger with kids right across the street from Hyde going to Miller instead. I think Bollinger is one of the borders, but it’s weird to have the school on its own border.

Yeah, I knew about that Safeway south of the tracks, is it by Argonaut? Definitely not walking distance, anyway. I bought the house I did because there was stuff to walk to within a mile, parks and shops. All the nearby schools, though, had been closed and leased to other groups. Anyway, the lack of nearby walk-to stuff is why I didn’t like that neighborhood, because we did look there. I did love how big the lots were.

Moreland schools are so-so, they go to Prospect High. I actually used to live in the Country Lane elementary area, which was the best Moreland school. This was long before kids yet even then we noticed this. But the middle school (Rogers) was pretty iffy.

It is so bizarre that Saratoga is divided up into so many difference school districts. Have you noticed whether there is a premium for CUSD vs Saratoga-LG?

By: SiO2

SiO2 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:00:33 +0000

Regarding Saratoga and schools:
11941 BROOKGLEN DR, Saratoga 95070
Asking 1.288, for a reasonably nice 3/2.5 with 1907 ft. And it’s been on the market for a few weeks. So why didn’t it sell in 2 days like Karn Circle, even though it’s 200k less and nicer condition? It’s Moreland schools.

By: SiO2

SiO2 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:58:07 +0000

check it out, a bank-owned in Los Gatos! It’s the 3rd distressed house I’ve seen in LG.

14550 BLOSSOM HILL RD, Los Gatos 95032
Former Care Home, 9 Bedrooms, 5 Bathrooms, Separate Living, Dining and Family Rooms, Large Lot, The possibilities are endless, Close to Leigh High School, Los Gatos Address, Not A Short Sale, Bank Owned.

9 bedrooms. Rent them out for $800/mo, it just might cash flow.

By: SiO2

SiO2 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:42:16 +0000

Hi Madhaus,
Thanks for the tip. That neighborhood is a great example of the school district affecting house prices. The same house will be $200k more in CUSD than in Moreland. And another $50k-100k to go a bit south into Saratoga schools! But with private school at $15-30k per year, it pays off with 2 kids or more.
The school and park are walking distance, which is nice. With kids in school, you’ll go there more often than the store. And there is a safeway on saratoga sunnyvale. It depends on your definition of walking distance!
The RR tracks are a drag, but trains are only a couple of times per week. The bigger problem (to some) is the powerlines parallel to the tracks, but I don’t know how obtrusive they are from this house.

By: sg

sg — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:17:10 +0000

> I actually did my undergrad at some little known school in Pittsburgh, at least outside of my major anyway.

Hey Carnegie Mellon is Number 1 in CS, along with MIT and Stanford.

By: sg

sg — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:14:53 +0000

Madhaus,

Sometimes it’s ok to acknowledge sometimes if you don’t know something. The same is applicable to me as well. I don’t claim I know every Bay area neighborhood.

I work in the heart of the Peninsula. If I choose to live anywhere other than Peninsula or the city, I would prefer East bay close to 84 than South Bay. Based on my personal experience, 84 is *far* better than 101 N from Sunnyvale. The intersection near Mountain View is kinda nightmare.

Like I said, 238 could be crowded, I am not sure about that. I am happy I don’t have to go near there, at least during office hours.

By: sg

sg — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:07:20 +0000

Madhaus,
> But in the same comment you are replying to, I clearly said:

Yes, you did. Too busy with work, so it’s difficult to context switching sometimes.

>Maybe you should just back off that claim that Sunnyvale and Fremont should be valued equally.

Absolutely not. You are wrong, according to me.

> And when you say you’d rather drive 84, have you tried crossing the Dumbarton in the morning?

Didn’t I say I did?
It’s an absolute pleasure.
You are ignorant about traffic at Dumbarton.

Stayed at a friend’s place for a few days.

I am planning on moving close over there.
With carpool, even the toll is waived.
That frees up at least another 500 miles per month.

By: burbed

burbed — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:09:25 +0000

Thanks to Burbed, I learned something new today!

By: madhaus

madhaus — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:28:58 +0000

You may have met people from NJ but you out yourself by calling it by its Brooklyn title. Just as no resident of SF would ever call it Frisco, no Juhzzy guhl would speak of “duh boids on toidy-toid stweet.”

Fun fact: James Gandolfini of The Sopranos had a native North Juhzzy accent, and worked with a voice coach to sound more Brooklynese because that is how the rest of the US expects a Jerseyite to sound.

And that is where I will leave it, spars holding up the rigging.