Moving to San Jose
 

Hi Everyone,

I am considering moving to San Jose in the next few years, as my boyfriend has a potential job opportunity there.

I am from Toronto and have never visited yet.

Can someone tell me a little about the lifestyle, culture, weather, and if there are any close beaches?

Thank you!

Lifestyle: dual income a must due to housing prices. More affordable houses tend to be smaller and older.

The whole bay area, including the San Jose area has a very diverse population. A large Asian population means a great selection of restaurants spanning all regions and price ranges, markets, etc.

The vast suburban sprawl of San Jose proper spans from Morgan Hill in the south and continues to into the towns to the north (Santa Clara/ Sunnyvale/Cupertino on the west and Milpitas/Fremont on the East. San Jose is surrounded on both the East and West by mountains. Those to the West are lush/green, and those to the East are dry/brown.

Large concentrations of high tech/professional jobs - you'll drive by company offices you've heard of one after another. Yahoo, Intel, HP, Sun, Cisco, etc, and that's just a start.

Weather is great. From May thru October the average rainfall is somewhere about 1" total. Statistically it may be more, but you can basically count on NO rain during that span.

Winter lasts from Dec 24 to Jan 15. Rose bushes start to grow in mid Jan. Spring is beautiful - warm days, cool nights, green hills. Starting in May, the hills all turn brown, but the days are nice and nights still cool. Most older houses don't have AC and don't need it, except for the occasional stretch of 90+ weather when the winds are blowing from the East/inland.

The closest beaches are over the mountains at Santa Cruz or south to Monterey Bay.

Real mountains (Sierras) are 4-5hrs away with great skiing, wonderful wildnerness areas.


Overall, San Jose is a great place to start a career and live as a young couple. When it comes time to settle down and start a family, the cost of housing, commute distance to jobs and the desire to choose a good school district drive many young families out of the area.

I appreciate your valuable information - I am going to start checking out the real estate market. His job would be in the computer/hi tech industry, however my job area is human resources, so I wonder how difficult a time I would worry about finding a suitable job.

Thanks again.

Iloveitaly,

Here's a recent thread about affording the SF bay area. http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...=J62&fid=1

I recommend you don't get too hung up about housing and jobs, especially if you're not planning to go there right away. Sticker shock will get you worried and there are so many companies large and small in the area that job openings come and go constantly.

If you have specific or other general questions about San Jose feel free to ask. There are a lot of Fodorites besides myself familiar with the area who are likely to chime in.

J

Sorry, that was the wrong thread - all it'll do is call up my postings.

Here's the SF bay area thread.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34602101

Thanks a lot - I will check out that thread.

iloveitaly, Check out www.craigslist.com There are HR jobs listed there every day.

What a great website - thanks Grasshopper

I've lived in SJ for almost 10 years - I came here for college and then stayed.

J62 outlined this area pretty well.

The cost of living is the main downside of this area. Traffic can be a pain depending on where you live and work. We haven't had to deal with that in my family for awhile - I work close to our house and our house is near the lightrail, so my husband uses that to get to work.

The positives, in my opinion, far outweigh the negatives for this area - the diversity, the proximity to just about anything, the weather, a large concentration of employers. The beach is a half hour away, the redwood forests are even closer, SF is 45 minutes, Monterey is an hour, the sierras are 4 hours away.

The descriptions of the weather alone has me moving, if I never see snow in my lifetime again I will be alright.

However, the housing situation has me a little worried.

Thanks for your replies

We lived in the Almaden Valley 2 houses away from the Almaden Country Club back in the 70's-80's. It's a very nice part of San Jose, but not as rural today. Our home there is now worth well over 1 million! The weather is very nice indeed, but I missed the 4 seasons and don't mind snow so back we came to NE with no regrets.

Housing costs are a big consideration - basically you have to downgrade your expectations about what you will be able to afford compared to most other places in the country.

For example, my husband and I are both professionals making decent salaries. We aren't raking in the dough, but we do alright. Six months ago we bought our first house. It is a 30 year old townhouse that needs work in a quiet, safe neighborhood. It isn't large or anything out of the ordinary. Just a basic place. We have a small yard and a 2 car garage. In other parts of the country, adjusting for salary differences, we could have bought a larger single family home with a large yard.

It's all about priorities. We don't mind paying more for less house to live here because to us the benefits outweigh the negatives. Other people move away because they have different priorities.

Does anyone think it would be worth our while to move there for only two years?

Also, could someone tell me what the maternity leave time permitted in the US is?


When visiting, what areas should we plan on visiting?

All your help is greatly appreciated!

