Considering move to the San Francisco area - looking for nearby place to live (Oakland: how much)

[beastieboys]

Hello,

I'm being offered a position at a company in downtown San Francisco. Their location is less than five minutes walk from a BART stop, and if I choose to take the job I'd like to find a place to live that will be a relatively convenient commute.

I'm not absolutely set on living in the city versus somewhere nearby, and I'd like opinions on the latter at this point.

I expect that the pay will be quite good, but will not make up for the difference in cost between Seattle where I am now, and San Francisco, so we'll probably be living a little poorer, so to speak, unless we can find the right area and move into a smaller place than we have now.

Any thoughts on a very BART accessible (by foot, perhaps 1.5 miles walk) location that is:
1. very safe - my fiance is coming with, and I want her to feel very safe
2. good quality of life for the price - in particular walkable to decent grocery story, coffee shop, etc., reasonably quiet, reasonably picturesque, etc.

We'd like to give up one if not both cars, so being able to get around on BART and by other means in a convenient manner is essential.

One place I was considering is Berkeley, but it's not clear to me how much less expensive it will be. It looks like from downtown Berkeley to downtown San Francisco on BART is around 22 minutes, which is better than my short commute in Seattle now. Having only been to Berkeley once, I very much liked it, but it's been 15 years and I was only there for a day, so...

Any other suggestions for areas that would be similarly close (lets say no more than 30 minutes mechanized travel to the Embarcadero BART stop), with no more than 15 minutes walk to a BART station?

I have a nephew going to school out on the east side, and I know if I take this position one future co-worker is out there is well (he says 40 minutes by BART). It seems too rural for what I'm looking for (very walkable area), but perhaps not.

Anyway, just starting the research, and I'll need to have a good idea of what it's going to cost us to live there, so I'm looking forward to whatever advice you might have.

[CAMademoiselle]

Parts of Berkeley are cheaper than San Francisco. Also, there is casual carpool and buses that will let you off in the city, which are pretty fast too (from my understanding), so you don't necessarily need to be right next to a BART station to make commuting work for you.

I also wouldn't close out the idea of the city. We live in the city because with the money we would save on rent, we would end up paying that in BART fare and bridge toll. And, the plus is I work downtown and it takes me like 5 minutes to walk to the Muni station and 10 minutes or less to get to work! There are many areas in the city (The Mission, Hayes Valley, Lower Haight, Noe Valley, Glenn Park) that are convenient to BART and/or Muni underground. A plus for living in the city is that if you take BART within the city, you can use your bus pass, which runs like $45 a month.

I would just set my maximum budget that I wanted to spend, and just check out Craig's List, so that you get an idea of what is available in your price range.

HTH

[artemis78]

Berkeley and nearby Oakland are both cheaper than the equivalently nice areas of SF for what you get. Tradeoff, of course, is that you have a commute (but if you're working downtown, it's not too bad). Don't forget, too, that BART and the buses are pricey---you'll spend ~$7 a day commuting from the East Bay versus ~$3 in the city if you take MUNI, so factor that in when you compare prices. (However, I know lots of East Bay people whose transbay commutes are shorter than their co-workers' MUNI commutes to the further-out SF neighborhoods!) There is also casual carpool, as someone mentioned above, but that really only works going into the city (driver picks up passengers, and carpools get to go in a special lane around the toll). But hey, it's some savings.

Without knowing what your budget is or what else you want in a neighborhood, you might look at Elmwood (Berkeley neighborhood), Rockridge (Oakland neighborhood), and North Berkeley, which are all pretty accessible to transit and safe, easy places to go car-less. Rockridge is probably the best as far as access (and has the bonus of being on the direct BART line from the city after commute hours), but is also the most expensive---you get what you pay for, so to speak. Central Berkeley has some potential, but tends to be student-y so you'd have to be okay with that. Good luck with the move!