Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 04-25-2012, 05:56 PM
 
6 posts, read 12,003 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

Hello Everyone,

We (My Wife and I) are originally from INDIA and currently based out of Los Angeles, CA.
We have been in US for last 4 years and we will be moving to San Francisco Bay Area in 1 month, as I have accepted a Job Offer from a Company based in San Mateo, CA.

We are pretty new to the Bay Area and currently looking for Accommodation options and we would want to stay in an Apartment.
We have some queries / concerns about which localities we should target to stay in Bay Area and we have also listed our priorities below.
It would be great if you could take out time and respond with views and suggestions, as that could be very beneficial for us.

Priority# 1: Safety
We would definitely want to stay in a Safe Apartment / Community / Locality where we can be relaxed to roam around late nights and we need not worry about possibilities of theft / burglary or any other such activities. I know no one can guarantee to be a 100% safe place, but we would like to stay in safer areas.

Priority# 2: Apartment Condition

Good Maintenance and Services by Apartment. Preferably remodeled apartments with newer Kitchen appliances, free of mold, cockroaches, bugs etc. Our budget for Monthly Rent is around $1500 per month for a 1 BedRoom Apartment

Priority# 3: Commute Convenience
Distance from San Mateo (ideally not more than 30 mins drive). Close to Shopping / Grocery Stores and Public Transport / CALTRAIN

Based on the information, we have got, we have two options

1 - To stay closer to my Work place (San Mateo)
- In that case, I am planning to stay in San Mateo. I have been looking into apartments there, and liked the Scotchollow Apartment Homes (203 Laurie Meadows Drive, San Mateo, CA 94403)
But the rent there is like $1650 for a 1BR apt,
Anyone could suggest some other nice apartment communities with possible lesser monthly rent ?

2 - To stay far from Work place (San Mateo) and in a cheaper Apartment -
We chose either Sunnyvale or San Jose to stay as we may get much cheaper apartments for around $ 1400 monthly rent.

We were wondering if if it would be sensible to stay in a cheaper apartment in Sunnyvale ( ~ 25 miles from San Mateo) or San Jose ( ~ 35 miles from San Mateo) ?

But also not sure about how bad the traffic would be from Sunnyvale (or San Jose) to San Mateo during peak office time and how much time it could take ?

Also, it could happen that I may spend around $300 monthly extra on Gas (I would like to drive to Work) for commuting and then it may nullify the cheaper apartment cost in Sunnyvale (or San Jose) be more sensible for us to stay in San Mateo itself

So please advise if staying 30 - 40 miles away (Sunnyvale or San Jose) from San Mateo would be a wise decision, or we should plan to stay in San Mateo itself ?


I know, there are too many questions here. But I would really appreciate feedback for any of the above.
Any additional information is highly appreciated

Thanks in advance
VM
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 04-25-2012, 07:38 PM
 
3,244 posts, read 6,298,765 times
Reputation: 4924
Quote:
Originally Posted by vishucool View Post

So please advise if staying 30 - 40 miles away (Sunnyvale or San Jose) from San Mateo would be a wise decision, or we should plan to stay in San Mateo itself ?
The answer to this question depends on what you plan to do during the weekends and where your wife prefers on the weekdays.

As you have already probably figured out,San Mateo has only 1 or 2 authentic Indian restaurants. However it has the best downtown on the peninsula with a wide variety of Asian restaurants. Sunnyvale is the place for Indian groceries and restaurants. Will your wife prefer to stay there? Will you be driving to Sunnyvale on the weekends if you live in San Mateo?

On the other hand if you want to explore San Francisco on the weekends,San Mateo is much closer. Both San Mateo and Sunnyvale are excellent places to live. Living in San Jose will add a lot of traffic to your commute.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-25-2012, 07:45 PM
 
6 posts, read 12,003 times
Reputation: 10
Thanks capoeira for your response !

Well, my Wife would usually be busy in Job hunting during the Weekdays and hoping to get one soon so she may eventually get busy in Weekdays.

For Weekend, we would definitely like to visit places around as also wrap up our Grocery shopping etc.
When I checked, I saw around 10 Indian restaurants in San Mateo, and thought thats more than enough variety for us.

I was wondering how much the traffic time would be from Sunnyvale to San Mateo during rush office hours ? Someone suggested it may take 1 - 1.5 hours
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-25-2012, 08:09 PM
 
3,244 posts, read 6,298,765 times
Reputation: 4924
Quote:
Originally Posted by vishucool View Post
When I checked, I saw around 10 Indian restaurants in San Mateo, and thought thats more than enough variety for us.
(
Some of those are fake ones with dishes like Utappam Tacos! Dakshin is the only one I would go to in San Mateo. The real authentic ones are in Sunnyvale and Fremont.

San Mateo has great authentic Japanese and Chinese food. It also has a gourmet upscale market called Draeger's.


Quote:
Originally Posted by vishucool View Post
I was wondering how much the traffic time would be from Sunnyvale to San Mateo during rush office hours ? Someone suggested it may take 1 - 1.5 hours
It depends on the exact commute and how far from the freeways. 280 is much less crowded than the 101. Also the part of Sunnyvale by Bernardo Ave. will be much closer than the part by Lawrence Expy.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-26-2012, 11:03 AM
 
Location: SF Bay Area
13,520 posts, read 22,125,992 times
Reputation: 20235
I commute from San Mateo to the Sunnyvale/Santa Clara border and it's 20-25 minutes w/o traffic, 45-50 minutes in rush hour. I noticed that the other side of the freeway is no more congested than my side so I'd expect your commute time to be similar to mine.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:00 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top