From Seattle to Bay area, Marin?, Lamorinda?, San Mateo? (Stockton: short sales, to rent)

[Nomadtv]

Hey all.
Firstly appreciate this forum more than most. Don't post much but have used it as a source for researching my moves for over 6 years now.

Heres what we are looking at.
My wife (29) and I (37) and our soon to be child (-6months) as well as the family dog have always wanted and very much intend to move to the bay area in aproximately 2 years time (In an FHA 1st home now in Seattle).

She is an assistant manager at a bank and I am a cinematographer/gaffer for film and video. Together we make aproximately $80K to 100K a year combined.

Our present house is $230k range with a $1600/mo mortgage and rather high heating bills ect.

We love Seattle but hate the weather. Cant take it any more, driving us nuts. Gotta move.

Again we both have always wanted to move to the Bay area but have been intimidated by the price of housing. Regardless we intend to make the move and need advice on where to look.

Ideally we would be looking for a house no more than $325Kish with a yard for a medium dog, around good to great schools in a crime free environment (relatively) Im really not into ghetto areas but am realistic with our stated budget. We need around 1000 SF minimum (presently in a 1310 sf house with a large storage shed). Preferably with a garage.

She will possibly be commuting daily but might find work at a more local branch. I do so much less, however when I do commute I almost always will be driving into the city both east bay and SF proper (always a different Client/Location but few are in suburbia).

I drive a 2 ton box truck full of film gear and am often doing 12 -14 hour days so an extra 2hrs of commute would kill me.

We both like hiking, walking the dog, nature the beach or water ect... but still want access to good eats and a semi lively local downtown feel (mill valley was nice for this as was parts of San Rafael. ) we dont really go to bars or clubbing at all but love cafes, book stores, farmers markets art walks and cool little shops. would be nice to live close to this kind of place.

We both have visited the area multiple times and are semi familiar with Marin and the south bay... Not so much the east side.

So on the north end we think, ideally Sausalito or Mill Valley would be awesome, but we know there is no chance of finding a place in our range.

San Rafael looks awesome but again still not cheap enough. Novato is pushing the limit on commutability and housing is still sparse and kinda pricey... Petaluma is probably too far although a great town.

Where in Marin do you think we should concentrate or is it even possible? Marin is definetly our first choice.

Next up we have the South Bay, I spent many days (ex flight crew) in Burlingame and loved the area but it is expensive as well and I generally don't like the south areas as much. It often seems too generic and seems to generally lack community and doesn't strike me as being the best place in the area to raise children. Pacifica is cool but the weather is way too close to Seattle and that is why we are moving. We still like a bit of rain and occasional fog is awesome, but constant cold overcast weather is not so hot. Are there areas that are worth looking into down here that are affordable but still close and safe, and still interesting?

Until lately we never really considered the east bay as my experiences there were more limited but the vast majority of places I have visited there we very ghetto and scary. Again safety is my highest priority. I grew up in LA in rough parts and never want to be in that kind of situation again, Just not an option.

I've recently run into some posts here that compare Marin with Lamorinda. It looks like a nice option but again ... high house prices. Any other places that I might be missing in the east bay? Again a good hood that borders oakland or Hayward / Richmond to me is not really an option because thugs tend to gravitate to the next closest nice place to perpetrate thefts ect., so I really dont want to border a bad area.

Again Ideally Marin but cost....
Second possibly south bay but generic sometimes boring, some areas of crime and cost.
thirdly, but largely unknown, East bay but crime is definetly a concern.

Any advice?

Also if anyone is in the film and video business here, give a shout as I have a few questions about the industry there as well.


Thanks all!

[Hemlock140]

That's a very difficult move to afford, most people do it the opposite direction.

I grew up in Lafayette, later lived in Castro Valley. My sister is in Walnut Creek and her house has dropped in value over the last two years but is still at close to 1 million. My sister in law is in an older area of Castro Valley in a house that's 1,100 SF, and it was up to $700k but now is down to $450k.
That's probably the most affordable, still nice area with decent schools in the Bay area, but homes for under $400k in safe areas are going to be small fixers, or maybe short sales. I just checked our old house in Castro Valley that we sold in 1993 for $190k. It was up to $645k in 2009 and is now worth $487.

