Shorter commutes vs. good places for families. I could use the advice of some locals, please. (San Jose: for sale, real estate)

[RedZin]

Hi all,

My husband may be getting a job offer soon from a company in San Francisco. If the salary looks right, we are planning to move out, rent for a little while, and get a feel for the area (we have visited SF and the valley plenty of times, but not with an eye toward moving) and then try to find a home to buy.

What we have currently here in NC is a 5 bed/4 bath single-family home that's just under 5k sq feet and is less than 10 years old. Custom build. Homes in our neighborhood here in NC run from 600k-1mil. Good neighborhood, kids (both high schoolers) are in a school that is a 10 on greatschools.

My husband has a 15-minute commute to work and I work at home most of the time, but when I do go in, mine is 15-20 minutes.

We won't move unless the salary offer (same company as he's in currently, just a different position) makes up for the difference in COL to reasonable degree.

Preliminary calculations are telling us we don't want to spend more than about 2.5 mil and we'd love to stay under 2 mil if we can find a decent place.

I know we may have to give up a bit on square footage and maybe drop a bedroom (totally doable, as the 5th is a guest bedroom right now)... along with dropping down to a 2-car garage from a 3-car garage.

That said, what are some good suburbs (we don't think that what we want can be found in the city for the price we would like to pay) if we want to avoid the bridges for a commute?

We really do want good schools (don't have to be a 10 on great schools, but would like not to go under an 8, maybe a 7 if the area is otherwise very nice), low crime, and a home that's either less than 10 years old or has been fully renovated to be energy efficient.

Would rather not deal with excessive fog or cloudy days, if possible.

We will consider bridge commutes if they look to be reasonable (less than 45 minutes for a commute and we have considered commuting during non-peak times to accomplish this, of course), but all of my husband's coworkers who already live in the bay area have advised against bridge commutes into the city if we can avoid them.

Sorry if this is a book, but any advice you could give me would be great and I wanted to be fairly specific, as I am well aware of how hard it can be to give advice when people just say "where are the good suburbs?" and never bother to give any budget or other specifics.

Thanks!

[Chuck5000]

I'm going to mix a discussion of East Bay and Peninsula here, hope it's not confusing. Regardless of bridge or not, generally, a 5-bed home with a size of 4k or 5k square feet and less than 20 years old in a Bay Area suburb with very good schools can't be found for less than 2.5m to 3m, especially if you want "10" districts on greatschools. A 4 bedroom newly renovated home for 1.8 to 2.5m? Not sure you can get that without a bridge commute. Off the top of my head, try Orinda and Lafayette. Try Danville. Under 2m will be tough, though. For a more reasonable price range than the above, try Walnut Creek, San Ramon, and Pleasanton. You can buy at the top of the market in those towns for close to 2m. Door to door commute will be 1 hour approx via BART, but could be a bit longer.

Very tough to get less than 1 hour door-to-door in this region. For your best shot in the East Bay, I'd try Piedmont and Orinda first, actually. The above are all East Bay.

You'd have a better chance at a shorter commute if you looked at the northern to mid Peninsula, which is probablly where those Bay Area people you talked to live. It is ultra competitive and super expensive per square foot for that reason - it allows access to both SF and Silicon Vallley job markets without bridge crossings. You'd probably have to spend 1.8 to 2m for a 3-bed house; newly renovated might be closer to 2.5. You could look at San Carlos and Belmont and Burlingame. You could look at parts of San Mateo. Millbrae is nice but cooler and with some fog, I believe. I am leaving out super super expensive places like Hillborough, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and increasingly Mountain View.

Good for you that you won't move unless you get a COL match on salary - now that you know approximate home prices, that match is probably higher than you were thinking. It's hard to appreciate just how little house and land you get for your money in California unless you're living here and see it first hand. Now, there are other compensations for California, but most people really are not willing to prioritize those.

Also - expect competitive bidding even at these high price points; you probably won't be able to just roll in and make an offer and get a place. It will be a process, possibly lasting many months or even over a year - unless you can pay cash for a house.

Finally, driving is a nightmare - I wouldn't do it at all unless I could leave before 7am, or after 10am. If you go Peninsula, you could take trains. The trend of worsening Bay Area traffic is very worrisome.

[capoeira]

Originally Posted by RedZin

Preliminary calculations are telling us we don't want to spend more than about 2.5 mil and we'd love to stay under 2 mil if we can find a decent place.


That said, what are some good suburbs (we don't think that what we want can be found in the city for the price we would like to pay) if we want to avoid the bridges for a commute?

Here is what a 2 million dollar home in Burlingame looks like if you want avoid a bridge commute and have great schools.

Example home, Burlingame, CA For Sale | Trulia.com

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Good schools + short commute + housing stock that exceeds shack quality = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Any questions?

