Livermore/Pleasanton relocation with a family? (San Jose, San Francisco: rental market, house, employment)

[RachelAC]

Hello all! Looking for some advice and suggestions regarding a potential relocation from the Chicago suburbs to Pleasanton / Livermore.

I currently work remote for a company based out of San Leandro. I was offered a new position with the same company but it would require me being on-site. The company will pay for my relocation expenses. Our plan is to rent a house (3 bedrooms at minimum).

I absolutely love the bay area and would have no second thoughts about uprooting my family (3 school aged children - ages 5, 9 and 13) except it's so dang expensive. After doing quite a bit of research, I stumbled upon Livermore and Pleasanton. Both look like nice communities, and the housing is much more affordable than some of the other areas I have seen (Livermore even more so). The schools also seem good for the area (Pleasanton seems to win on this note).

What I'm really particular about is finding a family-oriented area with good schools and programs for kids (my kids are all pretty wrapped up in their activities - competitive cheer, football, hockey and dance).

So my main questions are - Pleasanton or Livermore? Should I look into any other towns that I may have missed? Is moving to the bay area with a family of 5 with a salary of $150k even something worth considering?

[Fueler]

depending on your schedule, be prepared to spend 1.5-2 hrs on the road each direction everyday.

[Bisaro TMF]

Yeah it's only like a 25 mile commute but the traffic turns it into a 2 hour commute each way. Horrible congestion leaving both area's.

[Chuck5000]

Although those are nice suburban towns, for a family of 5, 150k, is in my opinion not close to being worth relocating to the Bay Area - unless you're confident you can grow that to 225k+ soon (more if you want to go to inner core). And also, not worth it unless you can be sure that future employment will also be within commuting distance of that area, should you buy there - it is at the edge of the region, and very long time to get to the core job centers. The other option, if you do move and you're stuck more or less at that income level, is to just accept being a permanent renter.

You can do the math on purchasing a home - if you have solid Chicago area middle class surburban standards, I can't see spending below 800k. That probably buys you what you can get in Chicago area for 400k or so (I'm guessing). And if you wanted to be within commuting range of either Santa Clara cty/San Jose or San Francisco, you'd be looking at 1m to 1.5m+ (depending on location) for an adequate (not awesome) 3 bed/2bath home.

You will see that Bay Area suburbs with good school systems are relatively uncommon, which is a big factor in prices.

The Bay Area has become a place that is not worth relocating to except only in very high-pay situations, unfortunately.

[sav858]

Pleasanton for the shorter commute, traffic on 580 is pretty brutal and some of the worst in the Bay Area. I'd also look into San Ramon and Dublin.

Do you ever plan on purchasing a home? If so that salary probably won't get you want you want in those communities unless you have a sizable down payment.

[Fueler]

Originally Posted by sav858

Pleasanton for the shorter commute, traffic on 580 is pretty brutal and some of the worst in the Bay Area. I'd also look into San Ramon and Dublin.

Do you ever plan on purchasing a home? If so that salary probably won't get you want you want in those communities unless you have a sizable down payment.

renting a house in those areas you listed on a $150k/yr salery with 5 would not be fun AT all.

[Chuck5000]

Correction: I should have said "And if you wanted to be within CLOSER (LESS THAN 45 MINUTES TOTAL COMMUTE) commuting range of either Santa Clara cty/San Jose or San Francisco, you'd be looking at 1m to 1.5m+ (depending on location) for an adequate (not awesome) 3 bed/2bath home."

You can buy for 800 or 900k and be within 60-70 minutes total commute of SF on BART, that is possible. If you keep working in Contra Costa county forever, you probably have some other options that could push you into the 700s, although your drive could be long. But you get the point, you'd still be gettng a place that needs a lot of work, is small, small lot (typical of California, actually), etc.

You might find some school districts in San Leandro that are good enough. You could look at San Lorenzo, which is part of SL. There is Castro Valley, but it's close price-wise to San Ramon and considered less-nice i.e. more economically mixed. If you can come up with money for private school (not cheap) other parts of the inner East Bay could become do-able, even Berkeley or Oakland. I really don't know where the private schools are. But overall, the price pressures here are really tough on families. We feel it.

[RachelAC]

Thanks so much for your responses! I truly appreciate it. The 150k would be my salary alone. I didn't take into account for my husband, who would be actively seeking employment once we moved to the area. Once he found work, we would be at about 225k a year or so, give or take. He's a maintenance mechanic, not sure what the salaries for that line of work out that way are so I'm using his current salary as a guide right now. Hoping there would be some cost of living increase but not holding my breath I want to be realistic that it may take him some time to find something and we may have to live off my salary alone for a few months.

We currently own our home here in the Chicago burbs. If we were to move forward, I would rent it out (the rental market in my area is booming right now). This would allow us a fall back if we decided we hated it out there and wanted to come home. If we love it, well, then we sell and hopefully purchase something in Cal at some point.

I'm just concerned, like you said, about the affordability. We are pretty middle class here in the northern suburbs of Chicago. I wouldn't necessarily say we are entirely COMFORTABLE but we make do and my kids are happy here I would hate to move and struggle financially just for the sake of getting out of Chicago.

San Leandro is not an option for us. I have spent enough time in that town to know that it's not in line with what we are looking for (I hope that doesn't offend anyone). If I could afford Berkeley, I would be there in a heartbeat

[Chuck5000]

I think if you are over 225k, with potential for earning more, and you restrict yourself to the far East Bay, you can do this. But is there a career upside for you? You would probably not, even at 275k, be improving your lifestyle (home size, access to schools for your kids, etc) outside of weather. But really, unless you had relatives here, or had growth opportunities here that you had nowhere else in the US, or are secretly a passionate skiier, I don't see the rationale for moving here. I see queries here all the time that make no sense to me. People who want to move here on, say, 150k in income, who think they can come close to their life choices outside of the Bay Area.

With the money you save, you could take awesome, high-end vacations to california or the US west regularly, or maybe even plot to retire somewhere outside of IL. Maybe in the mountains in California, which is much less than the coast.

I would not be able to move here today as I did in 2003. I know countless people for whom that story is the same. The San Francisco Bay Area is full of people who wouldn't have a prayer of being able to buy the homes they own today that they bought a generation ago.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

If the OP could manage a BART commute it may lessen the sting.