Hello Blind Community, Since bay area has gotten very expensive, we are thinking of buying sfh home in Hollister. It has everything we need at a price we feel comfortable with . I work at Apple so I can either take shuttle from gilroy or drive to work in tesla. I tried driving down around 4 pm to Hollister and it took us about 1hr and 10mins. Without traffic its about 55mins, on worse days shows 1.5h. I only have to come to office maybe 2-3 days to work after offices open up so I wont mind driving to work couple days a week. We have a new born baby atm and not into the whole pub/club life. We definitely need the space. Similar house in San Jose will be 2.5-3x and we cannot do that. What are your thoughts?
Driving 1 hour to work and back, that’s my nightmare
Agreed, thats a tradeoff for buying a house at 1/3 price
What are you looking for in a home?
4 bedrooms and backyard.
How big of a lot? How old house?
Do what it takes to care for baby and have some space but don’t rely on commuting to Bay Area when things are back to new normal. My assumption is, it might be better to look for companies which offer remote work at that point. But commuting with a new born, believe me you don’t know what you are signing up for. What happens when both of you are 1.5 hours away and there is a baby emergency. Consider working remote.
Over the course of few years that will limit your choice
Yea, already brought up remote work with manager and they havent answered yet. Working in Hw but barely go to office. Lets see what happens. Agreed on emergency part.
Just know that Apple is calling the hybrid arrangement a pilot because they’re going to revert back to 5 days a week in a year, and remote requires SVP approval (won’t happen). Also the current commute times are not representative of what they will be once everyone is back working at the mega campuses.
Yes I agree but there is going to be big pushback from employees on this and they will have to find a middle ground. Atleast thats what I think will happen. 1-2 people from my team moved to different state and they were given approval for it. So as I spend more time working at Apple, they might allow if they think you are significant contributor to the team.
These exurbs are obscenely priced right now due to most companies being fully remote now. If you care about long term appreciation then it would be better to buy in desirable places. But if you just want the cheapest price and not care about returns then these exurbs are ok. Mountain house and tri valley have all gone nuts during this remote times
Yeah Trivalley has gone bonkers
What can i get a for 1M in trivalley area, nothing! So options are limited. My estimation is hollister and gilroy will continue to grow as prices in san jose go up. Lot of people from San jose seem to moving down here since Gilroy has also shot up in prices.
Why even stopping at Hollister. Try exploring Los Banos and Fresno
You kidding me right? Whats wrong with driving about 1hr and 10mins to work when most of the people already spend about 45mins to commute and living in tiny cardboard boxes. Fresno and Los Banos are nowhere close. Hollister is not that far from south bay.
Wtf ? Terrible schools, literally only a couple of streets in the city and is in the middle of nowhere. If you don’t burn up in the summer heat, you’ll probably die of boredom. And what sort of friends will you or your kid have ? No one is coming there to visit you, no entertainment anywhere nearby. Don’t know anyone except the local farmers that probably live there. Just move out of state, to San Diego or LA instead, Hollister is a terrible idea.
Who told you its farmers who live there?! Also there are some good schools there. Temperatures are same as san jose. Maybe do some research. In terms of entertainment there is downtown for drinks and then you can drive to gilroy outlets, huge water theme parks or cinemas there. Gilroy is only 20mins away, Monterey and Santa cruz are both 45mins , Big Sur is like 1hr 20mins and on weekends you can just go san jose/sunnyvale for change. Dont see what the issue is. Been living in san jose for a year and went out like 4 times for bars, went to amc a couple times but did go out to monterey, santa cruz and other places as we love nature. Lot of new young families have moved to Hollister and we can make friends locally there. I dont have a social circle in bay area as I moved to US one year ago so it doesnt really matter if people dont come visit me. I have like 2 actual friends in san jose. I also hate sf so dont really go there. Dont have option to move to San Diego or LA due to my specialized hw experience. So atleast we can buy ourselves a new 5 bedroom house, nice cars and enjoy nature instead of living in a shitty tiny townhome for 1.2M in San Jose and cry about how we cant afford a nice house, cars. Sometimes you have to enjoy your dreams too instead of delaying it. Its one of the things COVID has taught us!
Think it through. Is there enough for your kids ? They will have after school classes, sports etc. Are you willing to drive to the Bay Area every day for that? Will you find a nanny there if you need it? Is there a decent ER nearby ? Do you even get decent takeout food if you can’t cook some days ? Your car breaks down, will Uber come there ? Also, it’s bang on top of the San Andreas fault line, the first slightly bigger quake here will hit that town hard. I’ve lived in the boondocks before. There is way too much driving even if you are WFH. And your 1hr 10 mins is way off. I’ve done south San jose to Cupertino a lot, from Hollister it will take you 2 hours if traffic comes back to pre Covid levels. If you don’t have a social circle here, you are making it very difficult on yourself to find one in a remote town. A 5 bed house is the only thing you’ll have and you’ll soon realize that it’s not worth it.
What is your plan when Bay Area jobs and real estate is wiped out in the next crash?
There is no safe place in 🇺🇸 then
No safe place
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Not sure what your budget is, but you might want to consider Pleasanton, lathrop or mountain house area.
Pleasanton is as expensive (in fact more expensive) than San Jose. Tri valley rates have increased exponentially in the last 2 years
Yeah, you’re probably right in Pleasanton. Thanks for catching that. Not sure what OPs budget is, but lathrop might be something to consider? https://riverislands.com/?utm_source=GoogleRiverIslandsWebsite&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=SocialMediaRiverIslands&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0p2QBhDvARIsAACSOOOpzlGjtloWdLkOi-PNbqWKo4X6iCzNLsLykBcHSuHC1tr-_6qR8ScaAsOZEALw_wcB