graduate student looking for a place to live (San Francisco, Oakland: apartments, rent)

[MarkPharaoh]

Hi, I've lived in Eastern Pennsylvania for 20 years. I'm attending graduate school at USF next month, and I'm trying to figure out where to live.

I'm looking to stay in the $750-1,000 a month range (I know I'll need to share an apartment/house with roommates at this budget range). In the city, I've mainly been looking at the Sunset and Richmond areas. I've also been looking at the western part of Oakland and parts of Berkeley. Are these the areas I should be focused on? If not, any suggestions?

Also, since I'm coming from 3,000 miles away by car it may be an issue with many landlords/roommates to giving me the place without first meeting me. Do you think I will need to come a week early to search for apartments in person? If I do that, I guess I will need to stay at a residence club, any recommendations? Google reviews have been mixed for the few that my school recommended.

Thank you in advance!

[Malloric]

.: Cable Car Court Hotel :. (http://cablecarcourthotel.com/rooms.html - broken link) Not all that nice, but it's cheap.

I'd spend at least a week to find what part of the city fits for you. Unless you're more affluent than the average graduate student, and you're apartment budget seems to indicate that you aren't, you may want to double think the car in San Francisco.

[mayorhaggar]

I would look mainly at SF. North Oakland and Berkeley are cheaper than SF and would work except that riding BART to SF then transferring to Muni would be a long ride, probably over an hour, and Muni's light rail lines can be unpredictable. And I doubt you'd want to drive every day and spend a lot of money on the tolls, gas, and parking at UCSF.

The Richmond Dist. or Sunset Dist. in SF would work, though you could look at anywhere near the N-Judah, like around Duboce Park or Hayes Valley--they're a bit sunnier and less foggy than the Sunset/Richmond. Yes roommates will be around $700-900 anywhere in SF. Studios are mainly around $1000-1200 in good areas, sometimes you see ones for less than that but they are rare and are hard to get. Also look at places that are near the UCSF shuttles.

Finding a place quickly shouldn't be hard to do quickly, landlords and roommates generally move fast in terms of getting new tenants in and out. Maybe stay for a week at a decent hostel like the Green Tortoise and go to a lot of roommate apartment viewings. The main problem is that it can be really competitive to find roommates or an apartment, just be persistent, hopefully it's not that bad because the economy still sucks but during summer a lot of college graduates and college students move to SF and swarm apartment/roommate viewings.

If you were looking at Oakland, I would maybe look at the areas around Lake Merritt like Adam's Point or Cleveland Heights, you can get a 1br in Adam's Point for around $700-900, pretty cheap. Otherwise Rockridge or the Temescal would work and have studios for around $750-900, it's more expensive than Adam's Point for some reason, but still way cheap compared with SF.

[MarkPharaoh]

Thanks for the quick replies. The car is more or less mandatory. Just purchased it earlier in the year, will be traveling a lot during weekends to officiate soccer games, and I'll simply need to get out of a city and into the woods once in a while (I've lived on the top of a mountain most of my life).

Yea, on just playing with google maps with some apartment locations in Berkeley and Oakland I see how bad the commute is via MUNI/BART, 40-70 mins. Kinda stinks, but I'm use to commuting in my rural area (use to drive an hour for classes during my first two years of undergrad).

[04kL4nD]

If you have to have a car and you don't mind a commute, Oakland is probably the biggest bang for your buck. I'm a grad student in SF, and I have never really wanted to live in the city.

[Malloric]

Oakland would also get you a bit closer when you need to escape the bay. I mean there's the Golden Gate Recreation Area, but unless your idea of out in woods is tripping over people it doesn't much count.

[mayorhaggar]

a) again SF will fit your budget if you're living with roommates or luck into a cheap studio. Parking is a pain in the ass in a lot of places--in Hayes Valley it really sucks--but much of the Sunset District and Richmond District are pretty easy to park in, especially the further west you go. Again though it can be chilly, windy and foggy there, it can be around 55-60 out by the beach when it's 65-70 around Dolores Park and 75 in Oakland and 90-100 around Walnut Creek.

b) if you wanted to live somewhere like Oakland and wanted to drive to UCSF you could look into the casual carpool, during commute hours you'd pick up people in Oakland at designated stops then drop them off in downtown SF, then you can go drive out to UCSF. Once you have 3 people in your car you can use the carpool lanes which move a lot faster though the toll plaza than the regular lanes, and your toll goes down to $2.50 instead of $6. Though I think the cost of driving (or riding BART/Muni) would eat into the savings on rent from living in Oakland.

[MarkPharaoh]

All great replies, thanks! Yea, sometime tomorrow I'm going to do a spreadsheet to estimate my travel costs if I live in Oakland or Berkeley. Can't see it being worth the amount of travel time if I end up saving no more than $100/mo.

[04kL4nD]

consider when/how often your classes meet. mid morning/early afternoon/late evening? it's a lot easier to cross the bridge and the toll is less.

[jhonwiliams23]

hi Mark,
Its good idea, but your budget range only less. if you go for high range ie., above $1000 definitely you got a fine place to live. Preferable you can share your rent also with your classmates.