Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Las Vegas wins for me because of the taxes, entertainment, cost of living, and climate. Your 78K is pretty much a bare subsistence living in CA.
However, since I know you are in Ireland, I can tell you the climate is more like Ireland in San Fran. Cooler, foggy, rainy. SF is a fun place to live too and I like visiting there.
I live and work in Silicon Valley, but I have a house here that I spend at least two weeks a month in - actually more time than I spend in CA. I've done this for nearly ten years, and I've lived in the Bay Area pretty much my entire life.
Everyone who says that 78k is barely enough to live on in the Bay Area is spot on. You'll never own a home in the Bay Area on a household income of 78k. For anything decent you'd need at least $300k/yr, which is actually easily attainable given Bay Area salaries if both spouses work. For cost of living, Las Vegas wins hands down. It's one of the reasons I love returning here every month. The cost of food there is ridiculous, $7 for a gallon of organic milk for instance.
It is absolutely not true that people do not commute to jobs in SF from Mountain View or even farther south - lots of people do it. People commute from Sacramento to San Francisco, or from Livermore or the Central Valley to San Jose. If you can use Cal Train to get to SF, and then public transportation from the Cal Train station to get to your job, the commute will be liveable. Have you considered Berkeley rather than Mountain View? Marin is beautiful, but probably out of your budget.
If you need to be near world-class universities so you can continue your education, well, that would be one item in favor of the Bay Area. If you are well-educated and would prefer to be in a place where there are a lot of people who are similarly well-educated, you'd want to be in the Bay Area (the good parts at least).
If the idea of foggy and 55 degrees in the summer doesn't appeal to you, there are certain microclimates you need to avoid. Oakland (I'd never live there, not even in the good parts in the hills) is considered by many to have the best weather - temperate, but w/o the fog of San Francisco. I like being able to jump in my pool at midnight - something I could never do in the Bay Area without a ridiculous heating bill. OTOH, I almost never have to run my A/C or heat there (just the few hottest and coldest days of the year), and my typical power is about $50 - maybe $70 those few months when I run the A/C or heat.
I live and work in Silicon Valley, but I have a house here that I spend at least two weeks a month in - actually more time than I spend in CA. I've done this for nearly ten years, and I've lived in the Bay Area pretty much my entire life.
Everyone who says that 78k is barely enough to live on in the Bay Area is spot on. You'll never own a home in the Bay Area on a household income of 78k. For anything decent you'd need at least $300k/yr, which is actually easily attainable given Bay Area salaries if both spouses work. For cost of living, Las Vegas wins hands down. It's one of the reasons I love returning here every month. The cost of food there is ridiculous, $7 for a gallon of organic milk for instance.
It is absolutely not true that people do not commute to jobs in SF from Mountain View or even farther south - lots of people do it. People commute from Sacramento to San Francisco, or from Livermore or the Central Valley to San Jose. If you can use Cal Train to get to SF, and then public transportation from the Cal Train station to get to your job, the commute will be liveable. Have you considered Berkeley rather than Mountain View? Marin is beautiful, but probably out of your budget.
If you need to be near world-class universities so you can continue your education, well, that would be one item in favor of the Bay Area. If you are well-educated and would prefer to be in a place where there are a lot of people who are similarly well-educated, you'd want to be in the Bay Area (the good parts at least).
If the idea of foggy and 55 degrees in the summer doesn't appeal to you, there are certain microclimates you need to avoid. Oakland (I'd never live there, not even in the good parts in the hills) is considered by many to have the best weather - temperate, but w/o the fog of San Francisco. I like being able to jump in my pool at midnight - something I could never do in the Bay Area without a ridiculous heating bill. OTOH, I almost never have to run my A/C or heat there (just the few hottest and coldest days of the year), and my typical power is about $50 - maybe $70 those few months when I run the A/C or heat.
I think Olecapt said its unusual for people to commute from SF to Mountain View because most people would rather live closer to work since Mountain View is generally cheaper to live compared to SF. I think the OP wants to live close to Mountain View because that is where his/her job will be. I made the suggestion to live close to work because it will save you money in the long run (caltrain and or gasoline expenses).
I grew up in the South Bay Area and I miss my friends and family, but Las Vegas has a lot more to offer me than San Jose does.
I think Olecapt said its unusual for people to commute from SF to Mountain View because most people would rather live closer to work since Mountain View is generally cheaper to live compared to SF.
Sorry if I misread Olecapt's post. I've known several people who did the SF-SJ-SF commute, either on CalTrain or I-280 every morning, but I think you're right, it is less common than the other direction. They were young hipsters who wanted to be around other young hipsters, and could afford to live in SF. Still, if you can use CalTrain, you can work/sleep for that forty-five minutes on the train (SF to MV on the "baby bullet" train) and make it liveable.
Sorry if I misread Olecapt's post. I've known several people who did the SF-SJ-SF commute, either on CalTrain or I-280 every morning, but I think you're right, it is less common than the other direction. They were young hipsters who wanted to be around other young hipsters, and could afford to live in SF. Still, if you can use CalTrain, you can work/sleep for that forty-five minutes on the train (SF to MV on the "baby bullet" train) and make it liveable.
I use to work at Apple computer back in the early 90's and before that I worked at Atari in Sunnyvale. I lived off El Camino and Fair Oaks ave in Sunnyvale. I can get to work in 15 mins tops, and some of my co workers would commute from San Jose and it would take them 40 mins on the 101 or 280. The in the Late 90's, there were people commuting from Fresno, Sac, Marin..etc.. I never understood why people would like to commute so far from work, but to each their own
I use to work at Apple computer back in the early 90's and before that I worked at Atari in Sunnyvale. I lived off El Camino and Fair Oaks ave in Sunnyvale. I can get to work in 15 mins tops, and some of my co workers would commute from San Jose and it would take them 40 mins on the 101 or 280. The in the Late 90's, there were people commuting from Fresno, Sac, Marin..etc.. I never understood why people would like to commute so far from work, but to each their own
I am reasonably familiar with the peninsula. Worked there a day or two a week for ten years. Palo Alto and the other side of the bay. I used to fly into San Jose when they still kept cows where the parking lots are now.
Used to have a semi-reserved room in the old section of Rickey's Hyatt.
I do not in any way knock the Peninsula. One of the great places in the world to live. Particularly if you have to live there year round.
It is however classical southwestern US suburban. Has the whole range from the semi-ghetto of say east PV to the acre spreads across 280. It does have standard and one of the world's most interesting intellectual communities. If you are in fact a Phd level computer scientist making 500K I would not even think about LV. You got to be kidding.
But working level jobs...nah. It is like living on Long Island or in Orange County. If you ain't pulling down a hundred K or two it is a hard place.
There is a reason why it's less expensive in Las Vegas than San Francisco. If there wasn't, everyone would move from San Francisco to Las Vegas, right?
I don't want to start any flame wars, but after living in both Seattle and Phoenix, I understand well why Phoenix is cheaper than Seattle. That's not to say that Phoenix is a bad place to live, but there is an elephant in the room when everyone talks about cheap housing. (Hint: ask yourself: "why is housing cheap in Las Vegas?")
I wouldn't want to move to Vegas, but you'd have to drag my dead body to SF if you though I was going to stay there.
It's the climates. You can freeze your arse off in August in SF. The political climate is fine if you're near Polosi on the scale, but for those of us who cherish freedom it's Vegas, baby!
Ditto what the above posters have said about NV. ^^
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
