I'm planning on moving to california in late january-need advice please! (San Jose: apartments, insurance)

[jeffncompany]

hey whats up everyone? this may have been posted, but i'm looking for something personal i can read that relates to me. im 21, living in nj and planning on making the move out to cali (san francisco is looking good right now) in january. i have a lot of questions. i mean a lot. haha. but any advice would be much appreciated. please keep in mind, that i'm not rich, i don't have any degrees, and won't be attending college out there, at least not yet. still paying back money from the last one haha. i'm just looking to move out there and get some radical change in my life, get out of my parents house, and have a fresh start. something new. if you've been there, done that, you know how i feel.

i was told i could find an apartment 20 mins south of the san francisco for like 400 a month? is that true? how much is insurance out there? how do you feel about san fran? too many people? does city life get to you if you're not used to it? if you want to get away from ppl and all that, are you close to less populated areas. i just don't know where i'd go and what not, what i can expect to pay for apartments and what not, living expenses and all that. would it be hard to find a place that wasn't too expensive? less than a 1,000 would be cool. is living in the city bad? would i be able to find a job pretty easily? would it be wiser to live in the city? how far would i be from a beach, cuz i gotta be honest, living not too far from a beach would be awesome. i wanna make connections, meet new people, maybe find a career eventually, who knows. the basics, i wanna get an apartment and a job to pay for it and other bills with maybe some money to put on the side for some casual fun now and again. listen guys/girls, i'm asking a lot. i know, but any help would be awesome thanks again!

[moving??]

go to craiglist, look up jobs & look up apartments, it really helps--then make a pretend budget about how much you need to make--is SF expensive depends on what kind of lifestyle your used to ....

[ElleBebe]

Originally Posted by jeffncompany

i was told i could find an apartment 20 mins south of the san francisco for like 400 a month? is that true? how much is insurance out there? how do you feel about san fran? too many people? does city life get to you if you're not used to it? if you want to get away from ppl and all that, are you close to less populated areas. i just don't know where i'd go and what not, what i can expect to pay for apartments and what not, living expenses and all that. would it be hard to find a place that wasn't too expensive? less than a 1,000 would be cool. is living in the city bad? would i be able to find a job pretty easily? would it be wiser to live in the city? how far would i be from a beach, cuz i gotta be honest, living not too far from a beach would be awesome. i wanna make connections, meet new people, maybe find a career eventually, who knows. the basics, i wanna get an apartment and a job to pay for it and other bills with maybe some money to put on the side for some casual fun now and again. listen guys/girls, i'm asking a lot. i know, but any help would be awesome thanks again!

20 minutes south of San Francisco would be San Mateo, San Carlos, Redwood City... I don't think you could find a studio apartment for less than $400 a month anywhere on the peninsula, unless it was a really sketchy part of East Palo Alto or somewhere. You'd have to have at least one roommate to pay only $400 a month, possibly several roommates.

Also, unless you're living directly in San Francisco, you probably won't be living in "city life." It's most suburbs on the peninsula.

The important thing to take into consideration is that the Bay Area has many different lifestyles, climates, types of people depending on where you live. If you are looking for the city lifestyle, you'll need to live directly in San Francisco, or across the bay in Berkeley. Do some research on the different cities - there's San Francisco, the peninsula which is south of San Francisco and north of San Jose, the South Bay which is San Jose and the surrounding area, the East Bay, and the North Bay. All of them have very different feels to them.

Also, unless you're living in Half Moon Bay (expensive - definitely won't find a place for $400/month even with a roommate) you're going to be at least a half hour from stereotypical beaches. You can see the ocean from some spots, like Pacifica and San Francisco, but they aren't beaches where you would go tan and lay in the sun; it's *cold*. But if you just want to be near the water and don't care about swimming or laying out, they work.

There are other threads here you could read that would answer a lot of your questions here. Do a search and read up on it.

[humboldtrat]

Originally Posted by jeffncompany

i was told i could find an apartment 20 mins south of the san francisco for like 400 a month? is that true?

No, that's NOT true.