How much do you need to live in SF (San Diego: rent, houses) - City-Data Forum

starfish33 · 05-09-2011, 01:22 PM

or more specially with 45 minute commute of the airport? My husband has been contacted by a company that seems like a perfect fit for him. They've already talked about bonus, equity options and benefits, but want to know what his required salary range would be. How much would a decent 3 bed / 2 bath home within 45 minutes be? and Good neighborhoods?

We are originally from San Diego (carmel valley), moved to the East coast 4 years ago and have been looking to move back West for the last year. I know it is substantially more expensive in SF (we've been there several time and like it but I don't really have a clue about the different neighborhoods, etc), but have the prices come down like they have in SoCal? Is it possible to live on 1 income in the outskirts? How much would it take? Not lavish living, but comfortable.

Thanks

ragnarkar · 05-09-2011, 01:28 PM

If you have no standards, surprisingly little.

One of my old classmates rents a room in a house in the Sunset district for $600/mo including utilities. His monthly expenses are only about $1000. He has no car or car payments and his monthly spending on transportation only exceeds $100 when he needs to travel out of the Bay Area.

If you don't own a car and live in the boonies, you can definitely do it.

starfish33 · 05-09-2011, 01:44 PM

We do have standards, we have 2 little ones under 2. My husband will be making at least 150K (which I know isn't a lot in SF), can we live in a nice neighborhood with that? We're from San Diego and could live comfortable there but I know SF is more expensive I'm just not sure how much and about neighborhoods.

Boompa · 05-09-2011, 01:57 PM

My rent in Outer Richmond was $2,500 a month for 2000sq ft add that to $32,000 it costs the wife and I to live its a little over $60,000

mayorhaggar · 05-09-2011, 01:58 PM

Which airport, there are three big ones here. If you are ok with the Oakland airport, then in the Walnut Creek and Pleasanton areas you can get a house for around 400k-500k I think and they have good schools. The Lafayette area I think is more like 700k? But going from the East Bay to SFO would be longer.

If you have to be near the SF airport, then the areas around there in San Mateo County would be very convenient, but houses around there in good areas with good schools can go for like 900k to a million for a really average house. The further down the Peninsula you go it's just about as expensive because Silicon Valley is full of wealthy techies.

Maybe you could look at somewhere around near the east side of the San Mateo bridge like around Union City or Castro Valley or the nice parts of San Leandro--Hayward is pretty ghetto. Then you could drive over the SM bridge but I don't know what drive times would be like from around say Union City.

Also if your husband has to commute somewhere to work every day, like downtown SF, consider somewhere that makes it easy to commute there.

So I would say figure out a budget and figure out how much you can pay for a house. Housing prices are all over the price in the Bay Area, a really basic house in Sausalito can go for $1.2 million that would be more like $200,000 in somewhere like Hercules.

pasadenawhereuat · 05-09-2011, 02:01 PM

I think $150 is enough.. We make about that (also 1 income), are a family of four, rent a three bedroom house, and live 5 minutes from the SF city/county line. We have standards too, and it IS a little more expensive compared to SoCal, but we are pretty comfortable.

starfish33 · 05-09-2011, 02:09 PM

He'll need to commute to Brisbane (just North of SF airport I believe). He currently makes 100K in NC and according to cost of living adjustment calculators that would be almost 200K in SF. The job would be a little step up so we think he should make more, but he doesn't want to throw himself out of the running.

We are anxious to get back to the west coast. COL is much cheaper where were at, but we miss family/friends and the west coast in general. Is difficult to get a grasp on the bay area. Thanks so much for all the tips.

capoeira · 05-09-2011, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starfish33

They've already talked about bonus, equity options and benefits, but want to know what his required salary range would be. How much would a decent 3 bed / 2 bath home within 45 minutes be? and Good neighborhoods?

The question is how do you define decent? If you define it as buying a medium sized 1500-2000 sq ft. house in an 8+ rated school district I would say at least 300K salary. If you go further out in East Bay and accept a longer commute to the airport,probably 200K. This is a very rough estimate based on purchasing a house equal to 3 times your annual salary. If you rent,don't mind a mediocre or bad school district or a tiny 1,000 sq. ft. house, you can survive on a lower salary.

Of course the salary is insignificant if you have the possiblity of a multi million dollar payoff from the stock option package.

Example houses in good school districts:

Cordilleras Avenue, San Carlos CA

Mariposa Avenue, Mountain View CA

Birdwood Court, San Ramon CA

Dwight Road, Burlingame CA

And in the 10 rated elite school district of Palo Alto:

El Verano Avenue, Palo Alto CA

80skeys · 05-09-2011, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starfish33

We do have standards, we have 2 little ones under 2. My husband will be making at least 150K (which I know isn't a lot in SF), can we live in a nice neighborhood with that? We're from San Diego and could live comfortable there but I know SF is more expensive I'm just not sure how much and about neighborhoods.

$150k not a lot? Of course it is. It's more than, probably 90% of the people here make.

starfish33 · 05-09-2011, 02:39 PM

Not to sound rude but how do people afford it then? When I look at homes in the area all I see are shacks for 500-600. and $1million+ easy around the south bay/san jose area.