Moving to the Bay Area - Which Suburb to Choose? (San Francisco: rent, vacation home)

[RelocationCOVID]

I've recently been offered a transfer to the Bay Area (currently live on the East Coast), with a job offer in San Francisco, while my wife's company has an office in Mountain View. We're considering a budget of 3 million maximum, but the only thing we're a little confused about is which suburb we should choose. I have two kids (14 and 9- both high achievers), so would prefer good public schools which I've heard are prevalent in the Bay Area. I would prefer a community that is family-friendly, but more suburban than urban, while also being extremely safe and tight-knit. I'm also Asian-American, so I'd prefer a community thats at least 10% Asian or so, just so that we'd feel more comfortable, racially speaking. I don't think this should be a huge constraint given most of the region seems heavily Asian anyway. Lastly, I don't really mind a long commute and neither does my wife, but our maximum would be around an hour and a half of travel one-way.

Doing some basic research, I liked the Lamorinda area, Danville, San Ramon, and Pleasanton in the East Bay and parts of Fremont look good as well. Marin outside of Novato and San Rafael seems like an ideal place too, but I'm a little turned off by the fact that it's so overwhelmingly white and the public schools don't seem as good as those in the South Bay and Peninsula. In the South Bay I liked Saratoga, Los Gatos, Cupertino, Los Altos, Mountain View, and Palo Alto. On the Peninsula, Burlingame, San Carlos, Menlo Park, and San Mateo all seemed great to me as well. Clearly I can't really make up my mind, but this is pretty much as far as I can narrow my list down to.

I'd appreciate any help in knocking down this to a final five or so. Thanks!

[aslowdodge]

Based on what you posted, if you both need to be in the office, eliminate all but the peninsula. I grew up in the Bay Area and moved away 5 years ago, but still visit. All the areas would work out, but the commute is the deciding factor.
If you can do the commutes, southern peninsula like mountain view, Los Altos, Palo Alto are good choices too.
I don’t know how it is now, but the pressures in high schools like Palo Alto can be pretty brutal for the kids.

[tikkasf]

I 2nd the above respondent, look in the Peninsula area of the Bay Area. With a budget of $3 million for a home, you should be able to find something suitable in that area

[roadwarrior101]

Agreed in that you should consider how frequently you both need to commute. Previously, you'd definitely only want to live on the Peninsula, but post-COVID, are your companies going to be all/mostly remote? If so, your options will be more plentiful.

You have most of the communities nailed. I used to live in Mountain View and now live in Danville, so am familiar with both areas.

Peninsula/South Bay - I'd consider Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View and Cupertino (money will be most stretched in Palo Alto / Los Altos but you could afford a pretty nice place)
East Bay - All those cities you mentioned (LaMorinda area, Danville, San Ramon, Pleasanton) would fit the bill and you could get a very nice place in your price range.

[Ruth4Truth]

The outer East Bay wouldn't work for a commute to Mountain View, OP, unless her company operates commute shuttles, which some companies in Silicon Valley/Peninsula do. She could look into that. But the shorter the commute for both of you, the happier you'll be, so that's why people are recommending the area around Mountain View. You could include Menlo Park in your search, as well.

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

The outer East Bay wouldn't work for a commute to Mountain View, OP, unless her company operates commute shuttles, which some companies in Silicon Valley/Peninsula do. She could look into that. But the shorter the commute for both of you, the happier you'll be, so that's why people are recommending the area around Mountain View. You could include Menlo Park in your search, as well.

Not clear if the OP needs to go in all/most days. More and more tech companies are coming out and saying that they won't require anyone to be in the office, at all in the future. You could still go in if you have critical in-person meetings and work your schedule around commute times to avoid the worst of the rush. This is highly doable, especially if its not a daily commute.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

Not clear if the OP needs to go in all/most days. More and more tech companies are coming out and saying that they won't require anyone to be in the office, at all in the future. You could still go in if you have critical in-person meetings and work your schedule around commute times to avoid the worst of the rush. This is highly doable, especially if its not a daily commute.

Well, if neither of them need to be in the office, they could live at Tahoe if they wanted. We need more info from the OP, if that's the case. Is that what the relo inquiries on this sub-forum are coming to--telling people it doesn't matter where they live, just throw a dart at a map of CA, and move there?

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Well, if neither of them need to be in the office, they could live at Tahoe if they wanted. We need more info from the OP, if that's the case. Is that what the relo inquiries on this sub-forum are coming to--telling people it doesn't matter where they live, just throw a dart at a map of CA, and move there?

If it turns out that we don't need to be in the office post-COVID, my family and I may seriously consider leaving the Bay Area altogether. When combining the lower cost of living, less congestion and better overall quality of life, it does become compelling to look elsewhere.

We're taking a wait and see approach as we don't know yet how long COVID will last and how many companies will adopt this permanent remote approach (although more of them are moving in that direction daily). We're also looking possibly beyond California if we did the next move.

On the other hand, we may decide to stay here for our full time base and buy a vacation home somewhere by a lake or mountains, where we could spend the summer and rent out different times of the year.

[nobodysbusiness]

Mountain View, Cupertino, Saratoga.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

If it turns out that we don't need to be in the office post-COVID, my family and I may seriously consider leaving the Bay Area altogether. When combining the lower cost of living, less congestion and better overall quality of life, it does become compelling to look elsewhere.

We're taking a wait and see approach as we don't know yet how long COVID will last and how many companies will adopt this permanent remote approach (although more of them are moving in that direction daily). We're also looking possibly beyond California if we did the next move.

On the other hand, we may decide to stay here for our full time base and buy a vacation home somewhere by a lake or mountains, where we could spend the summer and rent out different times of the year.

I agree, that permanent work-from-home would be revolutionary, but I'm not sure if I'd trust it to be permanent. For ex., you never know when new management might come in, and decide they want people to put in office time at least a couple of. days/week, if not more. People move away, then find they're too far away to commute even on a limited basis. They can't move back, because the RE market has rocketed on past them.

OR, employers could decide, that if people no longer have to live in the. area, they won't need any more COL raises or whatever, because their COL just dropped.

Don't rush into anything. Or out of anything, as the case may be.