Question for people familiar with Stanford and Palo Alto area

[Sukhoi]

I had a thread a couple weeks ago about possibly moving to the Bay Area. Well, I am officially going now. We need a 5-bedroom house and are strongly looking in the Stanford/Palo Alto area.

Where exactly near Stanford is the nightlife? I have been told it is on University Avenue, but not what cross street. We are thinking if we can find a house near University and Middlefield we should have walking access to nightlife, and good access to the Dumbarton Bridge. Are we right?

Thanks!

 

[mrizvi66]

i hope you have millions of dollars...cause real estate in that area is expensive...

best night life is probably near the stanford mall...its an outdoor mall...

 

[PaNsyBoy8]

Palo Alto is a pretty expensive place to live, espically if you are looking for a 5 bedroom live. Just for reference, a 2 bdrm apt not too far off from university is about 2.5k a month. I hope you got a great job offer, or look a little further south, to save money on rent. as for nightlift I guess you can say the night life is on University, but most people would trek up to San Francisco for parties and such. Good Luck!


EDIT: I didn't even think about purchasing a house, if you were going that route, and you want a 5bdrm, you will definately need a few million.

 

[andylawcc]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
Where exactly near Stanford is the nightlife? I have been told it is on University Avenue, but not what cross street. We are thinking if we can find a house near University and Middlefield we should have walking access to nightlife

the nightlife area should be between High St to Cowper St. I went to high school around there and it was quite fun. Miyake (Japanese restaurant) was like the spot to be at, and is still there (that was 10 years ago!)
I forgot the name but there's a rather large coffee shop at the end of Univeristy, since we can't drink we spent a lot of time over there.

 

[Sukhoi]

Hehe we won't be buying so the $1 mil for a house isn't a concern. A bunch people from work got assigned to Fremont for a year, and 5 of us are going to get a house together. Should be like Old School. We'll see what we can find near University and Middlefield.

 

[zinfamous]

still, my bro and his wife rent a 3 bedroom house/apartment in Menlo Park for ~2g per month, I think....good luck finding a 5 bedroom place, let alone not paying out the ass for it.

Not that I live there, but from the prices I've seen in the University Ave are, you have to be making upper six-figs. When they first moved out there, my Bro and sis in-law lived a few blocks away in a coach house, 1/3 the price of their current place for the same rent, if not more... (I think it had 1/2 bedroom; no joke)

From what they told me, though, that is the area to live.

 

[andylawcc]

Originally posted by: zinfamous
still, my bro and his wife rent a 3 bedroom house/apartment in Menlo Park for ~2g per month, I think....good luck finding a 5 bedroom place, let alone not paying out the ass for it.

there is always EPA.

 

[PaNsyBoy8]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
Hehe we won't be buying so the $1 mil for a house isn't a concern. A bunch people from work got assigned to Fremont for a year, and 5 of us are going to get a house together. Should be like Old School. We'll see what we can find near University and Middlefield.

if you are going to be working in fremont, why live in pa?

 

[Sukhoi]

Originally posted by: PaNsyBoy8

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
Hehe we won't be buying so the $1 mil for a house isn't a concern. A bunch people from work got assigned to Fremont for a year, and 5 of us are going to get a house together. Should be like Old School. We'll see what we can find near University and Middlefield.

if you are going to be working in fremont, why live in pa?

Mostly for the lifestyle. Fremont area is way too boring, and San Jose/Mountain View area is too expensive not to mention the friggin nuts traffic.

Also one of the guys I will be living with is a fitness nut and really wants to workout at some particular gym over sorta near Palo Alto.

 

[atomicacid55]

Oh God. WHY would you live in Stanfurd/Palo Alto area? You should move there when you're old and have $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

University Ave. is nice. I enjoy walking down the street, but it's NOWHERE CLOSE to Telegraph ... Anyways, I think if you wanna go cheap, you should live in the East Bay. You can always drive to get your night life.

 

[Dirigible]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi

Originally posted by: PaNsyBoy8

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
Hehe we won't be buying so the $1 mil for a house isn't a concern. A bunch people from work got assigned to Fremont for a year, and 5 of us are going to get a house together. Should be like Old School. We'll see what we can find near University and Middlefield.

if you are going to be working in fremont, why live in pa?

Mostly for the lifestyle. Fremont area is way too boring, and San Jose/Mountain View area is too expensive not to mention the friggin nuts traffic.

Also one of the guys I will be living with is a fitness nut and really wants to workout at some particular gym over sorta near Palo Alto.

I prefer to be positive, but I got nothing for you but sad tidings:

A) Palo Alto near University is more expensive than San Jose/Mountain View by a significant margin. Also, finding a 5BR house for rent in that area will be difficult.

B) Palo Alto is not what I think of when I think of "night life." There are a few bars and restaurants along and near University, but it's a pretty quiet town. It was a pleasant enough place to live (I lived on Homer at Middlefield from '99 to '02), but there was a reason I got in the best cycling shape of my life when I lived there - not much to do besides ride my bicycle.

Oh wait, not all the news is bad:

1) A commute to Fremont from there shouldn't be *too* bad. You could even ride your bike across the Dumbarton (a friend of mine used to live in Fremont and bicycle commute to Palo Alto).

Edit for more not-so-badness:
The night life in that neighborhood of Palo Alto is definitely better than in Fremont. You're right, Fremont is boring.

