Relocating family to SF Bay Area

Hey congratulations. I'm fairly new here myself so I don't have too many specific answers for you, but I'd suggest you try here:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/san-jose/

It's got a ton of similar questions about relocating, and you can probably get a lot more specific attention to your question there.

It's hard to go wrong if you're in the general area, it's all pretty affluent and the schools are all good (from what I hear).

Some specific areas I know about:

Mountain View itself is very nice, it's one of my favorite towns down there.
Palo Alto is nice but it tends to be sharply more expensive than neighboring areas.
East Palo Alto should be avoided as it's a crime hotspot.

But in general, all the suburbs are nice, and they all kind of blend together.

If you find that those areas are a little too pricey, things get cheaper in the east bay, like possibly Fremont. But your commute will be longer.