Teach me SF Bay Area

As I've mentioned before, I'm moving to the US in a few months' time so my wife and me actually end up at least in the same time zone but hopefully closer than that. Ann currently lives in Las Vegas, NV. The job market there has tanked completely so even though we do like the area, we have to look at alternatives.

I'm currently talking to one of the bigger players in Silicon Valley (I'm a reasonably experienced software engineer) and they seem to be quite interested. However a quick look at Craigslist was enough to scare myself silly - even rabbit hutches in those areas in the Bay Area that I'm reasonably familiar with seem to go for $STUPID - rental that is, I don't dare look at purchasing anything.

Given that the above company has offices in SF and in Mountain View plus I'm a little allergic to living in the middle of a concrete jungle, what are my choices? Any recommendations?

Oh, and to make matters a little more complicated there is a good chance that I might split time between NV and CA as I doubt I can convince Ann to move back to CA (she used to live & work in Mountain View until last year). So the ability to get to SFO via BART would be a bonus.

I grew up near there and will never go back.

Enjoy living in your rabbit hutch. It's going to cost you.

I know .

For some reason the majority of companies that are interested in talking to old, grouchy but experienced software engineers (as opposed "you've got five years experience, why are you not a manager yet") seems to concentrate in places where only millionaires can afford to buy a rabbit hutch.

I think the best I could hope for is to rent a studio down somewhere in the bay area, get a nice place up near Reno/Tahoe and fly/drive back on the weekends.

So far I've only come up with two positive points:

• I'd be roughly in the middle between Thunderhill and Laguna Seca
• I could actually find a job there

That's a bit thin in my opinion.

Get a one bedroom or studio within walking distance of BART. Then you don't have to worry about the traffic. Expect to pay more for being close to a BART station.

If you really want to put up with a California sized commute, look for a commuter apartment in someplace like Tracy that's right off the freeway. I know somebody who does that commute every day. There are also tons of empty foreclosed houses in Stockton. It's a bit of a drive but you could get a place there with a two car garage and it's closer to Nevada. Check out some of the small towns in the outlying areas. Inland is cheaper.

Just a few quick hitters:

• Its not as warm as you think
• the water is really cold
• the fog smells funny
• there are a lot of awesome cars driving around
• its near a lot of really good stuff but you will have to sit in traffic forever to get there
• people are friendlier than they should be for a big city
• you are poorer there than anywhere else except maybe Manhattan

Snowdoggie wrote: Get a one bedroom or studio within walking distance of BART. Then you don't have to worry about the traffic. Expect to pay more for being close to a BART station.

That's one option I'm seriously considering. That's what my wife did the last time she was out there, but fortunately the place she was working at was running a shuttle to the BART station in Mountain View, otherwise it would've been a loooooong walk.

Snowdoggie wrote: If you really want to put up with a California sized commute, look for a commuter apartment in someplace like Tracy that's right off the freeway. I know somebody who does that commute every day.

Hmm. I've got a commute like that (Tracy -> Mt View) at the moment, 120 mile roundtrip into bad traffic hell. If possible I'd like to avoid that.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Just a few quick hitters: Its not as warm as you think

I know. Been there a few times. We even had snow on Hwy 17 over to Santa Cruz in March.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: - the water is really cold - the fog smells funny - there are a lot of awesome cars driving around

Don't I know that - my favourite moment was going down Hwy 1 towards Big Sur with Ann & me in a rented Shelby Mustang in the company of some lunatic in a black 356 Speedster (looked like it was an original, too, not a replica). We had heard that coming, Ann checked the rear view mirror and just went "you are not racing that guy" - "Err, honey, it's broad daylight on a public road, do I look that daft?" "...".

We made "good progress" down Hwy 1 until the guy in the Speedster lost us after some really dodgy overtaking of some tourist traffic. Mind you, I'm still glad there was no CHP around on that stretch.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: - its near a lot of really good stuff but you will have to sit in traffic forever to get there

I know. The classic one was dropping Ann off at work - took 15 minutes to get there (high occupancy lane) and 45 back to the conference centre I was at.

;Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: - people are friendlier than they should be for a big city - you are poorer there than anywhere else except maybe Manhattan

Definite yes on the first one. And on the second one, that's another place I know I can get a job . That or Chicago, but I'm not sure if I can bear those winters.

