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Campbell Information
Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, part of Silicon Valley,
in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2000 census, the city population was
38,138. Although not a major high-tech city like many of its neighbors, Campbell
is the original home of eBay and of its creator, Pierre Omidyar.
Campbell is home to the Pruneyard Shopping Center, a sprawling open-air retail
complex. Pruneyard was involved in a famous U.S. Supreme Court case that
established the extent of the right to free speech in California. The associated
Pruneyard Towers, built in 1970, was for many years the tallest building between
San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Campbell was founded by Benjamin Campbell, after whom the city was named. He
came to California in 1846 with his father, William Campbell. William started a
sawmill in Saratoga and surveyed the cities of San Jose and Santa Clara. In
1851, Benjamin bought 160 acres in southern Santa Clara Valley and cultivated
hay and grain on it. This area later became Campbell's historical downtown core.
In 1878, Campbell sold his land for $5 an acre to a railroad company. By 1887,
the first subdivision was recorded west of the railroad from Campbell Avenue to
the spot where the Water Tower Plaza now stands. The area became the center for
shipping fruit grown in the surrounding area, and within a short time, the
drying grounds and canneries made Campbell an important rail center. The
Campbell Fruit Growers' Union became a well-known cooperative with its 17 acre
drying yard. J.C. Ainsley Packing Company, Hyde Cannery, and Payne Cannery were
the main fruit packing companies. The Bank of Campbell was founded in 1895.
Campbell was officially incorporated as a city in 1952. The city then grew
rapidly as orchard lands disappeared tract by tract. Today, Campbell is a quiet
suburban residential neighborhood in the southern part of the Santa Clara
Valley.
Campbell is situated in the southern portion of the Santa Clara Valley, with
Highway 17 passing through eastern Campbell and Highway 85 to its south. The
historic downtown section sits just west of the railroad in the central area.
The southwestern area of Campbell is known as the San Tomas neighborhood and
varies somewhat from most of Campbell in the size of its lots and styles of
housing. Hamilton Avenue is one the northernmost roads in Campbell.
There are few large shopping centers or business complexes in the city, as
Campbell is primarily a suburban residential area. Fry's Electronics and The
Home Depot each have stores within the city limits and are two of the city's
largest employers.
Most residences are single-family homes, although there are some areas with
condominiums, duplexes, and apartments. Single-family homes typically have one
or two bathrooms and three or four bedrooms, and are between 1100 and 1600
square feet (100 and 150 m) on lots typically measuring about 6,000 square feet
(560 m). The vast majority were built in the 1950s through 1970s. There are
pockets of older homes, mostly near downtown, often in demand for their
architectural styles, and pockets of newer, much larger homes (often called
"monster houses" by existing residents) of 3000 to 4000 square feet (280 to 370
m) on lots that seem small in comparison to the size of the homes, mostly built
in the 1990s on subdivided lots previously occupied by homes dating from the
first half of the 20th century.
Most of Campbell's apartments are located in northern Campbell on Hamilton and
Campbell Avenues. As a result, most of the housing there is for rent and has a
lower median household income than southern Campbell, which has primarily
owner-occupied detached single-family homes.
Campbell's downtown is located near where Campbell Avenue intersects with the
railroad. The downtown has many shops, bars, and restaurants.
The oldest commercial building in the city is that used for the Bank of Campbell
(founded in 1895), which is a branch of the Mercantile Trust of California; the
building was erected in 1920 originally for the Grower's Bank, which eventually
merged with Mercantile Trust. The bank was converted to a movie theater in 1938,
which closed in 1953 and remained closed with a few exceptions until 1968, when
The Gaslighter Theater company purchased and refurbished the building with a
small stage and bar. The Gaslighter has produced melodramas and Vaudeville-style
shows there ever since.
As of October 2006, the median price of single-family homes and condos was
$707,500, up 4.8% from the previous October, and averaging $472 per square foot
($5,080/m) according to the San Jose Mercury News; the average single-family
home price, excluding condos, was $645,000 in January, 2004 (according to the
Santa Clara County Association of Realtors). The price is based largely on the
land value; the replacement cost for homes is about $150 to $200 per square foot
($1,600 to $2,200/m).
Like many other cities in the Santa Clara Valley, Campbell was originally
orchard land that was later developed into housing tracts. A few small orchards
remain, though their numbers continue to dwindle rapidly as they are converted
to housing and shopping.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for an Apartment...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.