Decoto

Where are the lowest home prices in Union City?

Here in the Decoto neighborhood. Which is not to say that you will find the lowest priced home in all of Union City here. There were a couple of foreclosed homes that sold for less than $100K in other Union City neighborhoods in the last year. (Though these homes are actually valued higher and sold so low because the homeowners were underwater.) You won’t find any single family homes that have sold for less than $100K here in Decoto.

You will however, find five homes that have sold for under $250K in the last year. (No other neighborhood in Union City has more than one.)

So what is this neighborhood like? Why are the homes here so inexpensive?

Decoto is an older neighborhood with lots of the smaller, less appealing looking Ranch style homes. These are the smaller kinds of Ranch homes that are fairly common in this area of the East Bay. The streets have an older feel to them and you will see a fair number of bushy, unkept lawns (which have their own appeal, I suppose)--not terrible or without character, but not terribly attractive.

The median home price here is actually $300K, but the ceiling for home sales is only $400K. The only exception to this is along a row of newer homes that were built on the northwestern end of the neighborhood on Calle de la Mirada Common--in a gated community of the kind that you might associate with the OC.

You might expect that crime would be high in such a neighborhood given the low cost of living, but as far as I can tell it is relatively moderate with very few assaults and just a handful of break-ins and robberies each month.

As to schools, it is a bit of a mixed bag. The elementary schools that serve Decoto--Searles, Hillview Crest and Guy Emanuele--vary from API’s of 3 to 5. (Basically average or slightly below average.) The middle school, Cesar Chavez is solidly below average, but the high school, James Logan, is solidly average (maybe even slightly above average). So though none of the schools here are great, none of them are absolutely terrible.

Union City’s location is also pretty good for commuters. If you are looking for a good spot from which to commute into San Francisco, San Jose, Pleasanton or the Peninsula, this is not a bad starting point.

I also hear there is a whiskey bar at the edge of this neighborhood, though I have not been there myself to check it out.

Overall, I would say this is a pretty good value as far as the Bay Area is concerned. There are few places in the Bay Area where you get low home prices, moderately low crime, and passable schools.

A hispanic family based community, most large events occur at the Catholic church Our Lady of the Rosary. There is a free medical clinic (el Turbiculo Vasquez) and every neighbor seems to know each other. Many houses boast fruit trees which neighbors will trade or give you when they're in season. Used