Advice for housing in San Fran (San Francisco, Palo Alto: apartments, rental, condos)

[rachelinala]

I will be commuting to Palo Alto to work @ Stanford. Most of the other commuters I know drive, but I will check into public transportation as well. Whichever is easier.

My salary will be around $50/hr (so about 100,000/yr I suppose). I want to live in a safe area that is fun for a late 20 something. Close to shopping, bars, etc.. Able to walk to a nearby grocery store. Maybe close to restaurants & can walk to. Also, a great historic type of little 1 bedroom with hardwoods, etc.. I will probably hate having to commute, but I really want to experience living in the actual city of San Francisco! So, closer to highways so my commute is as easy as possible. Or close to whatever public transportation I'd need.

I'm currently in Palo Alto, which is great, but I'd love to experience the city life even if it's just for a year.

Safety. I don't want to be surrounded by drug dealers or transvestites. I don't want to be in China town. I don't want to be the only white girl in the area. Probably somewhere where young professionals are would be a good fit?

As far as rent goes, I was thinking less than 2,000/month. I'm not sure how much my paychecks will be, but thought that'd be a good number. Plus I'll have to pay for parking I'm sure. So maybe around 1800/month would be good? I'm not in any debt, just a car payment of 325/month. I don't want to be house poor, would like to save some money and enjoy life too.

[hsw]

Marina and Cow Hollow are classic post-college yuppie dorms

About 30 min drive to PA in rush hr (280-101-380-280-SandHill)

Don't believe rental costs in Marina/CH are much different than those of PA; if anything, would guess safety of Mar/CH is a bit better than PA at nt

[cardinal2007]

I honestly wonder how long it would take to get from Cow Hollow and the Marina to the I-280, they are west of Van Ness, you would pretty much have to drive through downtown to get to the I-280 it would seem. I would say that would take about 30 minutes or more in rush hour. I would also not underestimate the amount of traffic on Sand Hill and Stanford itself at rush hour either, especially in the afternoon rush. When I was at Staford leaving around 5/5:30 there was a lot of traffic trying to get to the Sand Hill entrance for the I-280. I would say from parking lot to highway was 20-25 min, I learned to avoid rush hour. I'm sure someone more familiar with the city can tell you more about how to get from the Marina to 280.

From what I've heard a studio in the marina is about $2000/mo, but that may be outdated, or not the whole story, I would talk to someone who lives in that area. Probably easier to try the Northern Panhandle, Inner Sunset near UCSF, or the area just north of GG park, but I'm not sure, you can take 19th street from there though.

In terms of public transportation the convenient areas to Caltrain are South Beach/China Basin and Potrero Hill, but China Basin seem like a lot of new apartments, and condos, all more expensive than 2k/mo, unless you want a studio. I'm not familiar with Potrero Hill. Those two would be the quickest to Stanford, since you can take the Baby Bullet.

[E14]

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

I honestly wonder how long it would take to get from Cow Hollow and the Marina to the I-280, they are west of Van Ness, you would pretty much have to drive through downtown to get to the I-280 it would seem. I would say that would take about 30 minutes or more in rush hour. I would also not underestimate the amount of traffic on Sand Hill and Stanford itself at rush hour either, especially in the afternoon rush. When I was at Staford leaving around 5/5:30 there was a lot of traffic trying to get to the Sand Hill entrance for the I-280. I would say from parking lot to highway was 20-25 min, I learned to avoid rush hour. I'm sure someone more familiar with the city can tell you more about how to get from the Marina to 280.

From what I've heard a studio in the marina is about $2000/mo, but that may be outdated, or not the whole story, I would talk to someone who lives in that area. Probably easier to try the Northern Panhandle, Inner Sunset near UCSF, or the area just north of GG park, but I'm not sure, you can take 19th street from there though.

In terms of public transportation the convenient areas to Caltrain are South Beach/China Basin and Potrero Hill, but China Basin seem like a lot of new apartments, and condos, all more expensive than 2k/mo, unless you want a studio. I'm not familiar with Potrero Hill. Those two would be the quickest to Stanford, since you can take the Baby Bullet.

Potero hill is a decent neighborhood with rising prices and gentrification going on. its pretty quiet but there are some projects on the southern side of the hill. Im not sure about where the prices are right now.

[skyao]

The commute from Cow Hollow/Marina is more like 45-50 minutes to PA in Rush Hour traffic. 30 minutes would be very optimistic even in Non Rush Hour traffic.

I would also suggest Cole Valley, Potrero Hill, or Mission Dolores. One plus of Potrero is that you can easily access Caltrain, which goes to PA and Stanford. Also the area of the Mission closer to Noe Valley is more gentrified, this is approximately 21st to 25th between Valencia and Dolores.

[rachelinala]

Thanks for the advice. Will look into Potrero. The Marina area seems like it'd fit me, but yes, it seems like it'd be the furthest from work. Luckily I will miss rush hour traffic going into work (I usually get there around 630 am). The ride home might be rough, I leave work at around 730 pm.

[mdwstrnkid]

Originally Posted by skyao

The commute from Cow Hollow/Marina is more like 45-50 minutes to PA in Rush Hour traffic. 30 minutes would be very optimistic even in Non Rush Hour traffic.

I live in Pacific Heights (near Bush and Fillmore) and work down in Palo Alto off Page Mill Road and I-280. It takes me around 40-45 minutes to get to work in the morning if I leave the city around 6:45am. The commute home is slightly longer - it usually takes me around 60-70 minutes if I leave at 5:30pm. I suspect that the commute from Cow Hollow to Stanford would be comparable in time.

The only time that I've made it to work anywhere close to 30 minutes was the one time that I had a video conference in the office starting at 3:30am in the morning.