[ssmaster]

Lafayette ,Moraga Orinda=lamorinda
Nice size homes excellent schools doable commute to downtown San Francisco

[artemis78]

Piedmont. 20 minutes without traffic and 30-60 minutes with depending on time, or you can just drive to BART and ride in (15-20 minutes). Orinda would be good too but is a longer commute through both a bridge and a tunnel (though you can also BART in from there). But you can find what you're looking for in Piedmont at that price point on all points except the new house. Housing stock there is older but beautiful and often recently renovated (and if not, will be priced accordingly, so you can allocate part of your budget to making the energy efficiency improvements or other upgrades).

[likealady]

Originally Posted by RedZin

We will consider bridge commutes if they look to be reasonable (less than 45 minutes for a commute and we have considered commuting during non-peak times to accomplish this, of course), but all of my husband's coworkers who already live in the bay area have advised against bridge commutes into the city if we can avoid them.

The clusterduck that is the area around Emeryville is a nightmare during commute hours. I used to deal with it 5 days a week with a reverse commute, and it still made me want to pull my hair out.

You will be better off staying down the peninsula. Maybe Burlingame, San Mateo, Foster City. I think beyond that starts to be a bit too long of a commute. You'd be giving up a lot to move here. Gosh, custom built house, a 10 school, and a 15 minute commute. That doesn't exist out here.

[Ruth4Truth]

At your price point, you have a lot of options. You can take BART from the Berkeley hills. You could take the ferry from Marin (great area for kids and good schools!), depending on where in SF the job is. And of course, there are the communities down the Peninsula from SF, as others have said, but those prices have shot upwards over the years, whereas Marin's haven't so much, due to its isolation from the hot job mkts in San Jose and SF. (All very relative, in the context of Bay Area/CA, as you know.) So, check out real estate listings in the towns mentioned south of SF and compare to listings around Mill Valley, Larkspur and Fairfax, to compare how far your $$ go, square-footage-wise. Also compare with north Berkeley, Kensington and Claremont & Elmwood neighborhoods of Berkeley. You have your work cut out for you research-wise, but all things that are worth having take time/effort.

[Chuck5000]

FYI, anything in marin that is not in Tiburon or Larkspur walking-distance (both out of your range, you'd have to take a small 3bed house for 2m) or Sausalito (bad schools) will be minimum 50 minutes on ferry or bus and ferry, and does not include getting to bus or ferry, parking, walking, waiting and then going the last mile to the office. Therefore just about anything in Marin is gonna be well over 60 minutes. Driving not advised unless you can go before 730 or after 10am. Some days that drive will be easy. Other days it will be the opposite.

I just ran all those numbers myself recently considering relocating there. Hard to deal with those numbers. You can look on Golden Gate Transit's web site.

If I were in your shoes, with such a great job over there, I wouldn't move unless you had family here that you want to be close to. Or, if they would pay him like 500k per year. Don't fall for BS on equity - unless he's a founder, his chances of making millions are very slim.

[clongirl]

Lamorinda as already mentioned above by ssmaster. Larger houses on large lots, semi-rural, lots of wildlife and freedom for kids, very safe, good community spirit, excellent schools from elementary all the way through high school, and there are BART stations in Orinda and Lafayette (public transport into San Francisco-25 minutes into the City). Plus, there's a 7 mile paved trail that runs through all three towns that can be walked, cycled, dogs walked, etc. Also, the area is surrounded by miles of hiking trails on all the hills that surround the region.

Also, a tad farther out to Walnut Creek would also be a good choice--35 minutes via BART...newer houses, bigger city, excellent schools, excellent amenities.

I find that the housing in the South Bay/Peninsula is quite small, and older (but with more character) for what you'll pay, very nice cities (San Mateo and Burlingame in particular) there as well...probably more diverse and good choice in restaurants. Schools are generally very good as well.

Marin is only really a good option if you're fairly near the Larkspur Ferry. Houses are very pricy for size (of course, everywhere seems to be nowadays). I've always found the traffic on the main thoroughfares around the various towns just to get to the freeway a MAJOR pain, however. Also, Marin Co is where everyone from San Francisco heads to on the weekends for outdoor stuff---too much tourist traffic/cyclists/Sunday drivers/kayakers, imo. It's a great region to visit but....

I'll have to add, as others have, that you sound like you have a very good quality of life where you are. The Bay Area is fantastic to live (but not for most). Your money will definitely not go very far long term. If you have family where you live and your kids are really happy where they are, then you actually might want to reconsider. All the extra income that your husband makes, may not turn into an equivalent quality of life issue. Most everything here costs more...not just the housing. This is the currently the most expensive region to live in America and it's can definitely be a shocker how much harder it is to adapt. It helps to have friends and relatives here to help you settle in.