I am moving to the bay area with plans to rent, which neighborhoods/cities should I consider? (San Mateo: for rent, house)

[yochan]

I am moving with my family (my wife and four children) to Bay Area to take a job in Millbrae. We plan on renting a home with a budget of $5500/month or less. Our minimum requirement is that it must have at least 3 bedrooms, be in a safe neighborhood, and we really don't want to live in consistently foggy weather. My wife and I discussed how we would prioritize various aspects of the house and we came up with the list below (in priority order).

1. School quality (we have children ages 1 - 11)
2. Commute time
3. Number of families in the area with similarly aged children
4. Home quality
5. Price
6. Home size
7. Parks
8. Walkability
9. Yard size
10. Things to do

Which neighborhoods and cities should we consider?

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

It's best in the SF Bay Area to live as close to work as possible, because commuting is terrible here. I don't personally know Millbrae, though I lived in the SF Bay Area most of my life. But, I looked up some links for you.

On Yelp, scroll down to read in particular, the review by the person who said the schools are fantastic. Also the greatschools ratings are consistently 9 out of 10:

City of Millbrae - Millbrae, CA

SF bay area apts/housing for rent classifieds - craigslist

GreatSchools.org Search: millbrae

[jade408]

Millbrae = foggy. You would want to go a little south. Not sure about the fog situation in Burlingame, but San Mateo is pretty sunny and it is about 5 miles down the road.

[bmw335xi]

Millbrae is usually sunny. I work at the next stop over from Millbrae and have lunch in Millbrae pretty much Mon-Fri.

I would recommend Millbrae, Burlingame, Foster City and San Mateo. All of these cities are usually sunny, very nice, clean, safe and have plenty of restaurants.

[twins4lynn]

Millbrae is usually sunny and isn't in an every-day-fog path.

To keep your commute really short, I'd look at Millbrae and Burlingame - both have no 'bad' areas, very good schools, strong recreation programs for kids, and basically nice cities to live in. If you want to go a bit further south, there are areas in San Mateo which would be very good, and Belmont is another city you can consider.

[stateofgreen]

Millbrae isn't necessarily foggy, but more like overcast. San Mateo is a bit sunnier with a nice downtown and park.

[Shadow Dude]

If you want to avoid the fog then to the South or East bay. Eastern peninsula works as well. The peninsula typically has good schools. It's also quite pricey there. I'd recommend living as close to work as you can. Traffic here is quite bad between 4 and 8PM and it's not just the freeways. I go to school less than 10 miles from my house and during peak traffic hours it can take me anywhere from 20-35 minutes to get to or from. The freeway is just off-limits. I'm not too sure on morning commute hours though.

[twins4lynn]

Originally Posted by stateofgreen

Millbrae isn't necessarily foggy, but more like overcast. San Mateo is a bit sunnier with a nice downtown and park.

Millbrae isn't overcast, unless the rest of the peninsula is, too (i.e. San Bruno, Burlingame, northern portion of San Mateo).

[jade408]

Originally Posted by twins4lynn

Millbrae isn't overcast, unless the rest of the peninsula is, too (i.e. San Bruno, Burlingame, northern portion of San Mateo).

Every time I go to Millbrae it feels pretty foggy/overcast, even if San Mateo seems sunny. Your mileage may very. Someone should chime in on the summer weather.

OP, the thing about the Bay Area, is really the summer weather that is "off." In the cooler parts, summer isn't that warm, and the fog is very common in the summer in the foggy parts. I.E. summer in SF is pretty un-summer like, with highs in 60s and rare sunny days. Other parts of the year are nice. In the foggy parts on the Peninsula or by the coast this pattern continues. The weather is pretty much the same in the winter/spring/fall across the whole Bay with small temperature variation, and larger temperature swings at night.

Summer is the real "deal breaker" for people expecting it to be sunny, warm, shorts wearing weather. The northern peninsula is on the cooler end in the summer, and many parts are foggy/overcast and cool through most of summer.

Summer temps in San Mateo are sunny and around mid 70s. It gets cooler and less sunny as you head north.

[twins4lynn]

Originally Posted by jade408

Every time I go to Millbrae it feels pretty foggy/overcast, even if San Mateo seems sunny. Your mileage may very. Someone should chime in on the summer weather.
.

I live in Millbrae. The weather in Millbrae (and Burlingame) is similar to northern San Mateo, but a few degrees cooler. Summers (late July, August, September) are generally sunny. When it's foggy, it will usually be foggy also in Burlingame & the northern part of San Mateo. Some mornings have fog, which will burn off by 8 or so. As with the rest of the peninsula, June weather sucks.

When it's sunny, people are wearing shorts. Quite a few homes have pools. Many of the homes on my street have installed A/C.