Anyone in San Francisco Bay Area/San Jose?

[FINFAN]

I would also ask/post over on the California/West page..maybe more eyes over there to help

 

[megsoro]

Thanks everyone! I'll be having skype interviews with two of the companies this week. Hope to be able to find out more about the companies and the area if possible.

 

[crauen]

I live in "The City" (San Francisco proper) but am happy to provide a few thoughts. First, congrats on getting so many good job offers out here. In terms of finding a rental SF is pretty brutal these days. A 1 BR or large studio will easily run north of 2000 a month. It also sounds like you are looking for a more suburban feel and a place that will accept a dog. This will significantly limit your options in SF. Most rentals in SF will not accept dogs, particularly if you have a large dog. The more suburban areas in SF also tend to either be in the fog belt (Sunset and Richmond neighborhoods) or very expensive (Noe, Glen Park, Marina and Pac Heights).

If the job in the City is near the financial district (along or near Market street) I would recommend looking at the east bay and in particular looking at Berkeley and Oakland neighborhoods near BART stations. The BART commute is much better then trying to drive across the Bay Bridge. Oakland gets a bit of a bad rap but there are some very nice areas, in particular the Rockridge neighborhood that borders Berkeley. Berkeley is generally quite safe and very nice. In both of those areas you can find rentals that are more reasonable then SF proper. If the job in SF is in the north part of town (near fisherman's wharf) you will not really be close to a BART station and will likely have to take a bus in addition to the BART. I would not recommend looking in Richmond (the city) or Vallejo. While there are a few nice areas on both cities there are also a lot of crime and it could be challenging as a newcomer to find a place that is comfortable for you.

If you are taking the job in the Palo Allto/Sunnyvale area be aware that the nice areas of the towns between Mountain View and Palo Alto are extremely expensive (often more then SF). There are also a few areas that will look close and less expensive but have high crime rates, in particular East Palo Alto and a few parts of San Mateo. Traffic up and down the Peninsula can also be very bad, particularly on Highway 101.

As a previous poster suggested there are more affordable and nice areas in Santa Clara and parts of San Jose. I am less familiar with that area of the Bay but the weather is fantastic and the commute to Palo Alto/Sunnyvale should be reasonable. I would not recommend attempting to commute to Palo Alto/Sunnyvale from anywhere in the northern part of the East Bay, but you could also look at the Fremont area.

Hope this helps and welcome to the Bay Area.

 

[taaren]

Have to chime in. I moved to the Bay Area for the cheap real estate, which everybody thinks I'm joking. Until I tell them its because we left Maui.

We selected Solano, which is about an hour fifteen or so outside of SF. But we selected it because we have friends in the area and like suburbia with walking distance to great schools, etc. So that was a factor for us. If not, I would have selected something closer to BART. That being said one of my friends who rents a room from me will be taking the Vallejo ferry into SF, as someone recommended, in order to keep his cheap rent (I'm charging a couple and with two dogs in my pretty spacious house for $500/month + utilities because I love them), but higher pay for commuting into the city. Its definitely do-able.

If you're going to take the job in SF try looking at all the BART communities. I work for Contra Costa County, and many of those communities are pretty swiss-cheesed in terms of nice vs cost. There are nice parts and not-so-nice parts of most of the places with a BART stop, the larger ones have more options like Concord whereas the smallest ones are kind of skewed one way or the other eg. Lafayette vs Antioch.

Its also partly a matter of what kind of lifestyle you want. If you want to be in the middle of things, if you go much further out than Berkeley you'll be commuting in for sporting and art events, which I'm okay with but others aren't. But I only go to plays and concerts once a month or so, not every weekend.

I can't help much with the idea of commuting to South Bay. My other roommate makes the haul to Fremont every day from here which I think is silly but he preferred living with and near friends to living with strangers. I will say that whenever possible, avoid driving, because the Bay Area has some pretty bad traffic these days.

 

[barkley]

Have to chime in. I moved to the Bay Area for the cheap real estate, which everybody thinks I'm joking. Until I tell them its because we left Maui.

We selected Solano, which is about an hour fifteen or so outside of SF. But we selected it because we have friends in the area and like suburbia with walking distance to great schools, etc. So that was a factor for us. If not, I would have selected something closer to BART. That being said one of my friends who rents a room from me will be taking the Vallejo ferry into SF, as someone recommended, in order to keep his cheap rent (I'm charging a couple and with two dogs in my pretty spacious house for $500/month + utilities because I love them), but higher pay for commuting into the city. Its definitely do-able.

If you're going to take the job in SF try looking at all the BART communities. I work for Contra Costa County, and many of those communities are pretty swiss-cheesed in terms of nice vs cost. There are nice parts and not-so-nice parts of most of the places with a BART stop, the larger ones have more options like Concord whereas the smallest ones are kind of skewed one way or the other eg. Lafayette vs Antioch.

Its also partly a matter of what kind of lifestyle you want. If you want to be in the middle of things, if you go much further out than Berkeley you'll be commuting in for sporting and art events, which I'm okay with but others aren't. But I only go to plays and concerts once a month or so, not every weekend.

