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 12-06-2007, 11:13 AM
 
3 posts, read 6,744 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

I have a job offer in Cupertino, great opportunity for my career. I currently live in Austin and understand my current mortgage payment will be as much as renting a space 1/3 the space in the bay area. Using 2K for rent, my overall pay will be -6K a year less, or break even with the pay increase they offered me. So the tradeoff I would be making, is renting versus owning to keep current level of savings / living standard. I am engaged, but will be here on my own for at least a year. So I don’t need much space, but would like to get a garage as I have a motorcycle and tools that I would like to put in it. (Otherwise a nearby storage facility….)

I do think that I would like to get a home, but will first need to sell my house in Austin and get the vibe of where I want to live there. I think ultimately, I will live in the south bay, reasonably close to work. But an idea that I had was to live in San Francisco for 6-9 months. The company I will work for has a free shuttle between San Francisco and Cupertino, that takes anywhere from 1.2 - 1.5 hours each way. I think that this would wear on me if it was the more than a year, but I am thinking when else will I get a chance to live in a place a cool as San Francisco. On the weekends I would check out other neighborhood to try to get their vibe prior to focusing a search on a house near work. And if the shuttle is not as bad as I imagine, then maybe I focus on staying in SF.

So is this ambitious, am I setting up to kill myself living so far from work, and then driving south on the weekends to figure out where I will utilizable live. Or is this a great opportunity to live in SF, and sacrifices should be made. Anyone else do the commute on a bus shuttle have any insight.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 12-06-2007, 02:21 PM
 
Location: San Jose, CA
7,688 posts, read 29,156,794 times
Reputation: 3631
Free shuttle from SAN FRANCISCO to Cupertino?? I've never heard of anything like that in my life. That's totally crazy, and you should definitely take advantage of it. An hour on the bus is not the punishment you would think it is. Also, without that benefit it would be almost impossible to span those two points on public transit, because Santa Clara VTA connections from Caltrain are very spotty and limited.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2007, 02:44 PM
 
3 posts, read 6,744 times
Reputation: 10
I was excited when I heard about it.
MacNN | Apple workers get shuttle service, car wash

They have three routes, so I will have to try to find housing on one of those. Has anyone one this board used it?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2007, 02:46 PM
 
Location: Northern California
3,722 posts, read 14,725,748 times
Reputation: 1962
It's about 50 miles ONE way between Cupertino and SF. You'll spend a lot of time on the road. I say live in Cupertino or surrounding area and visit SF on your free time. Cupertino and area are nice middle class suburban areas with warmer weather than in SF. Also gas is now over $3.50/gal and may be $4 by next summer.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2007, 02:50 PM
 
Location: San Jose, CA
7,688 posts, read 29,156,794 times
Reputation: 3631
So you have the choice of San Francisco, Daly City, or Fremont for the shuttles.. between the three, I'd choose SF in a heartbeat. I wonder what parts of the city they're covering, though.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2007, 03:01 PM
 
Location: San Francisco; NYC;
146 posts, read 643,666 times
Reputation: 31
As far as the free shuttle.

My company provides free shuttle San Francisco to Santa Clara (with WIFI). I did it for 3 yrs, but can't do it anymore. It's still spending too much on the road.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2007, 03:06 PM
 
3 posts, read 6,744 times
Reputation: 10
The three routes cover - Van Ness / Mission, Divisadero/Castro and 19th Avenue. With my limited research of the stops I should be able to find a place within a few blocks of the stops. Any advise where to look for less than 2K rents with a one car garage.

[color=black]I think I will ultimately end up in the south bay because I don't want to count on this service always being there and also I would like a house with a back yard once my finance gets here (for her dog.) Are there any affordable townhouses in SF?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2007, 04:41 PM
 
175 posts, read 731,408 times
Reputation: 62
If you can catch up on work and reading on the free shuttle, then it wouldn't be so bad. Could be an efficient use of one's time.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-06-2007, 08:54 PM
 
Location: San Jose, CA
7,688 posts, read 29,156,794 times
Reputation: 3631
Pretty much everything IS a townhouse in San Francisco. Detached single-family homes are few and far between because when the city was built out, the developers were acutely aware of the high demand and constricted amount of real estate.

Of those, the 19th Avenue corridor (Sunset district) has the most reasonable rents and is most likely to net you a real garage.
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

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:09 AM.

© 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