Family Friendly suburbs near Golden Gate Park.... (San Jose, San Francisco: apartment, rental)

[sashar]

I am looking at a job on Irving St near the Golden Gate park and am wondering about suburbs that are family friendly and relatively low cost ($250-$300,000 for a 4bdroom nice home). We had looked at the Brentwood and Mountain House areas (when I was looking in Dublin for a job) and LOVED them, house prices were perfect too, but they are too far for a job here. Any recommendations are appreciated! Thank you

[OakAve2OakLand]

Originally Posted by sashar

I am looking at a job on Irving St near the Golden Gate park and am wondering about suburbs that are family friendly and relatively low cost ($250-$300,000 for a 4bdroom nice home).

Wow, good luck with that one. This is the Bay Area you're asking about...you're going to have to go quite a ways out to find anything remotely like what you're describing (4BR, under $300k, decent area), and you're probably going to wind up with a horrendous commute.

This might be an overgeneralization, but I think you can forget about Marin and the Peninsula...which leaves you with East Bay. Possibly western Contra Costa county i.e Richmond, Pinole, El Sobrante. Again, the commute would be pretty rough if you're working near GGP, but maybe you could take the El Cerrito BART into the City.

[jade408]

There isn't really anywhere cheap near Golden Gate Park unfortunately. Maybe you can look for a cheaper rental in San Mateo, Redwood City or Foster City? Pacifica is also pretty affordable, but the weather is pretty gloomy. This would be an easy commute for you though.

[nr5667]

Originally Posted by sashar

I am looking at a job on Irving St near the Golden Gate park and am wondering about suburbs that are family friendly and relatively low cost ($250-$300,000 for a 4bdroom nice home). We had looked at the Brentwood and Mountain House areas (when I was looking in Dublin for a job) and LOVED them, house prices were perfect too, but they are too far for a job here. Any recommendations are appreciated! Thank you

Ouch, to put it in perspective, I'm in a 160,000 dollar 1 bedroom condo in San Jose (and that's on the affordable side of things, cheaper then that, and the neighborhoods become pretty sketchy), which is cheaper than San Francisco.

Does anywhere that cheap exist in S.F? My sister pays 2 grand a month for a 1 bedroom apartment, I think she paid about 1,700 when she lived on Oak St. where it's still park.

[mayorhaggar]

A typical house in SF, San Mateo County or Marin can go for $900,000 or so. Ouch indeed. I'd look into renting around Novato or northern San Mateo County but I don't think you'll see houses under $400,000. GG Park is really not convenient to the affordable parts of the Bay Area.

[OakAve2OakLand]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

A typical house in SF, San Mateo County or Marin can go for $900,000 or so. Ouch indeed. I'd look into renting around Novato or northern San Mateo County but I don't think you'll see houses under $400,000. GG Park is really not convenient to the affordable parts of the Bay Area.

Good points, but if he really wants to be a homeowner in the Bay Area, this is still possible in that budget in certain far outer areas right, like western CoCoCo?

It would be a big tradeoff though to deal with the daily commute...which would be what, from say, Pinole? 90 minutes each way by car? Maybe a little quicker on BART? (i.e. from El Cerrito) Maybe an off-hour commute is possible for the OP, which would make it a little less hellish. Just sayin' it's not like he HAS to rent...as everyone else here seems to be implying.

[jade408]

Well, GG Park is pretty annoying to get to from BART. The Muni ride from downtown via Muni car is about 20-30 minutes. Then you would need to add 10-15 minutes of walking (depending on where you are going). So from the middle of Oakland, it is an optimistic hour. In Western CC County (i.e. Pinole) you'd likely spend 90+ hours each way commuting. Traffic on 80 is pretty bad, so the trip to BART from Pinole to Richmond is likely a 15-20 minute endeavor.

It is also hard to decide which places are a good value right now. But Western CC beats Westernn San Joaquin in terms of access to job centers.

[etoile_filante]

I agree with those recommending Pinole/El Sobrante/Hercules. It shouldn't be too hard to find a house in that price range; though you will not have a nice commute it's infinitely better than trying it from Mountain House.

[mayorhaggar]

Pinole/Hercules/El Sobrante seem to be one of the only places with homes around $200k in a decent area within 90 minutes of SF, but how are the schools?

[gone down south]

Time to re-adjust your expectations. Unless you want to spend 4 hours a day in the car, it doesn't make sense for you to consider buying a house.