Where to live near Walnut Creek (Concord, Martinez: real estate, apartments, rental)

[egreene29]

My husband, 4 month old son, and medium sized dog (golden retreiver mix), will be relocating from Texas back to California (we used to live in LA) very soon. Any suggestions on where to live? My husband's job will be in Walnut Creek. We plan on renting for 1-2 years to really know the area before we buy (if we can afford it!) Our budget for rent is $2000 max, would prefer to spend 1200-1600. We need at least two bedrooms/2 bath.

[cardinal2007]

My suggestion would be Walnut Creek itself, depending on what you're looking for you can rent something from $1200 - $2000/mo, though from what I've seen on craigslist you probably don't want to go below $1400/mo. Lower end for the rent would be apartments and condos, the higher end would be townhouses. There may be a few SFHs, I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for.

classifieds - craigslist

[MrSaturn]

Congrats on the newborn! Good idea to hold off on buying for a year or two. Subprime might be over, but Alt-A and Option ARMs are next, which will drive down prices further, this time even in the mid-price range. I'm in the same boat... whatever happened to buying 3x your annual salary?

And I'm sure you can find a nice place in Walnut Creek with that budget. Try craigslist.

[bayarea-girl]

Try craigslist and I would also go with Walnut Creek. You should be able to find a 2 bedroom townhouse for about $1500 and under with a free months rent and a $99 deposit. Rental places are desperate to get you into their rental. Look for a place that has washer and dryer in the unit and a place that won't charge you extra for water, and trash. A lot of places already have a gym on the facility.

Good luck.

[tstieber]

Have you been homebuyers before? There is at least one brand new, very nice condo building that is having trouble selling condos and is offering a very limited selection of sub-$200,000 2 BR luxury condos for first time buyers only. At that price, it might be the best bang for the buck. (Real estate is one of my professions, plus I grew up in WC, so I stay on top of this stuff). If that might be of interest, please send me a private message and I'll get you all the info you need.

You may also want to look at Pleasant Hill, which is adjacent to WC and has slightly less expensive housing stock and is very safe and family-friendly. Nearby Concord may get even more value, but you should look at only certain parts of town, as it's a mixed bag. However, on the whole, even Concord has a lot of nice amenities, a great downtown, and lots of infrastructure and parks.

[egreene29]

Thanks so much for your help. We currently own a home in Texas that is on the market. So we wouldn't qualify for FTB status.

[bayarea-girl]

Oh, check out Orinda, Moraga, and Lafayette areas as well.

[planbee]

Hello. We enjoyed living in downtown Martinez, which is about 10 minutes north of WC. We could walk to the farmers' market, library, waterfront park/playground, hiking/biking/running trails, etc., from our house. We moved back to the east coast and now rent out our Martinez house. If you'd like to know more, please "pm" me, as they say on this board. Yes, Martinez does have oil refineries; don't know if that's a deal-breaker for you. Whatever you decide, good luck! It's such a beautiful area.

[Beat02]

Originally Posted by bayarea-girl

Oh, check out Orinda, Moraga, and Lafayette areas as well.

Those areas would all be too expensive with their budget, me thinks.

[bayarea-girl]

Beat02, the OP will be renting and the rents are very, very low right now in the areas I listed. Have you checked out rental rates now, there are plenty of steals out there.