Longwood / Winton Grove

The Longwood-Winton Grove neighborhood in Hayward is just to the east of the Hayward Executive Airport (which mostly serves private jets and that sort of thing).

Since that is what people worry about with Hayward, lets start with crime. There have, in the last six months, been:

no murders
about 10 assaults
about 2 dozen burglaries and break-ins.

Overall that is not too bad.

As in most Hayward neighborhoods, homes here tend to be on the older side, dating mostly to the 1950s. That, of course, means lots of those smaller Ranch style homes. These mostly seem fairly nicely kept even when they are mixed in with a fair number of small, apartment rows of the 1950’s variety. (The kind where you park your car right in front of your studio so you can keep an eye on it. Essentially a long driveway with with apartments along the edges--sort of like a motel set-up.)

The median selling price for homes here (most of which are on the market due to foreclosure) is around $250K with prices mostly ranging from $200K to $300K and nothing selling for over $400k. Given the relatively low crime rate this isn’t too bad.

What is pretty bad though is the schools. Longwood Elementary that serves the area has an API of 2. Ochoa Middle School is a little better being just below average with a 4. I am not sure which high school serves this neighborhood. It might be Royal Sunset, which is the closest. It has the lowest possible rating at 1. Given this, I would not want to settle down here to raise a family.

Because of the proximity to the airport, Longwood/Winton Grove has a number of motels on its northern end including a La Quinta Inn, Mainstay Suites, and Days Inn. These are not high class joints but they do bring in some outside traffic. You are also pretty close to the San Mateo Bridge, the Hayward BART and the Hayward Amtrak Station, which makes this one of the better spots in the Bay Area from which to commute.

Overall, I would say that upsides outway the downsides if you don’t happen to have kids. For families, I wouldn’t recommend it, but for DINKY’s (“Double Income No Kids Yet) who are just getting started on their corporate climbs, this might be just the right spot for their launch pad.