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Old 10-29-2011, 10:31 PM
 
Location: San Mateo, Granite Bay or Pasadena
23 posts, read 35,130 times
Reputation: 65

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Someone mentioned Livermore; definitely worth a look. You're looking at about 45 minutes to SF or Mountain View. Traffic used to be hellish along I-580, but has been significantly improved in the Pleasanton-Livermore corridor, with EB I-580 being widened from 4 mainline lanes to 4 mainline + 1 HOV + 1 auxiliary lane.

Here's a Google Streetview link, showing off the downtown area in Livermore. Have a look around the area. Livermore, CA - Google Maps
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Old 10-31-2011, 04:53 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
1,148 posts, read 2,983,973 times
Reputation: 857
Expand your budget by 50k and you could find something in Half Moon Bay

cute downtown
nice people/community
beach nearby
30 miles to SF City and Mountain View
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Old 11-01-2011, 02:46 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,741,222 times
Reputation: 28561
Quote:
Originally Posted by mini_cute View Post
Expand your budget by 50k and you could find something in Half Moon Bay

cute downtown
nice people/community
beach nearby
30 miles to SF City and Mountain View
Hmm, but there is only one road out of Half Moon Bay. Not sure if the commute will be easy. 92 can be packed!
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Old 11-02-2011, 12:02 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
1,148 posts, read 2,983,973 times
Reputation: 857
Quote:
Originally Posted by jade408 View Post
Hmm, but there is only one road out of Half Moon Bay. Not sure if the commute will be easy. 92 can be packed!

There is also the 1 out of HMB. But yes, the roads can be packed during rush hour- but how would that be different from living anywhere else on the peninsula or east bay unless the poster was able to live right smack in SF or Mtn View and therefore not have to commute. Traffic on the peninsula and east bay is not pretty.
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Old 11-02-2011, 12:31 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,741,222 times
Reputation: 28561
Quote:
Originally Posted by mini_cute View Post
There is also the 1 out of HMB. But yes, the roads can be packed during rush hour- but how would that be different from living anywhere else on the peninsula or east bay unless the poster was able to live right smack in SF or Mtn View and therefore not have to commute. Traffic on the peninsula and east bay is not pretty.
More roads. You can always take 101 or 280 from the Peninsula or 880 or 680 or any of the different bridges from the east bay. Remember the Devil's slide landslide a couple of years ago that blocked Highway 1? It was closed for at least 6 months, and required lengthy detours.

I personally do not like having only one road out of town. (Which is why I also hate Brentwood and Antioch.) Even in Lamorinda, you can always detour to San Pablo Dam Road/San Pablo if there was a problem with the Tunnel. Or head 680 > 580 to get out. Half Moon Bay, not so much.
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Old 11-02-2011, 04:31 PM
 
96 posts, read 299,098 times
Reputation: 107
You're not going to find that much space for that price within an hour of San Francisco unless you live somewhere pretty sketchy. It might be possible to get that much space in Morgan Hill, which is 45 minutes to an hour and a half from Mountain View depending on traffic, though you won't have much of a downtown. Given that the space just isn't going to happen, you can buy something smaller in San Rafael, cheaper in Novato, in sketchier parts of Berkeley, in a lot of Oakland or possibly near San Mateo or Redwood City.

I also don't see getting from Livermore to either San Francisco or Mountain View in anything near an hour unless you leave at 6:00 AM.
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Old 11-04-2011, 11:00 PM
 
457 posts, read 1,178,862 times
Reputation: 324
You may not be able to find a dream house but a good area for that price. I tend to think that Livermore, Dublin, Pleasanton are similar to Folsom, Roseville, Rocklin, EDH in quality of life. I think that should be your starting point. Start in the area of 680 in Walnut Creek on South as far as Pleasanton. The most notable downtown's in these cities are Walnut Creek, Pleasanton and Livermore. I have heard that Danville has one but I have never been to it for comparison.

If you want to go north, Petaluma seems to sometimes be a pretty good bang for your buck with a downtown and decent schools.

Quote:
Originally Posted by zebra01 View Post
Hey Crew -
My husband and I are looking for a house within an hour of downtown SF or an hour of Mountain View (very different directions I know), but my criteria may be hard to find, so we are willing to look in a large area. I grew up in El Dorado Hills, CA and would love to move back, but job opportunities aren't as good as the Bay Area. We are moving from Manhattan Beach in Southern California.

Currently, I am thinking Sonoma, but I am not sure this is really the best option. Going to go visit sometime soon and would love more cities to add to the list to visit!

Dream List:
- 2,000 sq ft home under $550K
- Cute downtown
- Nice people, obviously
- Gated communities are a plus

Places that we like but are too expensive:
- Moraga
- Corte Madera
- Mill Valley
- Palo Alto
- El Dorado Hills (near Sacramento, but way to far from SF)

Thanks for reading this!

*** CLARIFICATION***
We would only be communing to 1 - either SF OR Mountain View as our jobs would allow us to work in either location.
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Old 11-10-2011, 02:11 PM
 
3 posts, read 5,175 times
Reputation: 10
Thank you all so much for all this wonderful insight!!!! Everyone is so helpful in giving us new areas to consider! Thank you!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!!
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