I can't help much with the idea of commuting to South Bay. My other roommate makes the haul to Fremont every day from here which I think is silly but he preferred living with and near friends to living with strangers. I will say that whenever possible, avoid driving, because the Bay Area has some pretty bad traffic these days.

i commuted from Solano county to multiple co-co county offices for several years-don't miss it one bit (do miss the active employee healthcare rates vs. the retiree though). but we were on the same page as you-we liked living in a more rural area where we didn't have to worry so much about the schools and crime in general, and we weren't alone-since co co county paid the highest wages (in some case within the entire state) for certain job classifications we had people who were commuting crazy distances to balance out the cost of living. the difference in rents (let alone housing costs) from neighborhood to neighborhood let alone city to city or county to county around there is crazy. heck-when we went to sell our home the buyers considered it a steal b/c they had looked at the identical home (same builder/developer) in a another city closer down on 80-and the price differences were between $150,000-$200,000

it got to the point when the county was trying to hire for the classification i supervised that they started advising candidates that they didn't want to do non face to face interviews b/c too many would accept a position only to then start looking at what it would cost to live there, ultimately declining the position before their start date. they figured if a person took the time to come to the location of the job they would research some of the expenses.

 

[southlakejr]

So I got to thinking last night- check out Alborada apartments in Fremont. My sister and brother in law used to live there and really liked it. The units are laid out very well, including walk in closets, and are a pretty decent size. It's in a very good area of Fremont, and in close walking distance to Lake Elizabeth (a large park with a man made lake. I think the walking trail around it is in between 1-2 miles around) and a dog park. It's also within a mile or two of the BART station if you take the SF job. I'm pretty sure this complex takes dogs of all sizes. The reviews are rather random on Yelp- Sister and BIL never really had any of the issues that some people mention, other than parking can be a bit of a pain sometimes if you don't have assigned spaces. I'm fairly certain that this complex accepts all sizes of dogs.

This location should get you to any of those jobs within an hour drive (perhaps a little longer to SF, just because BART)

 

[MomToOne]

While I live in Sacramento now, I lived in the Santa Clara valley for 15+ years.

At different times, I worked in Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Redwood City. I lived in Santa Clara, South San Jose, and San Jose on the Campbell border. Friends I worked with would also live in Milpitas or Fremont. With the Sunnyvale job, you have a wide range of cities you could live in (quite frankly, knowing where one city stops and the next starts takes awhile to even figure out because they all run together )

I loved the area and regret leaving nearly every day. Over time, you get used to the costs. You will often find better deals with older, smaller apartment complexes, so be sure to look at those.

If you are working in tech, the Silicon Valley is really the place to be. It's hard to describe, but the "vibe" is just energetic and fun.

 

[disneylove69]

This helps a lot! We've never been to California, so I have no clue about anything over there! All three positions are basically entry level. My industry allows for basically a junior to senior to director career path. A family friend suggested anything along the Caltrain for commuting. He did mention San Mateo to look into.

We're more suburb type. We're used to yards and parks and dog parks. The more we look the more it seems like we don't want to be in San Francisco proper. Vallejo was suggest if I was willing to drive. We're excited to explore. Monterey, big sur, Alcatraz etc, so trips to touristy areas will be happening.

STAY OUT OF VALLEJO. My job requires me to travel to Vallejo. This city was one of the first in California to file bankruptcy. When you call the Police Department it is an answering machine. Police will not respond unless it is gang related or death. I had two co-workers assaulted violently and the PD refused to come out. You are required to fill a report online. Crime is off the hook in that city. Unfortunately, you picked a very expensive place to live. Commute is also an issue if you travel anywhere in the area. Parking is very expensive in the city. I've seen up to $50 a day. If you drive account for gas which is one of the highest in the nation, state income tax, sales tax at almost 10% in some areas, bridge toll $5, etc. I had a friend recently trying to find a apt in San Jose and a studio in a safe area was $2k plus.

 

[manning]

I know this is a long way off and may not be important to you. A relative worked in California before being transferred to another state. He doesn't live in California.

So he retires and gets retirement benefits. What's this? California is taxing the benefits he earned in California.

 

[MillauFr]

Sure San Francisco has a high cost of living but many of the jobs pay $100k plus. If they offered me a $150k to work there I would move from Seattle. Seattle is great but San Fran has better weather. I really liked Outer Sunset near the Ocean. There are many nice houses for around a million.

 

[arminnie]

I lived in Foster City for about 15 years and loved it. Safest place I have ever lived. I'd go out of town and not only forget to lock the doors but forget to even shut the sliding glass door. Never had a problem. There's almost no crime and there isn't a bad area.

Not sure what the rents are now but there's a lot of multi-family housing. It's not a bad commute to Palo Alto or the city. I'd run down to Palo Alto for lunch quite often. Caltrain has service to Palo Alto and the City.

Of course I worked in Foster City so had zero commute.

 

[barkley]

I know this is a long way off and may not be important to you. A relative worked in California before being transferred to another state. He doesn't live in California.

So he retires and gets retirement benefits. What's this? California is taxing the benefits he earned in California.

is your relative still legally a resident of California (even though he lives out of state)? if not he needs to talk to a cpa b/c federal law pl 104-95 was enacted way back in 1996, and with very few exceptions all retirement income paid from California to a non California resident is exempt from California state taxes.

this is one of the reasons myself and many other California retirees move to states without state income taxes (so we pay no state to anyone, which only leaves us with federal).

 

[disneylove69]

I know this is a long way off and may not be important to you. A relative worked in California before being transferred to another state. He doesn't live in California.

So he retires and gets retirement benefits. What's this? California is taxing the benefits he earned in California.

\
California taxes everything. That's why everyone I know is trying to leave the state.