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Thread summary:

SF: solid work experience, open minded person, sharing apartments, auto insurance rates, parking

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Old 09-22-2008, 06:41 PM
 
83 posts, read 225,183 times
Reputation: 20

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Hello, Alohakat! Thanks for your reply! I have gotten so much advice here, I really appreciate all of it! I am getting both excited and nervous about coming, but know this is a decision I'll never regret. I am not pressuring myself to say this is a 'lifelong' decision. I am setting a shortterm goal of 3 years and reassessing then. I agree with you on the use/need of vehicles outside of the commute into work. I plan to see the state and also frequent Napa as much as possible... i have been there before and LOVE it!! As far as being stuck on SF, I don't really know surrounding areas enough to know. I just know I love big cities(especially SF), the people and culture and i would love to be a trainride away from the city, both for work and pleasure. However, I wouldn't give up an opportunity for a good job in other areas I guess. The partly scary thing is that depending on how things go, I may or may not be moving there with a job lined up. I have some money saved up and will take a temp job to get me going if nothing has presented itself. If I end up picking an apartment before the job, then I will have to concentrate my job searches that are within reasonable commuting distance. Thanks again for your reply, I enjoyed it And as I posted a few mins ago, I'm open to area suggestions for living I am going to try to come in a few weeks and look at places to live.

Quote:
Originally Posted by alohakat View Post
You've gotten some good advice above. As far as whether you'll want a car here, if you can swing it, only SF has the amazing public transportation. Outside the City, there are some places where the train stops in a good fun area to see or spend a day, and otherwise you'll need your car because it is California after all. You'll probably want to see so many things outside the City -- this state is tremendously huge and has so many different sides to check out.

We do have annual vehicle registration fees tied to the value of your car. If you don't have a car in the City you may be more restricted on grocery shopping for value prices. And that commute traffic you saw in August was probably lighter than normal, people off on their last vacations before the kids needed to be back in school. My commute in a car can vary from 45 minutes if I leave by/before 5:30 am to 2-3 hours on a rainy day leaving at 6:45 a.m. The commute is different in areas where big companies have employees on flex scheduling, like some areas of the South Bay. But it looks like you are set on SF?
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Old 09-23-2008, 06:12 PM
 
32 posts, read 136,100 times
Reputation: 11
Steph,
Keep the car...And I just want to remind you to look into the East Bay Area such as Walnut Creek, Pleansant Hill & Concord Area and Pleasanton, some really great places to live in. I just moved out here a month ago and I'm living fine on $26,000 in my 1 bedroom place, it's really nice too with hardwood floors and updated appliances. Now of course if I want to go to the city I just hop on a train that takes about 50 minutes, but I've only been to the city once since moving here. I really like my little town of Martinez, all I really need. I moved here for the same reasons as you but mainly the weather and the diversity/culture.....Good luck!
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Old 10-07-2008, 03:16 PM
 
16 posts, read 68,634 times
Reputation: 15
Personally unless you really want a car, I would suggest getting rid of it, using public transportation, taxi, cable cars, or buses to get to where you want to. If you want to travel outside the city on weekends etc, rent one, cheaper in the long run and you don't have to pay insurance all year if you are not gonna use it.
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Old 10-07-2008, 11:39 PM
 
70 posts, read 190,930 times
Reputation: 28
Hey Moving,

That's encouraging to hear that you're doing just fine on that salary. Just curious though, what kind of rent are you paying?
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Old 11-03-2008, 05:50 AM
 
1 posts, read 2,071 times
Reputation: 10
Shakib wherea r
u
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Old 11-03-2008, 10:00 PM
 
Location: 38°14′45″N 122°37′53″W
4,156 posts, read 11,007,321 times
Reputation: 3439
When I moved from 94117 (pretty much dead center of SF) to the East Bay, my car insurance rate JUMPED up quite a bit, my agent's explanation was that the rates are higher in the East Bay because they factor in the assumption of commuting to SF which raises the likelihood of accidents.
When I explained that I wouldn't be doing that she told me, no matter that's just the way they calculate it. That was State Farm.
SF also has a number of car shares such as CityCarShare: check out links

City CarShare - San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, El Cerrito, Albany, Daly City, CA USA

and user reviews at:

City CarShare - SOMA - San Francisco, CA - Yelp
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