Moving from North Shore to San Francisco (Chicago, Northbrook: relocation, work)

[kim jennings]

Does anyone know of the towns/suburbs near San Francisco that is similiar to the North Shore suburbs (Wilmette, Northbrook, Winnetka, of Kenilworth). My family and I are looking to move in about a year from our North Shore home to San Francisco.

[brenty]

Walnut Creek, CA is very nice and very similar to the North Shore except maybe more expensive, lively, and newer. The quality of life is about the same. It is about 40 minutes from San Francisco and 30 minutes from Oakland. It is a really beautiful town. The schools are also very good.

[kim jennings]

Thanks for the information.

[jonquil]

i was raised in Wilmette and moved to San Francisco 35 years ago. I find the suburbs most like Wilmette to be on the Peninsula, south of the city. Burlingame, San Mateo Park, Hillsborough---the latter being the most expensive and exclusive similar to Kenilworth. These suburbs are longer established with older homes and lots of trees. Some of the newer suburbs to the east of the city do not have the same ambience for me.

[trailerguy]

Hillsborough and Atherton are the grand dames of the Peninsula. Atherton is very reminiscent of the North Shore.

[klkp]

i would agree with the above - go with towns on the peninsula. atherton, hillsborough, san mateo park (address is san mateo but very hillsborough-y). you will love it here!!

[chicagobound?]

Hi. I live in Burlingame (20 minutes South of SF) and coincidently am investigating places to live on the North Shore due to my husband's work relocation this summer. (Any advice you could offer is more than welcome!!)

I have only visited the North Shore once, but thought it was very beautiful and clearly has a fine reputation. With the Bay Area, there are tons of fabulous places to live--the city is great, but if you have kids, the public school system is terrible. That's why we moved to Burlingame.

Burlingame has a wonderful, small community and great public schools--not to mention a quick (20 min) commute into the city. It's on the Peninsula, along with San Mateo (5 min further South, a bit more diverse with a larger Hispanic community, larger population and mixed public school system), Hillsborough (someone else mention them--VERY expensive, all things being relative of course, but gorgeous...no sidewalks so less of a community than B'Game or SM, great schools). If you keep going South, Menlo Park is another great place to live, but it is further from SF (45 min). They have a great community, lovely weather and good pub schools.

If you want to live in the East Bay (and brave the Bay Bridge), Piedmont or Rockridge are both great areas. Piedmont is $$ and Rockridge is more reasonable & "crunchier", but frankly everything in the SF area is going to be a bit more pricey than even the North Shore. It's obscenely expensive here.

The North Bay, Marin County, is gorgeous, but far from areas like Silicon Valley & the airport, if that matters to you. Mill Valley, Fairfax, and San Raphael are some of the best communities there. It's much more rustic over there: lots of trees and hills and hiking areas. Quite gorgeous. We might have considered living there if my husband didn't have to commute to Silicon Valley.

Sorry to ramble--hope this helps. Feel free to ask more specific questions if you have them. I am VERY sad to be leaving this area, as much as I hear good things about the North Shore of Chicago. Burlingame frankly has everything I could ever want: a tight-knit community, diversity, great weather, easy proximity to the city, a cute downtown, good restaurants, great public school. The only thing negative is the price.

Good luck!

[fj60]

We're moving the opposite direction - SF Bay Area to North Shore. We live in East Bay - Lafayette, specifically.
We love the rolling hills, the open space, lots and lots of trees. I used to commute into the city on Bart, so the Bay Bridge was not an issue. Bart is on time, quick and convenient.

One comment re: relative value - I am finding that North Shore is actually as expensive, if not more so, than our community. The actual houses themselves are comparable for the most part, but here in the East Bay the lots tend to be bigger - half acre to an acre. Three quarters of an acre w/ a tear-down house on it is $2mm in Wilmette/Winnetka. It's a 30% cheaper here. (Lake proximity plays a big part in that pricing, obviously, however)