Moving to SF - affordable home to buy / commute ok (San Francisco: to rent, condo)

[lavinia77]

We are a young family with a small child and looking to buy a home up to 500K in the area. Husband works in office near embarcadeo and wouldn't mind a 45 - 1 hour commute .
we don't mind living outside and i will stay home with the baby.
any suggestions on anything affordable single family home and the areas .
school is not an issue at this time since he is 1.

thank you

[jrb724]

If you are moving I'd recommend renting first and deciding what area you want to live in. The cost of a home here is a huge investment and you probably will want to stay in that home for at least 5-10 years so that means you should factor the schools into your decision. Prices aren't going up substantially any time soon (if they go up at all) so it doesn't hurt to wait a little bit before you buy.

If you are really set on buying then you need to decide if you are willing to get a condo or townhouse instead of a single family home. Settling for a condo or townhouse at that price range greatly increases the amount of homes available to you.

[mayorhaggar]

I agree with jrb, maybe rent for a year and get used to the area and then decide where to buy. 500k would be too low for a nice house in San Francisco and some suburbs but it might get you a decent place in one of the outer suburbs. A condo in SF or the burbs might be around that price but that is only good if you feel like a condo.

Yesterday I saw an article saying that San Francisco is one of the few cities in the US where it still makes more sense to rent than to buy, if you buy you can end up spending twice in monthly costs than what you would spend on rent for a comparable place. The suburbs can be a lot cheaper than SF though but it is still pricy.

[Cherie8426]

I agree, I would rent first and make sure you scope out all of the cities before you buy.