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Old 05-07-2013, 06:59 AM
 
765 posts, read 2,439,996 times
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Quote:
Also, will a salary of 80k in the Bay area allow me to have chance to save up a little?
If you are trying to save money and purchase a car - take the advice of the previous posters and look to rent a room.
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Old 05-07-2013, 08:41 AM
 
38 posts, read 137,178 times
Reputation: 27
Quote:
So, I've been browsing through the forum and found some posts stating that East Bay could offer me something with lower price range. Is that true? If so, which cities/towns are recommended?
If you want a low commute, I wouldn't recommend it. Traffic around here is pretty terrible in general, and I think that the East Bay into South Bay commute is one of the worse ones. It probably depends on what part of Santa Clara you're trying to get to.

You mentioned that you like bicycling, you might want to check out this map to see where the bike lanes go: http://www.vta.org/schedules/VTA_Bike_Map.pdf , in case you were interested in doing any bike commuting. If you're close enough it's probably faster than driving

Public transport is pretty miserable in my opinion, unless you have no other option. You can usually get where you need to go eventually, but I would generally guess it will take 5x longer to get anywhere than you could with a car.
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Old 05-07-2013, 09:56 AM
 
1,696 posts, read 2,859,540 times
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Hey guys, would it kill everyone in here to suggest to the OP that they could try looking in San Jose for housing?

It's still slightly cheaper here in San Jose than the other armpit towns you guys mentioned...oops I mean small cities.
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Old 05-07-2013, 10:06 AM
 
1,696 posts, read 2,859,540 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gone down south View Post
The issue is going to be that anywhere remotely near your work is going to be a fairly boring suburb. There are small downtowns all up and down the area, but the biggest is maybe 6 or 7 blocks and most are barely 4 blocks long and shut down early.

You're going to want to go to San Francisco for any kind of energy and young crowds. The question is do you want to sacrifice 2+ hours every day commuting, or live close to work and spend those 2+ hours going up to the SF on weekends.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigdumbgod View Post
The area around Santa Clara University has some youthful energy for the obvious reasons (Neto's actually ain't a bad live music venue/bar, right across the street from Franklin Square). Got Earthquakes games, too + The Hut. SF is a 45-minute drive up 280, which is quite nice, or Santa Clara has an ever-expanding train station that has a CalTrain that will take you up to SF
Replaced "the City" to "SF" in BOLD Fixed it for you guys. I know, just a slip of the tongue I'm sure, no biggie

Quote:
Originally Posted by Haruu View Post

Also, will a salary of 80k in the Bay area allow me to have chance to save up a little?
Yes. This salary would actually enable you to live pretty well and to save up, if you are frugal and don't spend like a nutcase.

I suggest you look into studios instead of 1br. You're young. You aren't going to be home most of the time. It should be a place to rest and have privacy. A studio is good enough for that. Get rid of junks you don't use, learn to lessen your belongings and only have what you need

If you live anywhere outside of SF, I would suggest getting a used car like others have suggested. If you live in SF, you could possibly save on having a car. Though, when you need to go out you would have to hitch rides from your friends who do have cars.

Your friends won't take too kindly to having to give rides to someone who makes 80k/year You'll be known as a cheap-ass in some circles. I had some friends in SF that were exactly that. Needless to say, it got old fast.
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Old 05-07-2013, 12:55 PM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
6,819 posts, read 9,050,477 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bobby_guz_man View Post
Hey guys, would it kill everyone in here to suggest to the OP that they could try looking in San Jose for housing?

It's still slightly cheaper here in San Jose than the other armpit towns you guys mentioned...oops I mean small cities.
Hmm. I thought this was the SF/East Bay forum. Don't be so cocky. A lot of folks in SF think San Jose is an armpit town, and I tend to agree, even though I don' t like the SF arrogance.

OP, $80K is not a bad salary but you have to make an effort to save money. When you add up car insurance, rent, Starbucks, lunch, it gets tough to save anything. It's not impossible though if you try.
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Old 05-07-2013, 04:03 PM
 
1,696 posts, read 2,859,540 times
Reputation: 1110
Uhhh...this is the San Jose forum dude...freakin idiot...

Here's the link to the SF-East Bay forum, just in case you couldn't find it....

//www.city-data.com/forum/san-francisco-oakland/

Have fun over there, North Carolina person
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Old 05-08-2013, 11:04 PM
 
1,658 posts, read 3,546,477 times
Reputation: 1715
Quote:
Originally Posted by zitsky View Post
Hmm. I thought this was the SF/East Bay forum. Don't be so cocky. A lot of folks in SF think San Jose is an armpit town, and I tend to agree, even though I don' t like the SF arrogance.
Zitsky from North Carolina going into the San Jose forum telling the locals it's the San Francisco forum, and then making an arrogant comment about SJ immediately followed by saying that he doesn't like arrogance.

The CD-forum's biggest "Fail" post of the year, so far.
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Old 05-09-2013, 01:29 AM
 
Location: the illegal immigrant state
767 posts, read 1,743,015 times
Reputation: 1057
i recommend north or west san jose as it borders santa clara as ull have a reasonable commute into santa clara, esp if u take the surface streets incl the expressways as r101 from san jose into santa clara gets snarled at the r87 interchange

ull have to get a car here as public trans is still underdeveloped and it is usually much faster and more direct to drive

on the weekends, u can take the baby bullet caltrain into sf (the city) at appx 1030am and back into the south bay at appx 630pm, 1 hour each way or the regular trains take 1.5 hours.

no matter what, the sfba is not like the old, dense cities of back east and it may take effort on ur part to accept ur new surroundings. whether u like living here will be up to u.
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Old 05-09-2013, 05:14 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles
460 posts, read 981,768 times
Reputation: 299
I grew up in Silicon Valley and traffic keeps getting worse and worse and almost as bad as in LA on highway 237. You want to live as close to your office as possible. Gas is around 4.25 a gallon (ouch), much higher than just about anywhere in continental US.

1. Santa Clara
2. Sunnyvale
3. San Jose (west)

I recommend one roommate who also has a great job, as this cuts down on rent a lot. Plus you have somebody who can help you get around. What if you forget your keys? The early 20s is a tough time for almost everybody financially. You are quite lucky with that salary.
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Old 05-09-2013, 07:11 PM
 
Location: Anaheim
1,962 posts, read 4,482,181 times
Reputation: 1363
Quote:
Originally Posted by zitsky View Post
Hmm. I thought this was the SF/East Bay forum. Don't be so cocky. A lot of folks in SF think San Jose is an armpit town, and I tend to agree, even though I don' t like the SF arrogance.

OP, $80K is not a bad salary but you have to make an effort to save money. When you add up car insurance, rent, Starbucks, lunch, it gets tough to save anything. It's not impossible though if you try.
Whatev. Just in San Jose/Mountain View area this past weekend to visit family and didn't seem like an armpit AT ALL to me, and I have been enough times to get a pretty decent feel for the area, as well in San Francisco.

OP, after long days at work, I don't think boredom will be on your "short list" of issues, trust me. The south bay area (Santa Clara and San Mateo counties) have more than enough people and stuff to do so that you won't be bored. And you can go to San Francisco on weekends. Don't buy the "San Jose is an armpit" stuff. It IS quite expensive, though.
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