Silicon Valley Relocation Guide

Usually the first thing people experience when moving to the Bay Area is some form of sticker shock. Home buyers or rentors pay a premium to live in the Bay Area, but those of us that have been here a long time feel it is worth it. The Bay Area offers everything within a short distance, and a Mediterranean climate to enjoy. There are many things to do here in the Bay Area without leaving town. If you like snow you won't get much here. However skiing/snowboarding areas and snow are only 4.5 hours away in Lake Tahoe, which offers world class skiing with Heavenly Valley and Squaw Valley ski areas. There is much recreation in Lake Tahoe as well as world class casinos. Beaches are located on the coast, and stretch from Monterey to Half Moon Bay. The most popular weekend beaches from Silicon Valley are probably Capitola and Santa Cruz beaches. Santa Cruz is also famous for its Beach/Boardwalk.

San Jose is considered the hub of technology for the US and is considered the capital of Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is at the heart of the computer world, and is home base for huge tech companies like Intel, Apple, HP, Cisco, Adobe and more recently Facebook. People are relocating here mainly around the many technical jobs that are in and around San Jose. Recruiters have their hands full with job requsitions, although there has been a pullback more recently. Even though manufacturing has moved offshore to some extent, the design and marketing still is happening a lot in the Valley. The top recruiting sites are probably, monster.com, sanjosemercury.com, bajobs.com, and siliconvalleycareers.com.

If you are looking for a rental I can advise a few sources. Firstly of course the San Jose Mercury Real Estate if you are looking in the South Bay. Another good source is Craigslist rentals, but be advised it is very competitive. A good service to help you find a rental is Bayrentals.com. Another website that can be helpful is an ebay rental site, called rent.com.

There are three main airports that service the general area, San Francisco International and Norman Mineta San Jose International Airport and Oakland Internaional Airport. There are also two bus systems, Samtrans in San Mateo county and VTA in Santa Clara County. VTA also includes a light rail system, which links with the Caltrain at Diridon Station. Caltrain used to be called Southern Pacific and is the actual railroad linking SF, San Jose, LA, and the rest of the United States. San Mateo and Oakland also have the Bay Area Rapid Transict or BART system but it does not yet link to San Jose.There are also a great number of shopping centers in Silicon Valley/San Jose.

San Jose featueres 11 different school disctricts, where children attend public elementary, middle and high schools, and including: Alum Rock, Berryessa, Cambrian, Campbell, Cupertino Union, East Side, Evergreen, Franklin-McKinley, Fremont Union, Moreland, Oak Grove, San Jose, and Union and many fine san jose private schools as well as good private schools in Santa Clara County. The area is also home to many great colleges and universities. There is some variation among quality in San Jose schools, and star testing and API determines in large part, how they are frequently ranked. You also ahould take a look at greatschools. If you are looking to determine which school the home you are considering is in you can use my listing adress school locator. We welcome you to our Silicon Valley and can help your relocation be a smooth one.