Recent College Grad with No Clue About The Area, Where To Live??? (San Jose: real estate)

[JJ987]

Hey guys,

first thank you for the help. I am moving out here from Pennsylvania so I don't know the area.


I am trying to figure out what areas to look at for an apartment. I am 22 years old, single, young professional looking for a vibrant nightlife in a safe area. I would be living with either one or two roommates. We would be looking to spend at most $1,100 a month each ($2,200 for 2 and $3,300 for 3). Where would you recommend? Is that going to be enough or should i resolve myself to spending more?

We dont need the greatest place in the world, just something livable. Our priority is location, we want to be in a area with alot of younger people like ourselves that like I said before has a great nightlife that is safe.


I would appreciate any help you can give me.


So, what are the recommendations????

[Mr. Fantastic]

Stay away from high crime areas like Oakland, Richmond, and Vallejo. Unless you have a high tolerance for violent crime, it's not worth the cheap prices you'll find in these cities.

I'd say South Berkeley, parts of San Jose, and some neighborhoods in S.F fit most of what you're looking for.

[UPT Oakland]

Ignore Mr. Trashtastic, for one, South Berkeley has no nightlife, secondly, South Berkeley has plenty of crime, perhaps the troll would like you to move to Sacramento Street in South Berkeley bording the gritty part of North Oakland. Yeah great advice from a paranoid crime obsessed idiot. Oh wait all of South Berkeley is not bad, just like all of Oakland is not bad.

What do you consider great night life? Clubs? Eating Out? Clubs in the Bay Area are spread out around SF and other cities it's not like some cities where there is a strip of clubs and night life etc. I'd recommend North Beach or the Marina/Cow Hollow in San Francisco.

[silverkris]

Where is your place of employment? That will determine where you should look and consider so that your commute won't sap you.

[JJ987]

The commute wont be a problem as I actually get to work from home 3 days a week. I am looking for something with a good bar/ club scene... Mainly the bars though...... I would really like to stay in San Francisco itself

[lmk1707]

Originally Posted by JJ987

The commute wont be a problem as I actually get to work from home 3 days a week. I am looking for something with a good bar/ club scene... Mainly the bars though...... I would really like to stay in San Francisco itself

You can definitely do SF on that roommate budget - I'd recommend North Beach or the Marina. North Beach is a little more laidback, the bars are cozy and divey for the most part. The Marina has lots of bars and a younger crowd - the just graduated from college crowd. There's beer pong and girls who get excited when Katy Perry comes on the jukebox It's nice, in a way though, compared with going out in the Mission for example - I was out in the Mission with girlfriends one time and got yelled at to "go back to the Marina" because we were wearing more typical going-out clothes (tanktops and heels).

[Mr. Fantastic]

Originally Posted by JJ987

The commute wont be a problem as I actually get to work from home 3 days a week. I am looking for something with a good bar/ club scene... Mainly the bars though...... I would really like to stay in San Francisco itself

Good choice. San Francisco is a better option than Oakland.

[mayorhaggar]

With that budget you can live just about anywhere in the Bay Area (other than the really rich parts...). A room in an apartment in San Francisco with roommates is around $600-800 a month on the low end so if you get a place where you are paying $1000 or more it will be a pretty nice place in a good area.

Parts of SF to avoid:

- Tenderloin: just really bad and full of scary homeless people. A lot of real estate ads will say a place is in Nob Hill but then you go there and it's in the Tenderloin, so watch out for that.

- Potrero Hill, mainly the South part with all the housing projects.

- Anywhere in the Mission that is on or east of Mission Street. I used to live in this part and you get used to it but it's just really dirty and full of drug dealers and gang members and there are frequent shootings.

- the Southeast part of the city, like Bayview, Hunters Point, and Visitacion Valley. Lots of crime and housing projects.

Nice areas in SF:

These parts are nice and would be fun to live in: Inner Richmond, Inner Sunset, Cole Valley, Noe Valley Glen Park, Hayes Valley. Also the area around Dolores Park, like from Duboce Park down to Noe Valley and bounded in by the Castro and the Mission, this area doesn't really have a name and is sandwiched between these other neighborhoods but I think it's the best area in the city, it's sunny like the mission but is a lot cleaner and safer and there are a lot of nice restaurants and stores in the area.

Marina could be alright but I don't like how it doesn't have great public transit to downtown but maybe it won't be an issue, also in major earthquakes like the '89 one buildings there tend to have a lot of damage because they are on landfill. Quakes are rare but it is something to keep in mind.

The East Bay is good too and more affordable and a bit warmer, it's just your commute will be longer (though commuting on Muni within SF can take just as long sometimes). Berkeley is good and pretty affordable the Rockridge area of Oakland is cool but kind of expensive.

[anchorsteam]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

Parts of SF to avoid:

- Anywhere in the Mission that is on or east of Mission Street. I used to live in this part and you get used to it but it's just really dirty and full of drug dealers and gang members and there are frequent shootings.

Oh, thanks for pointing that out. No wonder the rent over there is so low.

I would love to live in Noe Valley (I guess somewhere around Dolores Park), but it seems to be an expensive area, rooms with a private bath rent out for around $1400. And there dont seem to be many apartment complexes around.

What do you think about SOMA (on brannan st, embarcadoro etc -- somewhere near the caltrain station) ? Is there nightlife there (bars/restaurants) ?

I need to find a place which is resonably close to a caltrain station (either walking to the 4th and king one in SOMA, or less than 10 mins drive to the 22nd one). Can afford upto $1250.

[mayorhaggar]

SOMA is alright but all the streets are wide one-way streets that lead to or from the Bay Bridge so it's rather noisy and car-centered and not great to walk around. There are some bars and restaurants and it's kind of the nightclub district, but by and large it is a lot of closed warehouses and wholesale stores so it feels kind of desolate compared to most of the rest of the city. 6th street especially near market is really grubby and a major drug/crime area so stay away from that area.

I would check out the northeastern parts of Potrero Hill that are near the Caltrain stations as well as Dogpatch which is a small neighborhood on 3rd street near the 22nd street station. There are some good trendy shops and restaurants here and there but there's a bit less commercial stuff than in other areas. But these areas are rather isolated from the rest of the city, having a car might help.

Overall the Caltrain stations in SF are all in inconvenient areas on the grubby east edge of the city so it's not easy to use it. A lot of Silicon Valley workers live in condos near the 4th and King and the 22nd street stations but these are very ritzy buildings, you might be able to find some deals nearby though.

Another option is to live near Glen Park or 24th street BART and take BART south to Milbrae then transfer to Caltrain, but this takes a while.