Moving to San Francisco: Neighborhood help? (San Diego, San Mateo: renting, condo, townhouse)

[CuppySD]

Hi everyone

My partner and I are looking into moving up from San Diego to San Francisco, and I'm having a hard time finding a place to live that fits our requirements.

- Need a house (not a townhouse, condo, or apt)
- Need a decent sized yard
- Big dog friendly (we have two Boxers)
- Must have 2+ bedrooms, and at least 2 full bathrooms
- 1200 sq. ft or larger

As far as location - I would be working in either SoMa or Palo Alto...and he would be in Redwood City. We would not want to commute more than 30 minutes by train, but we could also drive as needed.

For our budget, we're hoping to pay $2500 - $3000. I have been looking at San Mateo, Burlingame, Palo Alto, Foster City, Mountain View. Is there anywhere else I should be looking?

Thanks in advance!

[mayorhaggar]

Just so you know, people here make a distinction between what is and isn't San Francisco. We don't call the entire area "San Francisco." We call it the Bay Area and then distinguish between different parts of it, like the East Bay, Peninsula, South Bay, etc.

Anyway SOMA and Palo Alto are pretty far apart. I think you need to figure out which you'd be working in, then you could move closer to one or the other. San Mateo County is one of the most expensive parts of the US but I'm not really familiar with the price of renting a house there so all I can really say is that people here often list Redwood City as having some nice parts that are relatively affordable compared with the rest of SMC.

Palo Alto is expensive but I know that it is 35 minutes on Caltrain from the 4th and King station in SF if you take the Baby Bullet train.

[larachris]

If you want to be halfway between SF and Palo Alto, I would suggest San Mateo, Burlingame or Foster City. If you move further South (Palo Alto or Mountain View) the commute into San Francisco will be a nightmare. Have you considered Belmont? It sounds like it might be a fit for you with 2 dogs. It's in the hills off highway 92 between the two major highways (101 and 280). Just a disclaimer that these cities are basically suburbia. They have 'cute' downtown areas and decent restaurants and shopping but it is nothing like San Francisco. In San Francisco, Noe Valley might have what you're looking for. The commute to Redwood City is doable, as right around that area is where you begin to get the bottleneck into Silicon Valley.

[CuppySD]

Thank you all for the suggestions. Belmont looks nice! We don't really want to live in the city - we'd prefer someplace more relaxing but still walking distance from 'stuff to do'.

I'm coming up for the weekend next weekend and we're going to drive around and look at neighborhoods, so any other suggestions for exact places to drive around would be great! Thanks

[fuzzyearlobes]

Parts of Bernal Heights might fit the bill as well.

[twins4lynn]

San Carlos is very nice, too!