Where to live for young Indian family close to San Francisco downtown? (San Jose: rent, credit)

[timsi]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Living 40 miles from your job is not nearly as easy as you think, and once you get into the City on CalTrain, there's a big chance you'll still need to catch a bus to get to your job location.

Thanks. We do have that in mind and hence, Berkeley seems to be on top of our list right now.
Job location is near Powell station. I think it's little over a mile from SF caltrain station.

[capoeira]

Originally Posted by timsi

Thanks. We do have that in mind and hence, Berkeley seems to be on top of our list right now.

Except Berkeley has a rather low Indian population at around 1.7%. Compare to 10% for Fremont and Sunnyvale and around 8% for Union City. Even peninsula towns like San Bruno and San Mateo have an Indian population over 2%.

[Fogseeker]

I would also suggest Millbrae. I’ve been living there for about two months now, and I enjoy it much more than I thought I would. We wanted to live in SF proper, but found a nice apartment on Craigslist for much less than we would have paid in SF. Millbrae has a walkable downtown with grocery stores and some small restaurants, easy proximity to nicer downtowns like Burlingame and San Mateo, and my new favorite discovery, the Crystal Springs Regional Trail. While it is a bit quiet for my taste, it has a combined BART/Caltrain station with a baby bullet to SF, so visiting more lively areas is easy. That said, we do plan to move to SF eventually. Millbrae is a nice place to be while scoping out the Bay Area though.

[timsi]

Originally Posted by capoeira

Even peninsula towns like San Bruno and San Mateo have an Indian population over 2%.

San Bruno and San Mateo are interesting on 2 accounts - I will likely have to visit San Mateo once or twice a week for something and they look a lot closer to the downtown.
How are these 2 towns otherwise viz a viz my other criterion?

Also - can you point me to where you're getting these %ages from.

thanks a lot.

[timsi]

Originally Posted by Fogseeker

I would also suggest Millbrae. I’ve been living there for about two months now, and I enjoy it much more than I thought I would. We wanted to live in SF proper, but found a nice apartment on Craigslist for much less than we would have paid in SF. Millbrae has a walkable downtown with grocery stores and some small restaurants, easy proximity to nicer downtowns like Burlingame and San Mateo, and my new favorite discovery, the Crystal Springs Regional Trail. While it is a bit quiet for my taste, it has a combined BART/Caltrain station with a baby bullet to SF, so visiting more lively areas is easy. That said, we do plan to move to SF eventually. Millbrae is a nice place to be while scoping out the Bay Area though.

That trail looks interesting.
Is there an Indian population in Millbrae?
it definitely looks closer than most others on my list.

[Seige]

Did you end up moving? I would love to hear on the neighborhood you chosed and how its been living there for you.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

If you want to be around other Indians, they're mostly in Fremont and the South Bay (Sunnydale especially), but those are definitely not within SF proper and the commute would be horrible. 3-4k for a BR in a nice area sounds about right, but honestly the public schools in SF are not the greatest. I'm sure others will chime in, but it sounds like you have conflicting wants/needs if you want to be right in the middle of SF.

Why would the commute be horrible? It's an easy commute from Fremont to Powell station. I think Fremont is a great suggestion!

[04kL4nD]

The OP initially stated wanting a commute time under 30 mins. It's about a 50 min BART ride from Fremont to SF, plus whatever time it'll take to get to the BART station. Sure it beats actually having to drive to the city, but it's not quick or all that convenient.

[treedroppings]

QUOTE:
3. Coming from Delhi, we are not really huge fans of 'super quiet' neighbourhoods and love a little bit of buzz around. In our recent visit, we saw Sunset District, San Mateo and San Jose and they appeared too quiet although, to be fair, we didn’t spend a lot of time in any of those... just an hour or so. //unquote


haha there is a part of East San Jose by Evergreen High School with a huge Indian community including a 'Sudwara' Sikh temple, and a nice secluded 'town circle' thingie 2miles away from the temple with shops.
There is also 'Little Saigon' with some cafes not far away. Then there is the Oakridge Mall area in SSan Jose with the 'buzz' ! Haven't lived there, but looks noisy and well lit!!

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by timsi

That trail looks interesting.
Is there an Indian population in Millbrae
it definitely looks closer than most others on my list.

Millbrae tends to be more Chinese but there are some Indian people, though not as much as the South Bay/Fremont.