BoxheadTim wrote: So far I've only come up with two positive points: * I'd be roughly in the middle between Thunderhill and Laguna Seca

Infineon is in the middle between Thunderhill and Laguna Seca.

I don't really know the housing market in that area super well. Out here in Sacramento, things can actually be fairly reasonable. You might try looking in the South San Francisco area, outside of the city proper. That should give you easy access to BART and Oakland airport so you can fly back and forth.

I work in sunnyvale. But I have never actually lived in the silicon valley. Santa cruz is nice and depending on where you choose to stay you can finda 2 bedroom apartment for ~$1200 /month.

My wife and I were renting a small 2 bedroom house for $1200 two or three years ago. But even then that was unusually cheap for what we were renting. I am not sure what typical rent has done since then. But look on the east side of town its not as trendy as the west side, and you are subject to all the freaking hippies at UCSC (disclaimer my wife is a UCSC grad).

Commuting over Hyw 17 is not too bad, when I was going to San Jose State. I was commuting from the east side of Santa Cruz. I would typically take the bus Hyw 17 Express (bus) to downtown San Jose. It would take about an hour and was surprisingly convient.

I am currently up in the santa cruz mountains (boulder creek) and although it is less expensive, refering to most rentals here as a rabbit hutch would be like calling a mobile home a mansion. There is no way in hell I would stay in 99% of the homes around here because they are down in the redwoods and are wet, cold, and moldy for 5 months out of the year. The trick is to find a place up on the top of a ridge, it will be livable.

But the commute is not too bad highway 9 is one of those roads that people go out and drive for fun, so being forced to commute over it is a real "chore".

Given that houses in the UK are much smaller than they are in the US, it looks like you've got some pretty big rabbits . Some places in Boulder Creek around the $900 mark are roughly the size of my house here so that wouldn't be a big deal.

Looks like the 'official' commute is something like 33 miles via Hwy 17 although 9 looks like an extreme chore. Especially if I do the same as here and commute by motorbike. Which is probably sensible as that'll allow me to use the high occupancy lanes on 85 (if that does have one) and 101. Plus it appears that lane splitting is legal, too . Only problem with the location is that it'll make the weekend "commute" to Nevada an hour longer each way.

I have nothing REALLY to add, other than that $1200/month will get you a mansion out here.

Only problem with that is the 400 mile roundtrip commute to the nearest location that'll allow me to earn the money to pay said rent . From that point of view I really seem to have painted myself into a corner career-wise unless I telecommute.

Have you looked at prices around Concord, Pleasanton, or Freemont? I don't know if they're any better or not, just a thought.

If you want to be near Mountain View but away from the city check out the places up Steven's Creek in I think Cupertino or whatever they call it. There is some rural stuff back in the valley. It might be really costly though. You could also check out Almaden a bit south, it is more rural. Then there is Portola Valley which is probably too expensive but nice. Or you can go for the coast but once you live out on the coast there is no going back. You could also check out Morgan Hill but that could be a hell of a little commute.

South City isn't where I'd want to live but that is just me, between the fog and demographic I'd pass on that area. I live in Belmont which is a nice little town.

The Caltrains system offers another commuting possibility.

http://www.caltrain.com/caltrain_stations.html

I had a good 15 year run in the Bay Area. San Francisco is a really interesting vibrant city, If you are going to put up with the hassle of the bay area consider being close to "the city". The traffic getting out to the Tahoe area or anywhere east eventually became so bad I gave up recreating in that direction and would either head south to the big sur and ventanna wilderness area, or head north to west marin, sonoma, and mendicino counties on weekends if i could get across the Godeln Gate bridge by 2 pm on a Friday.

Santa Cruz is very very beautiful, it fells like southern California and norther California collide right there with the best of both making the cut. The beginning of San Francisco is a little over an hour up the coast driving on a gorgeous stretch of hwy 1 and getting south is comparatively easy.

