Thinking of moving to Brentwood - any recommendations for safe areas? (Concord: condos, houses)

[lchiu7]

My wife and I are thinking of moving to Brentwood from LA as our daughter has found a job in the Bay Area. She won't be living with us(!) so commute to SF is not an concern.

I might do some part time IT consulting and my wife might work locally work but nothing that requires commuting. We would like 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms and have about $470K to spend so Brentwood came up in our search. Antioch also came up but friends told us to avoid that area.

We have friends in San Ramon and would ideally like to live near them but all those areas (San Ramon, Pleasanton, Dublin, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill) are outside our price range. That is why we are looking in the East Bay rather than South Bay. Plus we used to live in WC a few years ago and liked the East Bay.

A search on Trulia came up with some houses in our price range all quite modern. The drive to San Ramon would be 50 minutes (off peak probably via H4 and then 680) and that is doable once a week or fortnight.

Can folks offer some thoughts on living in Brentwood, quality of life, safety etc. The Trulia listings also provide High School stats and while we have no children requiring High School, the academic records for some of the schools are quite good which might suggest the area is reasonable. For example one High School which turned up was Heritage High School which has a rating of 8/10.

If not Brentwood are there any other areas in that budget that within 50 minutes from San Ramon?

Thanks

[sav858]

Concord and Martinez are about half the distance to San Ramon compared to Brentwood (20 minutes). You can get a home in that price range in those cities, although it won't be nearly as new, large, or possibly updated as a similarly priced home in Brentwood.

[ccm123]

I've heard good things about Discovery Bay also. Benicia would be another place to look. But, Brentwood is a solid choice with your criteria.

[lchiu7]

Thanks for all the replies.

I did look at Concord and Martinez but as noted, the houses with our size requirements were older (and who knows what maintenance costs there could be).

It's reassuring that the generally Brentwood would meet our needs. Certainly at the moment all I have to go by are house photos and Google Street views which give a good impression.

I did find a couple of 3 bed/2 bath in Pleasant Hill but they were condos with only one assigned parking and I don't like Homeowner dues.

Plus in some places of Brentwood a slightly quicker way to get to the Tri-Valley area (especially Pleasanton/Dublin) is via Vasco Rd to 580 which looked like a decent road.

[ketch89]

Vasco is subject to horrible backups, all the time - when there's a collision you're trapped.

[lchiu7]

Originally Posted by ketch89

Vasco is subject to horrible backups, all the time - when there's a collision you're trapped.

Interesting. I guess do a traffic check first and if it's looking bad then H4 and 680. I would only be planning to do the commute perhaps once a week and then off peak/weekends so that might not be so bad.