Inexpensive area with good schools in SF, Ingleside district? (San Francisco: to rent, how much)

[olivia_2008]

Looking to buy a small single family home in bay area. I work in San Francisco and want to be close to my kids schools/home.
Is anybody familiar with Ingleside area in SF? How safe is it?
What about other areas within SF or adjacent with safe reputation and good schools options? I believe that Lowell High school is the best in bay area and it would be good for my kids to get in there.
Thanks!

[humboldtrat]

The SF schools have a lottery system where your kids may be assigned to a school elsewhere in the city and may not be the school of your choice or near your neighborhood.

[twins4lynn]

Lowell is an excellent school. They have additional admission requirements Education Placement.

[clongirl]

Originally Posted by olivia_2008

Looking to buy a small single family home in bay area. I work in San Francisco and want to be close to my kids schools/home.
Is anybody familiar with Ingleside area in SF? How safe is it?
What about other areas within SF or adjacent with safe reputation and good schools options? I believe that Lowell High school is the best in bay area and it would be good for my kids to get in there.
Thanks!

It's an excellent school but it's VERY difficult to get into (only the most exceptional of students get in.. the admissions process is similar to applying to top Universities).

The Ingleside isn't that great of an area but it's not necessarily unsafe- just gritty in some places. You might want to be a little more specific in your queries- like how much you can afford, ages of your kids, what part of the City you work, etc..

[olivia_2008]

We could afford 500K property. I think some of them are avialble at Ingleside but I don't know what that district is like. What parts of Ingleside are not safe?
I think my kids could try to get into Lowell and if they don't make it we can move out of the city, to the district with good public schools. At least Lowell does not have a lottery and one can live in any district of San Francisco. Are there any other inexpensive and safe districts in the city?

[clongirl]

Have you considered the Outer Sunset, Outer Richmond, Glen Park, Miraloma Park areas- These are some other areas in which you might find something in your price range. IMO, would be are preferable to Ingleside.

It's not that this area is dangerous- it's just not really nice in any way (or perhaps I have just have anxious biased memories of driving out to City College for an advanced algebra class!). I can't really give you a block by block assessment of this area though since I didn't actually live in this area to comment. Anyone else?

As for the high schools. The entire SF school system is lottery based. My friend's child was not accepted into Lowell (after years of excellent stature/grades from a private school) but did get accepted into Mission High (a lifetime away from the Sunset District). So yes, you can live all the way across the City and get into any school (you just don't necessarily get your first choice- usually the one nearest/semi-nearest) your house. Lowell is different in that there is a "process" beyond the standard application procedure for the rest of the high schools.

You didn't mention if you are actually living/working in the City..have you been able to venture out to the Ingleside to get a better feel for what neighborhoods would suit? Your fist post from last year says you have elementary school children...do they go to a SF school already?

[olivia_2008]

My kids go to elementary school in San Francisco, we are happy with that and will be willing to try lottery system for middle school. We are just tired of renting horrible appartment in SF. But, whenever we think about moving out we are stuck with the school problem. We don't want to commute far out from our works in SF, don't have money for private schools and can't pay a million for a house in a reliably great school district. Where would you buy a property in this case?
Ingleside seems to be a lot cheaper than Outer Sunset, I don't like it either, but if it is safe, it should be OK for house investment.

[rah]

I have some experience with Ingleside from going to City college, as well as friends who live/lived over there...In my opinion it's a pretty nice area, and it's very working/middle class. It's pretty cheap as far as SF goes, probably one of the cheapest parts of the city. There are some nice cheap dining options around, and a good amount of other amenities. It is a little gritty in parts for sure, but the city has been fixing up Ocean Avenue (the main commercial strip) over the past few years, and it's getting a little nicer looking by the month, not to mention City College is fixing stuff up, a new library is being built, and the Balboa Park Bart Station will soon get remodeled...the whole area seems to be getting a makeover lately.

There are some shady individuals around, and there's usually a few shootings/etc. in the area every year, in addition to an occasional murder or two. It's not the same as SF's "real" bad neighborhoods, though it's also not your typical nice, sheltered and safe neighborhood either. Oceanview however, which is directly to the south of Ingleside, is quite a bit more poor and violent...people will sometimes refer to Oceanview as Ingleside (such as in housing listings), but you should be careful as there are some blocks in Oceanvew that can be pretty sketchy. It's the usual drug and gang activity, and the violence associated with it pretty much...I had a couple friends in High School who lived right in the thick of it. Oceanview is getting better by the year as well though. Another thing to note: Oceanview and Ingleside collectively are also known unofficially as "Lakeview" by many natives.

I'd say once you go south across Shields/Lakeview Ave, is when you enter Oceanview. Those streets run along the top of a hill which is pretty much the border between it and Ingleside.

A good idea might be to look at Westwood Park and Sunnyside, two cheap middle class areas that are actually unusually suburban in nature as far as SF hoods go, and which are directly north of Ingleside. Sunnyside is only partly suburban looking, but Westwood Park is basically it's own old-school subdivision, right in the middle of SF...lawns, windy streets and all. Its seems very safe as well. Tons of families live in the whole Ingleside/Westwood Park/Sunnyside/Oceanview area too, so that's a plus for kids. You might also want to check out hoods to the east across the freeway, such as Mission Terrace, the Excelsior, Crocker-Amazon, and Cayuga Terrace. These areas are very similar to Ingleside in that they're cheaper family-filled neighborhoods that are kind of sketchy/gritty in parts.

Also if you're interested in the demographics of all these areas they are very heavily Asian and Latino, with white people mixed in, and some shrinking concentrations of black people in Ingleside and Oceanview.

[prairie guy]

For a place with reliable school system possibly within your budget that's a close commute to SF, I'd say your only option is Pacifica and its school district, Laguna Salada (NOT Daly City, etc.) If that commute is inconvenient (and I don't blame you for putting a top priority on a sane commute) then you likely have to take your chances with SF Unified.

I'm not too familiar with the schools in the city, but maybe apply for every charter school in existence and hope you slip into one, in addition to applying for the better "neighborhood" schools?

[sonarrat]

You really should be renting on that budget. The schools in the Sunset are good and rent is not terribly expensive by SF standards, but buying is not going to be an option. Think $2500-3000 to rent a 3-bedroom house or flat that would cost $800K-$1.2M to buy.