Another moving to the Bay Area thread, looking for suggestions for SF vs. the suburbs in the peninsula/south bay

If your primary goal is to drink and massage your hipster cred, live in SF.

If your primary goal is to live a normal life in a place with awesome weather and a short commute to work, live on the peninsula. Having a short commute to work will do much more for your quality of life than hipster cred will do. There are tons of good restaurants in the valley if you are worried about that, they just close earlier than in SF.

I travel to the peninsula for work(Palo Alto/Menlo Park) and the last time I had a free weekend, I didn't even bother with SF aside from CalTrain to and from a Giants game.

If you must commute from SF, try to use 280 rather than 101. That alone will improve quality of life substantially. 280 is a gorgeous drive.

If you are engaged already and both your jobs are in PA/MV, do yourself a favor and live down south.

If you work down south, the main reason to live in SF is if you are single. Otherwise, the commute isn't worth it, rent is cheaper, and running is far better.

On the peninsula you'll have quick access to Stanford, Rancho San Antonio, Huddart Park, and a bunch of other great trails. In the City it's Golden Gate Park, Crissy Field, and the occasional trip to the headlands/East Bay -- that's about it.

If you want to explore SF, take a few weekends and stay in AirBnb's in different neighborhoods -- try it on for size at low cost, and see if you like it.

Trust me on this one.

Mountain View is a decent place to live. So is Palo Alto, Cupertino, some areas of Sunnyvale. Stay away from the East Bay. Tough commutes to where you work.

The commute back and forth from and to the city will leech your time.

I guess you could take the train. Like I said, long commutes eat up your day. Thirty-three years living and working in the SF Bay Area. I've seen it all.

Do not live farther south than Mtn View. Unless you can afford Saratoga/LG. It's overpriced hole down there.

The Peninsula is more vanilla than the City, but it's nice. I don't think you can go wrong with either choice.

I think the mid-Peninsula is least affordable. PA, Menlo etc...

San Mateo, Redwood City may be cheaper.

Live in the city now then move once you start the family. Yes, the city is very fun, live there while you can.

Once you have the kids it will be a pain, and at that point you can move.

1) Do not worry about school districts yet.

"When things settle down a bit"--> to me, this suggests that the first kids would be born 3 years from now at the earliest.

After the child is born, you will have a few years years before needing a public school.

If you worry about school districts at this point, you will ending up paying a ton of extra money for housing for at least 7-8 years before even using the school districts.

2) There are a ton of singles and young marrieds who live in SF and commute down the peninsula for work. You'd certainly be in the midst of your demographic if you do that. It would be great for meeting people, etc.

3) The peninsula is a giant suburb. It can be beautiful and it has a lot of cutesy little places, but it is still a suburb with all that implies.

4) If you are city people, another option is San Jose. There is a ton of development going on downtown and northwards (toward the north 1st street corridor). It certainly doesn't have the cultural cachet of SF, but it is much more affordable.

Don't be a hipster wasting money on rent in SF and having to commute down the Peninsula each day. Look for something cheap (in a relative sense) in Mountain View.

Peninsula will make both of you very happy. SF would be a lot of fun but that commute ....

help me out here... wrote:

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Our total combined income should be around $250k,

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We'd like to save as much as we can as well, and hopefully eventually buy a home one day in the area. Any suggestions on good, affordable places to look? Thanks!

Many good comments here. Only one I would really disagree with is xhjzfhjbdshj writing, "There are tons of good restaurants in the valley." There are shockingly few good restaurants. Some solid ethnic food, but otherwise absurdly overpriced mediocre food unless you are in SF or, to a lesser extent, SJ. 4runner's post is very good, particularly, "but it is still a suburb with all that implies."

There is awful traffic nearly all the time, and I would caution against living more than a few miles from either work location. Rush "hour" lasts from 3-8 every weekday. 101 is stop and go during parts of the weekend. Driving to the coast after 9am on a weekend takes forever. Sometimes you'll hit traffic at completely random times of day.

What I have to add is that you won't be able to ever buy a house in the area unless you have a large cash infusion from some outside source. Average home sale prices are over a million dollars in Mt View and Sunnyvale, more in Palo Alto, way more in SF, and categorically not worth the commute anywhere else. Anecdotal stories of people bidding $200k over ask and getting outbid by someone making a higher cash offer are rampant.

A modest 1 br apt in Mt View starts at $2,000. More rooms, amentities, or in Palo Alto, and prices increase. At combined income of $250k, you will be able to save some money, but not enough to buy a house without a big chunk of cash from another source.

Well, I don't live there, but I have eaten a lot of good food in Palo Alto and surrounding areas. Maybe it's because I live in a smallish city in the midwest, but it seems like there were restaurants everywhere and with the help of Yelp and recommendations from colleagues I was rarely disappointed. The main thing that sucks is the lack of late food options. We learned that quickly.

Nice restaurants are expensive like everywhere, but I'm more than okay on on a $30/day per diem for a 10 day trip. Had plenty left over for a trip to a brazilian steakhouse called Pampas at ~$50/plate. Their Rodizio option is a fun experience with some really good steak.

I'll admit that I am by no means a foodie, I'm more than happy with a good pizza or a good sandwich. I've found numerous good sandwich joints in that area. The best I found is Fambrinis on El Camino near California Ave in Palo Alto. They are only open for lunch M-F, but the food is really good.

Are you aware of sf citizens' outrage against the growing trend of displacement by tech yuppies?

mashable.com/2014/04/07/google-bus-too-far/

galenswife wrote:

Don't be a hipster wasting money on rent in SF and having to commute down the Peninsula each day. Look for something cheap (in a relative sense) in Mountain View.

A true hipster could not afford to live in SF. You are thinking of yuppies.