People have very short term memories...

The current financial crisis is FAR from over. But everyone acts like it's over with the second best rally in the ENTIRE history of the stock market during Q2 of this year and sellers receiving multiple offers again on real estate deals. We are in the eye of the financial/credit hurricane that's why the winds has calmed down and the sun is out. Don't be fooled. The hurricane is picking up speed and will hit us again in Q4 with the most damage still to come some time in 2010. Another wave of mortgage resets will come Q1 of 2010. This time, even folks with jobs and good credit will NOT be able to save their homes...

You can access the Fremont Unified School's district maps here. Other than Mission San Jose area in the South, the best elementary schools are Forest Park in the north and Parkmont in the central area.

There is a HUGE fallacy in people's mind thinking they MUST get their kids into the BEST school possible but if that's the ONLY reason I don't recommend moving into these school districts. Here are the reasons why.
The sole purpose of wanting our children to have the best possible education is for them to get into the best possible university. 2 major quantitative factors for college admissions are the SAT score and the high school percentile rank (less important for private universities). The school district has NO effect on the SAT score while it makes a HUGE difference on the percentile rank. The top high schools have very heavy school loads and are VERY competitive so it is much harder to obtain a high percentile rank. Conversely, a high rank can be easily obtained by attending a school that's not so competitive. I have heard too many stories (even a few within my family) where the high schoolers graduating from Mission San Jose High with straight A's but the percentile ranking was only good enough for them to attend 2nd or 3rd tier UC schools. On the other hand, I know of a family that lives in Fremont but insists on attending Union City high school and graduated top of the class. In that case, they can pretty much choose the university they would like to attend and shop for the best financial aid packages.

This reminds me of a story my grandfather told me when I was a child...
During China's Warring States period a man by the name of Tian Ji was racing his best 3 horses against the State of Qi's best 3 horses. The 3 races were to match up the best horses in the 1st round, second best in the 2nd round and the 3rd best in the last round. But the King of Qi's horses are a little faster so they would always win. But the brilliant strategist Sun Zi (also the author of the "Art of War") advised Tian to match up his worst against Qi's best in round one and Tians best against Qi's 2nd best in round 2. And in round 3 Tian would race his 2nd best against Qi's slowest. Tian ends up winning the huge wager by winning 2 out 3 matches.
The moral of the story is we don't have to win EVERY match, only the ultimate success matters.

2008 API scores for the 5 bay area counties

The '08 API scores came out and I've ranked them by county and for the entire bay area. Or check them out at the California Dept of Education's official site and click on the county of the school that's in. The original file contains ALL the schools in California. Guess who's #1 in the State? Mission San Jose!

Fremont Preschools

Fremont Montessori
Scribbles & Centerville

The Learning Tree
(510) 791-6161
34050 Paseo Padre Pkwy
Fremont, CA 94555

Crime Stats

Crime rate is also an important measuring stick for a city's desirablility.

Here are the latest crime rate stats:
Crime stats for Fremont, CA

Crime stats for Dublin, CA

Crime stats for California Cities by County


Just found out about Megan's Law Website for California
You can find out if there are any sex offenders living in your neighborhood.

Focus on Fremont | Your Business Property Finder

Focus on Fremont | Your Business Property Finder
Here's a another great site on locating business properties in Fremont. Focus on Fremont.

Here's an article from the Mercury News on Bay Area's rising rent cost

MercuryNews.com 10/21/2004 Valley apartments more costly