Moving to Bay Area - Help with East Bay real estate search (from Boston, Chicago before) (San Francisco: sale, renting)

[firefly333]

Hello all,

Thank you so much for reading this and for your help. I am moving to the Bay area for a job in Mission Bay to begin at the end of summer. My family is my husband, 20 month old daughter, and myself (expecting baby #2 in 3 months). I am looking for some advice with choosing a place to live. We are 35 and 37 and really are ready to finally purchase our first home (have been renting for the past 12 years!). We are from Chicago and lived downtown there and moved to Boston for our jobs/training for 3 years. We are very familiar with traffic and city life. My commute in Chicago could be anywhere from 30 min at 5:30 AM to 3 hours for 47 blocks at 5 PM on a Friday in the summer.

I will be working in Mission Bay, and as of now my husband works from home. He is in the IT industry and telecommutes right now. We do not want to live in the city - we both would like to have a yard and trees and great public schools for our children. We have been interested in the Orinda neighborhood, as we love the larger lots there and the natural beauty and love that the schools are well rated. We are both enthusiastic outdoor hikers, and I horseback ride. We would love to hear any insider input on thoughts about this neighborhood vs. other nearby areas.

We have visited this area and have been checking commute times on Waze (estimated between 39 min early AM to 1 hour and 10 min at peak evening commute hours). Some days I will need to be at work by 6 AM and other days I can arrive as late as 9 AM (variable schedule). Coming home likely won't leave until 6 PM. I will likely drive in as I can have odd and variable hours with my job. I did see what traffic looks like on a Friday afternoon. It took me (leaving at 4:30 PM about 1 hr 15 minutes to get to Orinda from Mission Bay). I would not likely ever leave at this time, I would likely leave around 6 PM to 6:30 PM. Do these seem like accurate time estimates for the commute - or should I expect longer?

Any other areas we should look at? We did think about the Marin area as well, but it seems the commute there is just as long and the homes are perhaps pricier and with less land. We are almost completely priced out of the San Mateo area for what we are looking for (1700+ sq feet with backyard and are fine with fixer upper).

Would love any thoughts. Thank you in advance!

[jade408]

Pro day os great and also look at neighboring Lafayette. Alameda is a little further from hikes but is family friendly and walkable. There is a beach but not for swimming.

[firefly333]

Bump

[clongirl]

Friday traffic leaving San Francisco is hideous no matter where one lives. So yeah--I imagine that your estimate is fairly accurate. To avoid bad traffic, my husband often waits to leave a bit later from work--like after 6 if he's driving out. if he drives in, he leaves later in the morning--after 9. He'll also do a casual carpool (pickup spots outside of the BART Stations) which allows him to use the faster carpool lanes.

Orinda is really nice--also look at Lafayette and Alameda as Jade mentioned. Moraga is also similar, but farther from the freeway entrances-lots of horseback/hiking/outdoor stuff in these areas. Also, Pleasant Hill and on the Martinez border are also very good for that semi-rural/country feel with houses on big lots.

I'd skip Marin. it's just too far from your work to make it practical, imo.

[Yellow buttercup]

Orinda / Moraga /Lafayette are all really nice areas that would fit your needs. The three cities share a high school district (Acalanes). All the schools are very good, and the district does allow transfers among all 3 high schools. The area has fantastic schools, small-town feel, has lots of walking paths and horse stables nearby. Walnut Creek is also a great area, but it's a little bit further out. Alameda is also nice, but the residents haven't been as supportive of school bonds and school taxes so the long term health of the school system might not be as strong as LaMorinda.

Traffic on the local streets in LaMorinda can be heavy during commute times. Your estimates are about right to get to the freeway off ramp in Orinda. Depending on where you find a house, it might be another 10-30 minutes to get to your house.

Housing stock is very, very tight in the LaMorinda area. Houses go for 20% or more over the asking price. The final sale price is public knowledge, so you might look up final sale prices to understand housing costs.

Good luck! The LaMorinda area is a very nice area to live.

[roadwarrior101]

Both Orinda and Lafayette are very nice and easily BART accessible, with great schools. Also, look at Walnut Creeek, Danville and San Ramon. You'll have to drive a little bit from Danville or San Ramon to a BART station, but not more than 15 minutes.


Speaking of which, why wouldn't you just take BART every day? Mission Bay can be reached from a BART station by a 20-30 minute walk or Muni transfer. I think that would be much much less stressful than driving into the city every day.

[jk88cal]

I haven't used Waze in 3 years. When I used it before, the times were way off. Waze always estimate my commute time to be 20-30 minutes, where I typically spend 45 minutes.

I do use Google maps now and I find it relative accurate. I believe Google maps use real-time traffic input from Waze.

I don't drive this route. But here is my general observation of peninsula traffic:
- Weekday 6-7am has virtually no slowdown.
- After 9am (even with car pool lane opening up), the traffic doesn't get any better for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Friday is the lightest traffic day of the week. So if your commute on Friday 4:30pm is 1:15, then typical work week 6pm will be worse.

[Chuck5000]

I don't think anywhere in LaMorinda near BART that is not in a poor location (ie on main road, small lot, etc) will cost any less than what you'd get in the San Mateo area with good schools. Right now I don't see anything in SM with 1700 sq feet, a yard here in a good district for less than 1.4 to 1.6. I.e., I think you are priced out of Lamorinda for the amenities you desire if you're priced out of San Mateo. You could consider a town house in Moraga, maybe. Or go out to Concord.

If you both have significant upside in your careers, IMO you could do the move. If you don't, or if you don't want to move further out and have longer commutes to get the home/lot/physical environment you want, then the Bay Area is likely to disappoint you. You will feel financial pressure and have to make many compromises that would basically drop you down 3 tiers.

Re: Google Maps traffic estimates, my recent experience is that they are pretty good as guides, but frequently understate the commutes on bad days. I had days where I was told the drive would be 42 minutes, and it wound up being 60. I think you would be in for a lot of hairy commutes given what you wrote.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Chuck5000

I don't think anywhere in LaMorinda near BART that is not in a poor location (ie on main road, small lot, etc) will cost any less than what you'd get in the San Mateo area with good schools. Right now I don't see anything in SM with 1700 sq feet, a yard here in a good district for less than 1.4 to 1.6. I.e., I think you are priced out of Lamorinda for the amenities you desire if you're priced out of San Mateo. You could consider a town house in Moraga, maybe. Or go out to Concord.

Lamorinda is significantly cheaper per square foot than San Mateo. Plenty of homes over 1,700 sq ft for less than $1.6 million in the Lamorinda area.

[Chuck5000]

no kidding? that is great. Can one get a 1700 sq foot with a yard, nice block, 6000 sq foot lot, trees, etc, within 5 or 10 min drive of BART for less than 1.4m? Because if so, I'm putting it back on my list.

Last time I looked there seriously, the late 2000s, you could get something nice for 750k, haha.