re: living in SF/San Jose, where to avoid?
TREW
2,037 Posts
calling all sf area strutters. my fiance and i will be moving out your way come next summer. thing is neither of us have ever lived there and know nothing about what's fair in terms of apt prices, and what areas to avoid moving to. she'll be going to school in hayward, so somewhere nearby would be dope, but as far south as san jose wouldn't be out of the question.any guidance is appreciated!
Comments
Prices in SF for a studio/1 Bedroom range from $1300 to thousands.
http://www.housingmaps.com/ Get familiar
I'd check out the Berkeley to Fremont area. You don't necessarily want to be on the SF side if you have to commute every day to the east bay.
Fremont is not exactly poppin, but I bet it would be cheaper than some spots. It's dry and boring, but you might be able to get a whole house for what you get a 1 bedroom in SF for.
I grew up in San Jose. It's not so bad, it's just hot and boring. I don't leave the house much, so it actually doesn't matter anymore, but it's just kind of a boring place. Not much exciting stuff going or as interesting in cultural diversity as SF is.
It makes me sad that you ride for Lafayette.
Where is Lafayette? I'm not from the area but trying to get familiar.
It makes me sad that people pay as much as they do to live on top of each other the way they do in Berkeley/Oakland.
Through the Caldecott Tunnel, between Orinda and Walnut Creek.
Get out of here, Lafayette is trash and so is anywhere else over the hill. Tepid place to live filled with obnoxious rich conservatives and places to shop.
San Francisco is an interesting place that I'd never live in, I really just don't like being in SF at all. MUNI sucks too.
You don't want to live in San Jose, Fremont, or any of the surrounding suburbs. Cookie cutter like woah.
If you need to be getting over to Hayward regularly, you want to be in the East Bay, plain and simple. You do not want to mess with bridges on a regular basis if you don't have to, and to me and many others, the area from Albany to Oakland is the best place on earth to live. The best food, easy public transportation, friendly people, really a great place to live. I can walk to almost everything I need on a daily basis, and the bus stop a block away can take me to SF or all the way to Oakland. BART is 4 blocks away. Other than NYC, it's the easiest spot I've been in the US to live without a car if you have to.
The only spots you want to avoid in the East Bay are a bunch of different pockets of Oakland (stay away from the Murder dubs (20s)) and most of Richmond, unless you're up in the hills. People talk like South Berkeley is sketchy, but it's really not.
Feel free to hit me up on the PM about different locations, in Berkeley I can pretty much tell you everything within 10 blocks of most spots.
I'll just leave it at...I really didn't notice that much of a difference between the "conservative" yuppies in Lafayette versus the "liberal" yuppies in Berkeley.
Why would anyone want to have that kind of financial burden? Is $700 a month[/b] above a normal town really worth the San Francisco experience? I could do so much more with my life with an additional $8400 a year, like taking 10 trips to San Francisco, for example.
yes.
How?
Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps people make a lot more money in San Francisco than they do in Dull Plains, Oklahio?
This is the most ridiculous line of questioning - if any of us thought it was worthwhile to live where you do, we would all be there.
That's if you want to live by yourself. My flat is $2000 a month in the Lower Haight split between 3 people. Very reasonable and actually the same if not cheaper than some places I've lived at in the East Bay.
I think it's definitely worth some extra money to live in SF but I could never reason paying $1300 to live by myself.
If you have a car and don't rely on being really close to muni or bart you can get some good deals on something better than an apartment (with upstairs and downstairs neighbors).
You can always live in the Sunset or the Richmond. It's a bit foggier and colder, but it's generally cheaper. There are tons of cheap produce markets out here too.
I live in the Sunset and I pay $1450 for a two bedroom apartment. Not bad for me and the Mrs. We've got a large living room, a bedroom, and a room for all my records. If you were to go a bit further out to Daly City or South San Francisco it would probably be the same or cheaper, but if the commute to the east bay wouldn't be that great.
Not to be confused with the TenderNob
I haven't been to SF in many, many years--but deals can be found in the Sunset & Richmond. I really liked my spot off Alamo Square south of the Fillmore, but I have a sinking feeling that that area has gone Ritz cracker.
Not in my field.
Check it out before too long, though--it's getting gentrified like a motherfucker these days, and the rents will go up accordingly. I currently live in Temescal and pay a grand a month for a decent-sized one-bedroom apartment. It's a pretty good deal, all things considered, but Temescal is about to be Condo Central, which is kind of a bummer. Still, it's a dope neighborhood that I enjoy living in.
As for transportation...I was sans car for the first five or six years I lived out here and got around OK (DJ gigs could be kind of a pain, though). I do think it is pretty fucking stupid that BART shuts down so early (depending on which station you're at, the last train is usually around 12:30), but I made do with BART, AC Transit, and Muni just fine.
not to beat a dead horse, but as pointed out above, it's important to remember that the cost of living can be deceptive. jobs out here pay more -- significantly more -- which means that $1300/month is not as bad as you might think. and once you're here you get balmy weather, great restaurants, great record stores, great getaways, great nightlife, blah blah blah. i say this having lived in boston for four years and austin for five. while both those cities have their charms (and advantages too), neither one comes close to offering what the bay area does as a total package, imho of course.
btw, are there records in the bay?
Is this a joke question?
not at all. but feel free to have a laugh at my expense!
Graphic designers in SF are a dime a dozen.
You got Amoebas, Open Mind Music, Jinx, Groove Merchant, etc. for records.