You should not hesitate to move there for just a few years but I would advise moving anywhere and counting down the days till you move out. In my experience people do much better when they move to a new place, make it their new home and don't watch the calendar. Who knows, you might actually like it there and decide to stay.

Renting for a few years allows you to get a better feel for where you might like to buy a home, commute distance, etc.

Maternity leave is an interesting topic in the US. It is customary that there is NO such thing as paid maternity leave. By law, no company is required to pay you if you take extended time off.

There is a US labor law (called FMLA) that requires employers to grant up to a total of 12 workweeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for care of a newborn or for family or personal medical reasons.

Some companies have more liberal policies but US law & general practice is very different than say the EU. Not sure about Canada.

Any time is a good time to visit San Jose. It's never too cold and only rarely too hot.

J62's info is a little misleading. While your company is not required to pay maternity leave, California Disability Insurance will pay for the period of time your doctor says you are unable to work; typically 2 weeks before delivery and 6 weeks after.

Be careful. I moved to San Jose "temporarily" and didn't leave until 25 years later!

By the way, Cal DI is NOT 100% of your normal pay. Typically companies will augment this with some percentage of your normal earnings.

Grasshopper is right - it's not totally unpaid due to CA DI. Good catch.

This is such valuable information, I am so glad I posted.

I usually only ask questions about vacations.

I am actually getting quite excited about potentially moving. I ask about the mat leave benefits, because I hear they are different than in Canada. Here, employers must give you 12 months off, with subsidised wages - however, we are taxed quite heavily because of this right.

I can't wait to visit.

Thanks for all your replies!

Hi, iloveitaly:

You've gotten some excellent advice here. I'll just add a couple more points:

The most important thing for you to negotiate is a salary that is for Silicon Valley and not for Toronto. This means you will have to do some comparisons.

Let's say you need $50K to live comfortably in Toronto, then you should find out what it will cost to live at the same level while you are here in Silicon Valley. Don't let the company talk you into accepting something that is according to Toronto standards - you're not going to be living in Toronto any more.

The worst "sticker shock" may be salary shock. A good company will pay a good salary to get a good employee. :)

As for medical care, in the US it's all a "do-it-yourself" proposal, so the cost of getting onto an adequate and good health plan, like the Kaiser Health Plan, should also be part of the salary you are thinking of getting.

Being in HR, you probably know all about negotiating for moving expenses, etc. The best time to get everything you want is BEFORE you accept the job. AFTER you (or your husband) accepts the job, then you've lost all leverage.

Good luck to both you and your husband!

Lots to think about in regards to planning.

Can you suggest what a combined income should be for the both of us to live adequetly? We plan to only have one car and buy a house (hopefully).

We have no children.

Thanks again!

Can you afford to buy a $500-600,000 house? That is for a very modest condo or single family home in Sunnyvale, which is a very modest suburb. You might want to look at the San Jose Mercury News on-line to get a feel for living expenses and salaries.

Basic single family houses in San Jose start at about $450K. There are some that go for less than that, but most of those require significant work and/or are in less than desireable areas.

Townhouses are less expensive than single family houses - basic townhouses and condos in reasonable areas start at about $350K.

In general, San Jose is less expensive than the surrounding towns - Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, etc. South of San Jose are the towns of Morgan Hill and Gilroy which tend to be a bit more affordable than SJ, but you also have a longer commute. There is a commuter train (Caltrain) with reasonable service if you work a standard 8-5 M-F schedule.

It's hard to know what is an "adequate" range for you and your husband.

I would suggest googling/yahooing with a search title such as "comparative salary by region"

You can then see what is the AVERAGE salary for someone with your education, background, experience, etc. in Toronto, and what is the salary for a like position in Silicon Valley.

When you have come up with a bottom line salary for the area that you are transferring to, remember to negotiate for an additional 10%. Most people don't get raises right when they get a new job! :) It'll be another 6/12 months before your salary will be raised, and then probably not by 10%!

J-Correa has given you a good idea of how much things run as far as housing. You could do as they did and save up enough for a year or two for a good down payment.

Personally, I dislike condos because the condo associations tend to have a bunch of nuts running them - IMHO. BUT, they are great as starter homes. After a few years, you could sell your condo and go for a single family home.

Silicon Valley is very youth oriented. Which means you should not think of getting an adequate retirement from your company. Your best earning years here are when you are very young. So save up when you're young!

Negotiate a good salary, get into a company that gives you as many benefits as possible, save as much as possible...

and, oh, you'll need to two cars.

Have fun! :)

In terms of housing, be prepared for some obscene sticker shock, especially for somebody coming from Toronto.

Also, in terms of landing jobs, if you are not an American citizen or a landed American immmigrant (green card) it will be very difficult fo you to work here - esepcially in HR.

ttt