I've been living in the same apartment at Alborada now for more than 6 years. A 2bd/2ba Mozart floorplan on the top floor facing the School for the Deaf campus with a nice view of the hills.

During my six years at Alborada I've seen at least 5 changes in management, the entire complex change ownership, had my rent yo-yo from $1600 in 1999 to nearly $1900 in 2001, then back down to $1625 today and I've dealt with so many apartment life issues I could practially run this place.

On several occasions during my stay here I have gotten fed up with Alborada for some reason or another (mostly over the noise the security gate makes...keeps me awake at night and the management either won't/can't fix it) and have looked for some place else only to get worn out by the search and evenually give up. I've looked in other bay area cities, looked at renting a house, looked at buying real estate (everything here is 5 bedroom, $600 K...and I'm single), name it, I've tried it, but bottom line there really isn't anything that isdemonstrably much better out there, and some places/situations are actually much, much worst. I have looked at moving into a townhouse or home. But with security deposits in the $1000's for these I have ruled that out flat. Can't see tying up $2k-$3K in a security deposit. Here at Alborada the security deposit is only $500.

Alborada has its plus's and minus's just like everywhere else. How much you like it here will depend on how much you value the plus's and how much you can tolerate the minus's. For me having central A/C and a washer/dryer in the apartment tops the list. Most of the apartments in the bay area (or California for that matter) have neither. Even with A/C and laundry in the apartment the monthly PG&E service is only about $65 for me. Winter sees it go up to about $90 (more heat). Fast internet another plus but not as important.

Alborada recently switched the entire complex over from Direct TV satelite to Comcast cable (April '05'). The tenants had no say, it was forced on us. Which ticked a lot of people off. A ton of fur flew around here the weekend of the switch over. Tenants came home after work on Friday only to find their TV screens black because their Direct TV service had been un-plugged. There was some notice, but the entire switchover was handled quite badly. Anyway, some people might consider the switchover a plus (mostly foreigners as they can now get overseas programming, and there are quite a few here), I consider it a huge minus. Now I pay more for less channels. And no more Sunday NFL ticket. The internet service also change over to Comcast. It was DSL but is now cable modem. Faster, but I've had more trouble getting it to work and in keep it working.

Parking is a free-for-all but you can reserve a carport space for $25 a month (used to be free in 1999 when I moved in) or a garage for $100 a month. Renter's insurance is required. Cost about $135 a year (they're always worried about liability out here). There is the standard pool and small gym (I never use it). The apartment interior quality is above average as are the kitchen appliances and they all are relatively new as the complex is only about 6-7 years old. They re-painted all the exteriors just last month. A little change in the decor, but tasteful. Liked the old colors better. Wondering if all this sprucing up work will mean a rent increase.

If you have any North or West facing windows they may howl sometimes as the off-shore wind picks up in the evening.

Maintenance requests are handled pretty quick but you do have to make a formal request. The office will hold any packages that come for you which is a nice convience.
The management does seem to try and be helpful within reason, of course. There are some people here that just can't seem to accept that there are limits to what they can do. See them occassionly down at the office raising some kind of fuss. Since I'm a long term resident I'm on first name basis with some of the management but they don't seem to treat me any better than anybody else (damn!).

Of course, you have to deal with all the issues that are the norm with apartment living, the worst being loud, obnoxious tenants with no concept how to behave in the tight confides of an apartment complex. But these losers seem to be everywhere these days even on deserted islands. Luckily, there are only a couple here at Alborada.

Well, I've taken an hour of my time to write this. Not the usual angry get-even blather I see in most posts. Hope it helped you.

Would I recommend it' If I could I'd be living in a fabulous mansion overlooking some magnificant view. But, since I'm stuck in apartment I figure I might as as well live as well as I can. So I live here. Good as apartment dwelling can get.

User Responses
From: goingtostore	Date: 07/07/2005
you can get dsl through sbc now for 14.95, comcast internet is a ripoff, just get the sbc deal , it's just as fast.

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