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Ask HN: Best places to live in Silicon Valley for families?

4 points by goodgoblin ↗ HN
Hi Folks, Thinking about making the switch and wanted to get some informed opinions to guide me and my wife through our frantic craigslist/realtor.com/dice.com Silicon Valley search.

We have a couple of young kids and I was thinking of making a career move and SV was high on my personal list, but I'm not sure my family will have as enjoyable of a time out there as I will.

I was wondering if folks with kids lived out there and had opinions on the subject but also any SV relocation advice in general would be helpful.

Thx.

6 comments

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iamelgringo
Silicon Valley is really pretty family friendly. A trip to Ikea any night of the week, and you'll notice tons of parents and families towing younger children along.

We don't have kids, but my wife didn't really think that she'd enjoy life here. She likes it probably more than I do at this point in time.

evgen
Most of SV (except for San Francisco itself) is family friendly. This is suburbia with a large tech population. The big issue you are going to face, depending on the ages of your children, is school selection and you can expect to pay a premium ranging from "a lot" to "you must be joking" for housing in areas with really good schools.
russell
Try skyline (Rte 35) above Woodside (take Rte 84, Woodside Rd to get there). It's very family friendly., more like a small town than traditional suburbia. Going home seems like going to a national park. Schools are Portola Valley and Woodside, among the best in CA. Hundreds of miles of trails a step from your back door. I raised my kids there.
eande
I only have 10 years SV on my back, but here are some points I have observed. SF as mentioned is not a place you want to have your children to go public school. I was told that schooling is not necessarily assigned to your local area and you can end up sending your child to school by bus, which I think is not such a good idea. My home is in Redwood Shores and Peninsula overall is a good place to be (except East Palo Alto) with children, many good schools. Most cities on the west side along the foot of the Mountains are prime locations like Los Altos, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Woodside, but for sure not cheap. There are a couple of cities very desirable for families, because of the good schooling like Cupertino, Fremont Mission, Foster City. You will find many good places to raise your children, but for SV has a steep price tag. Personally despite living at a nice with highly rated schools I still ended up enrolling my daughters into private school, which tells a lot about California and the broken education system. Good Luck
miked
Check out Milpitas if you need to save a little money. Great East Asian restaurants and not too far away from the main part of SV.