Moving to San Franscisco - neighborhoods advice? (Oakland, Fremont: apartments, rental)

[indian_mom_of_two]

We are moving to sfo in 2 weeks. I have a kid in elementary school. My husband will be traveling to downtown sfo. I am asian indian.
Please suggest neighborhoods with top rated schools from where travel to downtown sfo will be easy.
Also we have very little time to choose apartments, so please also suggest good apartments in your area, if you know of any. We will be looking to rent 2 or 3 bedroom apartments.
Thanks
Jain

[mayorhaggar]

- what is your budget
- how long do you or your husband want to commute to work
- what kind of weather do you want--60's in summer or more like 90's
- what sort of town do you want to live in--an urbane and denser older suburb or a newer more spread out suburb with big box stores?

You're pretty definitely going to want to look in the suburbs, the school system in SF is not that good and it's a small city that is only a tiny part of the overall Bay Area which is huge and very varied.

[indian_mom_of_two]

we are thinking to pay $2500 in rent monthly.
My husband is willing to travel some for safer, family oriented neighborhoods. His job would take him downtown.
Any kind of weather is fine, what is more important is the schools and the safe/clean neighborhood.
Thanks for your reply

[mayorhaggar]

Ok that helps. I think the East Bay would be best because your husband can hop on BART and get to SF without driving--parking in downtown SF is super expensive.

For the East Bay, I would mainly look at these areas which are all known for having good schools and low crime:

- Lafayette/Moraga/Orinda, aka the Lamorinda area (Lafayette and Orinda have BART stations)
- Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill
- Dublin and Pleasanton: I think they'd be a further commute but you might find more affordable places than around the Lamorinda area.

I'm not super familiar with rental prices in those areas but I imagine you could find something in some of these areas at your budget.

Other people will surely chime in with more advice, I mainly am familiar with Oakland and SF at this point but I thought I'd name some of the main places in the East Bay that come up here when people ask for somewhat "affordable" places with good schools and low crime and decent transit options.


Also if your husband will be able to somehow drive to work or his office is near the AT&T ballpark, you could look at towns on the Peninsula and he could take Caltrain from there--somewhere like Millbrae or whatever. If that is the case let us know and people here can come up with options for the Peninsula. But if he's working in the main area of downtown SF which is centered around Market Street where BART is, I think the East Bay would really be the more convenient (and probably cheaper) alternative to the Peninsula.

[jade408]

FYI: Bart from Walnut Creek to Downtown SF is about 40 minutes. From Dublin/Pleasanton it is more like 45. Generally the drive into SF is better from Dublin/Pleasanton than Walnut Creek. Less traffic. They are pretty equivalent commute wise.

You'll find a HUGE Indian/South Asian community in Fremont (if that is important to you) and the BART ride is a bit longer than 45 minutes.

[indian_mom_of_two]

The Indian community is important, but not more important than god schools and safe neighborhood.
Thanks for your feedback. It is really helpful.

[CaliWiz]

You should consider the peninsula, mostly the San Mateo/Burlingame/Millbrae area. Millbrae and Burlingame have great schools, best of the best. San Mateo has good schools but it also a much bigger city, with around 90k, while Millbrae and Burlingame are around 25k, and Burlingame is expensive though same with Millbrae and San Mateo, but both Millbrae and San Mateo are more affordable than Burlingame. Millbrae has a large Asian community, but I do not know about an Indian one. All 3 cities offer plenty of restaurants (although San Mateo and Burlingame offer the most) and shopping. Oh and they are around 25-30 minutes from SF, however Millbrae has Bart and Burlingame has CalTrain.

[mayorhaggar]

The Peninsula would be good but BART is really spotty and Caltrain isn't convenient or frequent enough to be useful. I think the Peninsula is ok if you drive to Silicon Valley, but getting to downtown SF sucks. The East Bay is better for getting to downtown SF easily. I can't imagine schools in Millbrae are that different than in Lafayette.

[sonarrat]

The schools in Millbrae are much different than Lamorinda, mainly because of the demographic makeup. The OP says that's not as important, but I think she might change her tune if her kid is the only Indian there. Lafayette is 82% white bread; Millbrae is much more diverse. Foster City and Redwood Shores also have excellent and diverse schools.

[indian_mom_of_two]

I don't care if my kid is the only indian in class. We are moving from SC and he is the only indian in class here
Important is the commute to sfo ('cos I don't want DH to be sullen everyday) and good schools for the kid.