Originally Posted by dofu

It's a pretty nice area, and being in the Bay Area, you're looking at maybe as low as $750 a month, but more likely $1000-2500 a month for a condo/apartment, depending on how big, and luxurious of a place you want or need, and location. But if you're working in Mountain View, you can still live in bordering cities like San Jose, Cupertino, etc... and still be able to commute out there just fine. If you want cheap rent, I'd suggest you looking towards Downtown San Jose, which is really just a 10-15 min drive to Mountain View. While some areas can be a bit sketch like some said, realistically, although anything is likely, not too much crime happens to the average Joe in Mtn View. The kind of crimes that happen out here are more like a car getting broken into, maybe wheels getting stolen, etc... And while you will hear about shootings taking place here and there, most of them are targeted and gang related, which means it doesn't have much to do with us.

The Bay Area is a melting pot of all cultures but expect to see a lot of Indians (Hindu) and Asians (Chinese, Korean) in the Mtn View area, Chinese in Cupertino, and Hispanics everywhere! And just to give you an idea of the area, you'll be near Moffet Field, Lockheed Martin, NASA Ames Research Center, and many high tech companies.

You'll be very close to San Jose, with smaller cities such as Sunnyvale and Palo Alto nearby, and when you go out, you can expect a contrasting crowd of geeky, or yuppie more than anything else. San Fransisco is about a 15-20 min drive away depending on where in Mountain View you'll be in, and you will have almost any kind of food you can want nearby.

Although you won't see too many taxis, there are plenty of buses, there's BART and Caltrain, etc... so you should be able to get around without a car just fine, but I would suggest having a car out here for the convenience... although traffic out here can suck especially during traffic hours.

Drivers out here drive pretty aggressively, although they are much more aggressive in LA and San Francisco. If you have a modded car, the cops are only bad if you put yourself out there as a target for them by doing something dumb like speeding excessively, getting Hyphy, etc...

The weather is nice. Although my gf would argue this, it's never really cold out here. Unlike SF, we get lots of sun all the time, and our winters are never too cold. It doesn't snow out here, but Tahoe is only a few hours away, and when it gets hot, the beaches are nearby too. And let's not forget that Napa is only a few hours away too! Although I'm not in Mountain View, it's still part of the neighborhood for me, and if I had to choose a new area to live, I wouldn't change a thing.