What $5,000 rents you in Silicon Valley right now

Welcome to Curbed Comparisons, a regular column exploring what you can rent for a set dollar amount in different neighborhoods. Today we turn our eye south to Silicon Valley to as, is one person's studio is another person's townhouse? Today's price: $5,000.

↑ Since cities outside of San Francisco and Oakland don’t always have a lot of homes listed at a certain price point, Silicon Valley Comparisons casts a wider net across many towns. Wide enough to catch this “executive estate” in Gilroy, for example—a four-bed, three-and-a-half-bath, 3,500-square-foot home renting for $4,950/month. Even the garage is big enough for four cars; larger, perhaps, than many apartments with similar prices in San Francisco. And just get a load of the vineyard. Plus, not only does the ad says pets are OK, it even specifies “horses OK.” Try finding that in the city.

↑ This alleged midcentury Cupertino house calls itself the “best value” for $4,990/month, which is not quite true in this case as it’s smaller than the Gilroy place by nearly 700 square feet, despite being five bedrooms and three baths. Perhaps the fruit trees in the backyard add a little extra to the bottom line. It’s also closer to the beaten path, the ad noting that it’s “within walking distance to Apple Computer.” That’s not as practical as it used to be, but it’s still kind of neat. In a familiar tune for San Franciscans, the ad promotes the house as recently remodeled, and apparently all three bathrooms are new. But no pets allowed—another familiarity, sad to say.

↑ One handy thing about the Peninsula and the South Bay: Plenty of Eichlers to go around. Here’s a three-bed, one-and-a-half bath Eichler in Palo Alto asking $4,850/month, with its black and red facade, flat roof, wide plank ceilings, and of course enormous center column fireplace showing the celebrated developer in full swing. There doesn’t appear to be any trademark Eichler atrium in this one, but you can’t have everything. “Owners have recently added sliding glass doors that opens to an amazing deck with wooden benches and waterfall,” the ad notes. No word on pets, although allowing them would seem in the spirit of Eichler’s vision of middle-class prosperity, wouldn’t it?

↑ Also in Palo Alto, this two-bed, two-and-a-half bath, 1,390-square-foot townhouse “close to downtown” at Webster and Forest asks $5,000/month for the whole lot. In truth, the ad is quite brief and the photos don’t show off the space terribly well, but it makes the list simply for illustrating that what qualifies as a townhouse in Palo Alto—a city with quite a number of housing problems of its own—can still come out bigger and more well equipped than many detached full homes in San Francisco.

↑ The list closes out in San Jose with a “beautiful, luxurious, contemporary house” behind a rock wall and complete with a large blue pool in the backyard. It’s $4,800/month in North San Jose with four beds and two and a half baths, pink marble, citrus, apples, and pomegranates growing in the backyard, but no mention of pets one way or the other, in what is perhaps turning into a regional trend.