 

[shopbruin]

map of university ave

university from ... middlefield? all the way down to stanford is nothing but shops, restaurants, etc. it's been a while since i've gone down university.

 

[Sukhoi]

Meh, driving to nightlife sucks. Either need to find a DD every time or wait for a cab.

So University Ave and the mall is all Stanford has for a bar district? I'm used to Big Ten schools that have a couple blocks that are entirely bars.

One guy might be dropping out, which is good since a 4BR will be way easier to find.

In response to Palo Alto being more expensive than Mountain View, if we can still get in for $900/mo a person I'll do it. I want nothing at all to do with traffic on the 101, 237, and 880.

 

[PaNsyBoy8]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
Meh, driving to nightlife sucks. Either need to find a DD every time or wait for a cab.

So University Ave and the mall is all Stanford has for a bar district? I'm used to Big Ten schools that have a couple blocks that are entirely bars.

One guy might be dropping out, which is good since a 4BR will be way easier to find.

In response to Palo Alto being more expensive than Mountain View, if we can still get in for $900/mo a person I'll do it. I want nothing at all to do with traffic on the 101, 237, and 880.

have you been to palo alto and enjoyed the "nightlife" there yet? while palo alto might be more fun than fremont, you might be better off in san jose.

 

[Dirigible]

Is your work near a BART station? If so, you may want to consider living in SF itself and BARTing. Would take a while to get from SF-Fremont on BART (nearly an hour) but you wouldn't be driving. I liked my BART commute, got a lot of reading done.

Edit: of course SF places aren't cheap either...

 

[andylawcc]

Originally posted by: Dirigible
Is your work near a BART station? If so, you may want to consider living in SF itself and BARTing. Would take a while to get from SF-Fremont on BART (nearly an hour) but you wouldn't be driving. I liked my BART commute, got a lot of reading done.

Edit: of course SF places aren't cheap either...

is it true a lot of ppl are moving towards Concord nowadays?

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: andylawcc

Originally posted by: Dirigible
Is your work near a BART station? If so, you may want to consider living in SF itself and BARTing. Would take a while to get from SF-Fremont on BART (nearly an hour) but you wouldn't be driving. I liked my BART commute, got a lot of reading done.

Edit: of course SF places aren't cheap either...

is it true a lot of ppl are moving towards Concord nowadays?

yes, it is true.
Houses are still going up in the Tracy / Livermore / Pleasanton areas.

 

[PinmasterJay]

Originally posted by: AlienCraft
yes, it is true.
Houses are still going up in the Tracy / Livermore / Pleasanton areas.

Yeah, my Dad lives in Antioch and his house has skyrocketed in the 13 years he's owned it...

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
I had a thread a couple weeks ago about possibly moving to the Bay Area. Well, I am officially going now. We need a 5-bedroom house and are strongly looking in the Stanford/Palo Alto area.

Where exactly near Stanford is the nightlife? I have been told it is on University Avenue, but not what cross street. We are thinking if we can find a house near University and Middlefield we should have walking access to nightlife, and good access to the Dumbarton Bridge. Are we right?

Thanks!

If by nightlife , you mean bars, those are ubiquitous in the Bay Area.
If I were working in Freakmont, I would try to live either on the ends of a BART line and commute that way SF is pricey, Antioch would be OK, rental -wise as would Livermore / Pleasanton.

 

[beer]

dude, san jose is way cheaper than Palo Alto, not to mention actually has bars, wheras palo alto doesn't have much and as far as I know, it's mostly high-end stuff.

I live in SF and I work in Sunnyvale. SF to Fremont is too much, unless you can take BART every day. Life in SF if you can, if your company is near BART or at a BART shuttle. if you live in Palo Alto you can't take BART since it doesn't run in that part of the peninsula.

A 45min ish BART ride daily is worth living in SF over Fremont. Depending on where you live you can probably just leave your car in Fremont if that's something that sounds appealing...but I don't take bart.

 

[shopbruin]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi

In response to Palo Alto being more expensive than Mountain View, if we can still get in for $900/mo a person I'll do it. I want nothing at all to do with traffic on the 101, 237, and 880.

DON'T SAY THE! we don't say "the" 101 in norcal, that's a socal only thing.

you say "take 101 to 680, exit mission blvd."

 

[quikah]

Nightlife in Palo Alto? That place is MUCH different than your average college town. I suppose it is more exciting than Fremont, but if you really want nigthlife you are going to have to drive to the city. I suppose you could drive across the bridge to East PA for some "excitement".

 

[thomsbrain]

i think you should expect to pay at LEAST $1500 per room in Palo Alto, and that would be for the outskirts. you may not even be able to find anything that cheap. i think it is impossible to get people from outside this area to understand just how expensive it is to live here. a sh!tbox apartment in the san jose ghetto will run you $1000 for a one bedroom, with cockroaches and drug dealers as a free bonus.

i have to laugh about your mistaken notion that san jose will be more expensive and have more traffic. palo alto is one of the most expensive "flat-land" cities in the bay area, and traffic on 101 is absolutely BRUTAL. if you work in fremont, just live in fremont. once you move to the bay, you get used to driving far to do stuff, no matter where you live. i consider a 20 mile drive "close." so live in fremont, where the crime is low, the freeway access is good, and you can ride BART to SF or Oakland for fun on Friday nights.

 

[iliopsoas]

for $900, you can get a cardboard box in one of the allies adjacent to University. LOL

 

[chuckywang]

I would never spend more than $800 per month in rent.