San Francisco and Bay Area

[Vaud]

Are there any PHers in the region...?

I've been offered a secondment to SF and would welcome some additional local knowledge.

[LarryLamb]

Vaud said:

Are there any PHers in the region...?

I've been offered a secondment to SF and would welcome some additional local knowledge.

What knowledge would you like to know? Happy to offer advice...

[Vaud]

LarryLamb said:

hat knowledge would you like to know? Happy to offer advice...

Thanks - appreciated. I last lived there in 2000/1 when the market was a bit different - and personal circumstances a bit different.

The role is in SF and main valley cities - Palo Alto, etc with various high techs. No need to be in the office every day but need to be within 90 mins drive of SF downtown.

Looking for a nice town / environment for a young family with an active 2 year old - parks, swimming pools, libraries, etc with a nice community atmosphere. I loved Palo Alto previously but think it will be outside of budget. Looking at $5-6k per month rental, need 2 bedrooms min.

East Bay would get me more value but I don't know the nice neighbourhoods.
Hear nice things about Los Gatos, etc - and like the idea of being close to Skyline, etc...
Marin appeals - e.g. Sausalito and I've seen apartments in budget - but I've never commuted across the bridge and think SF would be ok by ferry but the commute in the valley would be painful.

Basically a lot of options but I just don't know the nice communities - would ideally like a good sized apartment, small townhouse or even a house - but with short drive or even walk to coffeshops, etc - which is what I liked about Palo Alto or towns like Sonoma - a nice town street.

All thoughts much welcomed!

[LarryLamb]

Funny that, I live in Los Gatos! We emigrated here 2 years ago. Been renting all that time. Admittedly we are on the very edge of the district, but Los Gatos is a lovely place. We have a 3 bedroom, single family home, dounle garage, front and back yards. Significantly less that your budget, but still a lot for a 1200 sq ft bungalow!

Rental prices all over are going up to ridiculous values and increasing all the time. Saying that, with your budget, you should be able to get something nice. Have a look at Trulia and Zillow - you can put your requirements in there and search for rental properties. We actually found this one on Craiglist, but be careful on there.

As for areas, well, I'm biased but I love the Los Gatos area. We can't afford to buy here, but further south to Morgan Hill we could. Skyline is awesome, we go there often for hiking. Campbell is very up and coming and Saratoga again really nice. As for East Bay, I really have no idea, but we didn't like any of the areas there when we looked, but that's not to say some of it isn't nice.

I work in Santa Clara and it takes about 40 minutes commute, 25 minutes off peak. Palo Alto would be quite a commute from here, likely 1/1.5 hours at a guess in peak hours. We can be in SF Union Sqaure, parked in 1 hour from here in an evening/weekend. Luckily for me, I work mainly from home so commuting isn't an issue really, but traffic has definitely got worse in the last couple of years.

Hope that helps? Feel free to ask anything more specific...

[Vaud]

Thanks - I'll drop you a PM. Appreciated.

[BBL-Sean]

From your description, I believe Palo Alto or Mountain View if the rent is manageable, but San Mateo or Bulingame might best suit your situation, as they are in between Palo Alto and San Francisco. All three of these municipalities have easy access to CalTrain so you could get into San Francisco by train as an alternative. If you prefer the South Bay area in Santa Clara county, I agree that Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell, Monte Sereno, Los Altos, or Cupertino are best bets - but as anywhere, you get what you pay for.