After two great years in Dallas we are on the move again to Silicon Valley or San Francisco.

Dallas has been a great place to live but has never captured our hearts. It is a very easy convenient place to live with friendly people but is very inward looking. Harder to fit in unless you have 4 kids, 2 dogs and go to Church, none of these by wife and I have/do!

So starting beginning of next year we will be either in SF or Silicon Valley, still trying to decide between city living or suburbia

Thanks all

Silicon Valley suburbia, doesn't have to be typical suburbia. We are lucky to have a few cities with awesome downtown areas that offer bars, restaurants, clubs... There are some really great apartments around some of these complexes, so you can easily walk out and eat on an evening... Not like living in a big city, but not Stepford Wives either.

Good luck with the move, it's a great place to live as long as you've got a ton of cash.

Agreed.........hope the OP has a great salary to be able to enjoy this area.

Decide based on where you will be working: if you live in SF and work down in Mountain View or Palo Alto (and vice versa), it will be a long commute if you want to drive it. While the Caltrain does offer an alternative, the trains only go once an hour...

Going to be a minor finance shock. In the UK we used to live just outside London, so the last two years have been the odd ones out with very cheap living costs. Moving to CA will put us back in a similar situation to the UK.

We are having a dilemma to live in SF or down in the Silicon Valley!

Thanks

We have no kids, but do have 7 dogs, and don't go to church.
We started in TX, went to CA, now back in TX. It is what you make it. I'd *never* live in CA again, too much like London for a fast pace of life, rude people, crappy drivers, crappy traffic in general, and exorbitant house prices. I miss the climate, but that is all.

For 1/3 of what we paid to RENT a house in CA, we bought a 3,500 sq ft home on 20 acres in TX on a 10 year note. We've added stables, a 3,000 sq ft workshop, and are 80% through a major remodel. None of this was an option in CA.

Are you going to change your user name?? Calibound, perhaps?

Good luck.

... but northern California is like a different county compared to southern California. Traffic is the same but that's really about all.

OP: most of silicon valley/peninsula is quite sterile. Everything gets sucked into San Francisco or San Jose, which is where you need to go if you want any 'edge' in your life. Price of property is insane anywhere in the area.

Office is in Redwood City.

Live in Redwood City: it's the only place between SF and SJ with any 'personality' IMHO. That was my target city but unfortunately couldn't find anywhere to live within walking distance to downtown that accepted pets, had 2 bedrooms and was not over US$4000 :s.

So you don't think Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View or Sunnyvale has any personality? How bizarre.

Well Scruffy Murphys was the only decent pub in Sunnyvale, and that's now closed...

I moved Dallas to Huntington Beach for 2 years and hated it. I then moved 3 years ago to Vegas and absolutely love it. Quality of life is far better.

How is living in Huntington Beach relevant to living in SF? that's like comparing living in Edinburgh to Brighton.

Relevant as someone who also moved from Dallas to Crappyfornia