New job in Palo Alto - where to live (Daly City: rent, house)

[humboldtrat]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

There's commuter train service in the area. And some employers offer a free shuttle service. He should look into whether the employer subsidizes transit options, or operates a company shuttle.

Ruth is right about the train. It runs between San Francisco and San Jose and you can take a bike aboard https://www.caltrain.com/stations-zones

There is also a free bus shuttle around the Stanford campus which connects at the Palo Alto train station. https://transportation.stanford.edu/marguerite

[steve_holt]

It highly depends on where in Palo Alto your friend works. If he works in downtown PA, taking Caltrain is a good option. I'd recommend Redwood City or Sunnyvale as places with nicer/newer apartments which allow you to bike or train to downtown PA.

If he's in the Research Park, that's much harder to get to via transit. You should look to Mountain View or maybe Sunnyvale if that's the location.

Obviously Palo Alto is the best location, but it comes at a high cost.

[steve_holt]

Originally Posted by ccm123

OP, I would NOT recommend commuting from the east bay to Palo Alto - heavy commuter congestion on all of the routes.

FWIW, I don't really think this is true today in 2022. It might eventually get worse, but today it is always <20 minutes from my home in Fremont both ways.


I do agree if this person is renting and not buying, no reason not to rent someplace closer.

[ccm123]

Appreciate the update on the Dumbarton commute.

I used to commute this route from both Pleasanton and Fremont, but haven’t commuted on this route since just prior to the pandemic. It was heavily congested then, especially in the afternoons.

Seems that traffic has gotten lighter since the pandemic started (more employees working from home offices I would assume.)

Originally Posted by steve_holt

FWIW, I don't really think this is true today in 2022. It might eventually get worse, but today it is always <20 minutes from my home in Fremont both ways.


I do agree if this person is renting and not buying, no reason not to rent someplace closer.

[2020's YouTube Vlog]

Heard a lot of good about Palo Alto, and I love SF/being near it.

Is Palo Alto an exciting place like SF or NYC?

[BayAreaResiding]

Originally Posted by 2020's YouTube Vlog

Heard a lot of good about Palo Alto, and I love SF/being near it.

Is Palo Alto an exciting place like SF or NYC?

It's a suburb of San Francisco. It's a very nice suburb with a beautiful downtown. It's not as exciting as San Francisco, but that is the point.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by 2020's YouTube Vlog

Heard a lot of good about Palo Alto, and I love SF/being near it.

Is Palo Alto an exciting place like SF or NYC?

No. It's half the size by acreage, and much smaller by population (low density). It's not a big city. It's a beautiful suburb on the Bay, that's home to Stanford University.

[artillery77]

Psst....hey you...OP. Don't tell anyone, but if you commute up the 280....even from San Jose...it's pure joy compared to the 101. Also, East San Jose isn't dangerous anymore, except to the fragile egos of people that overpaid on the peninsula and are hunting for a reason why. Welcome to Shallow Alto

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by spicydreamt

Back when my job was in Palo Alto I was commuting from a bedroom rental in Union City (the rental was literally the bedroom, with shared kitchen and restroom). Was $400 / month. It would only take 20min driving over the Dumbarton bridge. Now it's some time ago (1997 to be specific) but I didn't see this mentioned in the above comments and it would be a much shorter commute than Sunnyvale or San Jose.

I know you weren't trying to say that's what it would cost today, but.....

Even for 1997 that was pretty cheap! I had a 2-bedroom apartment in SF in 1994-95 that cost $900/mo. Split it with a roommate, so my share was only $450 (maybe a little more since I had the big room?). Now I think that same complex rents for like $4000/mo. Oy.

But yeah, Union City or Newark might be slightly less expensive options. You do have to factor in the costs of gas and tolls, though. Personally I like my mountain/hwy9 commute into the Peninsula, but it's not for the faint of heart. No tolls and cheaper COL!

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by ccm123

Seems that traffic has gotten lighter since the pandemic started (more employees working from home offices I would assume.)

As someone who's worked (non-remotely) and commuted through the whole pandemic, this is absolutely true. It was like a ghost town for the first year, and has gradually started to build back up - but is still nowhere near the traffic issues we had prior.

My commute now (as of January) doesn't utilize the main highways, but until earlier this year I was doing 17-85-280. Hardly any traffic in either direction, regardless of the hours I was working. And they do vary a lot with my job.