The last place I lived happily in NorCal was Montara.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

20 minutes to the mission district in San Francisco, 2 minutes to go watch the waves break at mavericks, 45 minutes to Santa Cruz, on an incredible beach, mountains behind to hike and bike in, but dreadfully foggy. It was worth it to me but the fog and wind anywhere near the coast or in San Francisco is an ever present frigid beast trying to make you miserable. Depending where you end up and how flexible the company is the are the commute to the peninsula can be reasonable. "reasonable" in bay area terms is a nightmare most other places.

The last place I lived last was the "East Bay". I hated it, the bridges to San Francisco are always plugged up, and Berkeley has a Nazi Liberal vibe I cant stand. There are nice views of the bay, the Golden Gate bridge, and San Francisco, but it may was well be another planted it is such a pain ion the ass to get too. You do get a jump out to the sierras, but the commute to the peninsula is terrible by BART or car.

The Bay Area is fantastic in so many ways, the food and wine, the beautiful spots, the wild ass culture, (not hippies.. I mean explosions, giant tesla coils, video projections that cover buildings, the blue angels buzzing the city for a week every year, like that..) are all very high quality but the competition to consume this stuff is insane.

Consider living on the other side of the Bay... when I lived in Belmont there were 4 guys from the company that lived across the Bay and bought a Cessna 172 and flew across every day, had a car at the local airport and were at work in minutes every day instead of hours.

There are 2 good routes out of boulder creek.

Hwy 9 to redwood gulch to stevens creek canyon to 280.

or

Bear Creek Rd to hwy 17.

33 miles on 17 sounds like your going backwards to Scotts Valley and taking 17 from there. That route adds a solid 40 min to your drive.

Scotts Valley could be a good place to live too. I have no idea what the rent is like there though...

I will reiterate that its not the size of the aparetment that you should shop by its the amount of solar exposure. Unless of course you like living in damp cold moldy caves...

Search "Miata" in the San Francisco Craigslist. That should tell you the answer.

Fremont looks very doable (again, especially on a bike), Concord is way to far, Pleasanton might be an option, too.

Just hard a chat with my wife, looks like she'd prefer to live in Boulder Creek so far. Scotts Valley looked a little more expensive than that.

@Capt Slow, I think the total of the route was 33 miles, from memory it was Hwy 9 down into Saratoga, then 85 up to 101. The Silicon Valley Offices of the company are pretty close to Moffett Field and there is a chance that my wife can get work at Moffett Field again if the lab she used to work at can find more funding. Which they're not that good at...

oh dear, what have I done...

Fremont is ok, my brother is over in milpitas. You will find that rent and house value is strongly tied to which school district its in. There are a lot of super competive asian familiys who will pay top dollar for a house in the better school districts...

Feel free to PM me if you want more info on the area.

Thanks for the offer, I might PM you if anything comes out of this.

Fortunately we don't care much about the school district, as long as we don't have to tool up to go shopping or remove the crack dealers from our front porch, we don't care much about the school district. No kids and too old to change our minds now.

That said, a place to relax in with at least a single garage would go a long way...

My dad still works in san francisco, and we used to live there, but now live in vacaville. I dont think most jobs pay enough to afford a commute of less than 1-1.5 hours anywhere in that area.

I've lived an hour north of SF for two years now, and I've gone to the city exactly no times during my stay (I've driven down through the East bay twice, but I won't go down the peninsula).

If they'd get me some light rail so I wouldn't have to PARK in that damn town, I'd probably be down there once a month.

If I had to live there, I'd probably give up owning a car and just ride BART and a bike (pedal, not motor).

I live and work in Mt View for a company that fits the descriptive bits you've mentioned. I pay $1600/month for a 3 bedroom house (half a duplex). No garage, but I have a carport that has built 2 lemons cars and supports my spec e30 :)

When I first moved out, I thought it was crazy. Now I think we're getting a good deal on the rent. It's amazing what a few years in the area will do to your sense or normal.

From what I found, $1600/month for the 3br is a pretty good deal. My wife paid $1200/month for a couple of rooms last year, but that was a couple of minutes walk from a Caltrans station.

I'll see what transpires, at the moment I don't even know how far this is going.

triumph7 wrote: Consider living on the other side of the Bay... when I lived in Belmont there were 4 guys from the company that lived across the Bay and bought a Cessna 172 and flew across every day, had a car at the local airport and were at work in minutes every day instead of hours.

That is awesome.