Southgate

The Southgate neighborhood just to the east of Chabot College is best known as the home of the Southland Mall. It is a pretty typical mall with all the usual suspects in terms of stores: Macys, Victoria’s Secret, Olive Garden, Forever 21, JC Penny, a Burlington Coat Factory across the street and a Kohls, just to name a few.

Most of Southgate, which stretches out to the south of the mall, is a residential area with homes dating from the 1960’s or sometimes newer. The median selling price for homes here is around $300K with the ceiling only being around $350K.

This neighborhood has a few things going for it that a lot of other Hayward neighborhoods don’t. First are the schools which are not quite as bad as they are in much of Hayward. The Eden High for example is about average--which is an accomplishment for an area that usually scrapes the bottom of the barrel in terms of education.

There is, of course the mall, which gives it some of the best shopping in Hayward. There is also its great position for those looking to commute.

There is some crime: about a dozen assaults and maybe 3 dozen burglaries and break-ins--most often up by the mall.

Overall I would say that this is one of the better neighborhoods in Hayward, and well worth a look if you are a young couple looking for a relatively affordable place to live where you can commute throughout the Bay Area in pursuit of whatever opportunities arise.

This is a very urban neighborhood. I went to the southgate mall with my family. My kids loved it because they got to ride in a toy train that went in a loop inside the mall. I didn't mind it because it had a pretty good food court with local specialties, and not as many known franchises. There was even a sit-down noodle restaurant inside the mall. My wife hated it because the lines were long, and the stores (mostly penney's) was not very organized, and everything was piled like a yard sale. There was alot of people with a heavy hispanic population. Parking was difficult to find. All in all, not our favorite mall.