[mayorhaggar]

At least you are looking at housing prices and getting some perspective but I don't think you quite get how expensive it is here. Something I find about the Bay Area is that pretty much anywhere is expensive and you can't really escape the expense easily. SF and Marin are some of the most expensive counties in the US and Silicon Valley has a ton of tech money which means it's very expensive as well all the way from San Mateo County down to Monterey. The cheapest places within a 2-3 hour drive are if you go east to places like Tracy and Stockton and Modesto but getting from those places to SF is really crushing. If you are really set on buying a house at that budget and are ok with a 2-3 hour drive EACH WAY then maybe look around Tracy and other areas in the Central Valley area.

If you really want to live here and 325K for a house is all you can afford, I would look at renting instead. Pretty much anywhere in the Bay Area is cheaper to rent than to buy if you look at renting a specific house versus buying the exact same house. If you don't believe me, look it up. The job market here is pretty terrible overall but the cost of housing has not really gone down a lot and keeps rising in some places like Marin and SF--there should be articles about this on sfgate if you do some google searches.

If you are ok with renting a house then there are a lot of decent places in the East Bay that might be affordable--Fremont, Union City, San Leandro, Alameda, Albany, etc. I think if you moved here and rented for a while you'd get used to the expense of housing here and have a better idea of where to look.

I'm not really sure why you picked the Bay Area anyway, there are banks anywhere and the film industry doesn't seem that lively other than making car commercials in SF. For 325k you could live like a king in a lot of other parts of the US and get good schools to boot. Plus a lot of people don't care for the weather here--it's sunnier and warmer inland but going to the beach is lousy and winters can be chilly.

[Nomadtv]

No I hear you. I already have lived almost everywhere else worth living at least in my mind. The weather, the country, the people all are a plus to me. I know it will be expensive and we definetly panned on renting for a while (6mo's to a year) I know we will have to be patient but I think we could do it somehow. the fathers commute we really could accept would be about 1hour 15min to 1:30. As for the film and video industry, I know its not LA (grew up there will never go back) but it most certaintly has to be bigger than Seattle. I make most of my money doing corporate jobs and smaller indie films. Theres a ton of corporations in the area so Im sure I can survive or even thrive doing what I do.

Weather in my mind can't be beat ( try seattle for chilly, way colder feeling than Denver was) as well as the countryside surrounding, those are very much worth making some sacrafices. And again, we can be patient and realize we wont get what we want right away.

So what would be your openion of north vs south vs east? Any little known places that should be considered? anyone have any stories about how they made it work? Again we are coming regardless so being talked out of it is not what we are looking for, but advise tricks, inside knowledge or options we may not know enough about to ask are what we hope to find here.

[Nomadtv]

Pardon my horrific spelling and fat finger typos btw.

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by Nomadtv

Again Ideally Marin but cost....
Second possibly south bay but generic sometimes boring, some areas of crime and cost.
thirdly, but largely unknown, East bay but crime is definetly a concern.

Any advice?

Also if anyone is in the film and video business here, give a shout as I have a few questions about the industry there as well.


Thanks all!

Marin, well you need a lot of money to land there in most places. It is North so gets the most Rain and Fog of the Bay Area. Stay away from the Coastal areas. Maybe Larkspur or San Rafael if you can swing it.

Where in Seattle do you live now and are you happy with that neighborhood minus the weather issue?

Only a few parts of Ebay have crime issues. No worse than parts of the Peninsula really, oh and Marin City up north. Much sunnier weather than most of the Bay.

[Nomadtv]

Presently in Upper kennydale with is north of the renton highlands. Have one of the cheaper houses i the neighborhood and its doable. Before we lived in Kirkland/Juantia and loved it, But we have outgrown Seattle to some degree. If the weather was better here we might stay but it sucks goat balls

[sav858]

I'd probably check out Martinez and Concord as some areas in the east bay. Decent suburbs and relatively affordable. Generally not major crime issues, average to below average schools.

[chirplet]

Maybe Pleasant Hill would work?

[batransplant]

I live in Marin (Tiburon) and we don't get anymore fog than San Mateo or the east bay. I think the weather in Marin is some of the nicest in the bay area. Just depends where you live. West Marin and the backside of Mill Valley gets more fog then other parts.

Central and So. Marin is really not affordable unless you earn at least 150-200k per year...and at that salary you will feel poor. In addition to high housing prices. I believe food and services are 15-20% higher then the east bay. (called the marin surplus tax...though not an actual tax) the rents for shops are just much higher here driving up prices.

I don't know about SR or Novato, but do know San Rafael schools are not the greatest.

Your best best is to look in the east bay...along the BART line for your wifes commute to the city.