Parisangel

Hello! After researching and liking the east bay thinking my hubby would be working in San Francisco itself, turns out the company may well be moving to San Mateo. Sooo.....the usual requirements...safe area, good schools, need four bedrooms.....hoping for rent of around $4000 per month. Any recommendations very gratefully received.

Thanks!

kevntrace

I live in the East Bay and worked in San Mateo for over 8 years until my company was acquired. The acquiring company has its hq in San Jose.
I used to cross the San Mateo bridge every day. There are occasions when the bridge can be a traffic bottleneck - accidents etc, but its okay most of the time. They basically built a second bridge parallel to the first bridge to double the traffic capacity. Believe me the San Mateo bridge was awful before they did that. Now its just about tolerable.
East Bay to San Mateo is quite a commute, don't get me wrong. But you'll get better value for money from housing in the East Bay (and that is all relative of course, the Easy Bay is still darned expensive). If your husband can telecommute some of the time, that definitely helps.
Best of luck.

Parisangel

Hey thanks for the info. Hubs is thinking he'd be happy with an hour ish commute. How long did it usually take?

We are spoiled as we live in Houston right now where you get plenty of house for your bucks. So while we know we won't be able to get the sq ft we get here, we are a family of five and do want room for guests too.

We'd been thinking about Walnut Creek. Would you need to go further south to make it feasible?

Thanks again.

kevntrace

I live right around the 580-680 interchange, and the drive would take me somewhere between 45 - 60 mins depending on traffic (that's with no major accidents).
Walnut Creek would probably add another 20 - 30 mins to that commute to be honest.

Wintersong

I honestly wouldn't consider a commute to San Mateo from Walnut Creek. I drive that route around rush hour a few times a year (picking my Mum up from the airport, just north of San Mateo) and it can take anything from an hour and a half to 3 hours. Still better than the Bay Bridge, but only just

Fremont generally does well in ratings for safe neighbourhoods, good schools etc. - I've lived there and it's nice enough, but a little soul-less for my liking. Pleasanton is similar. If I were you, I'd probably look at Castro Valley, San Ramon and Danville (might be a little too far for the commute, but it's a nice town so worth considering).

sherbert

Also remember that it's a $5 toll (one way) on the bridge so you're looking at spending $100 a month on tolls if you lived in the east bay. You could think about Burlingame which has good schools, Cal Train station and a decent amount of shops, restaurants and bars. However, I do not think you'd get much more than a 2 bed/2 bath in Burlingame for 4,000 :s.

Parisangel

Thanks for the information!

I think it sounds like most of the east bay will be too far. I will look at the areas you mentioned though.

Definitely a 2 bed place will not work for us....We need four beds for sure.

Does anyone know if Half Moon Bay would be a good option?

sherbert

Half moon bay is nice, about a half hour drive from SM (although there's only one road to take - the 92 - and it can get very clogged up as it's a single lane road each way for most of the way) but at least you'd cut out the bridge. Pacifica could also be an option. Bear in mind both of those places get very foggy (Pacifica in particular). Also not sure whether property is that much cheaper over there as people pay premium to be near the sea. What's wrong with SM itself? Anyone?

Parisangel

Thanks! I think San Mateo may be out of our price range judging on what I've seen, although it looks very nice.....sigh.

sherbert

I think you might need to adjust your price range a little though as I do not know of anywhere within a reasonable commute of SM where you will find a 4 bedroom for 4000

Parisangel

Honestly it may affect whether we go for it or not, if we are killing ourselves to make rent....what's the point when we have a great lifestyle here in Houston....difficult decisions ahead!

McZaki

Anything less than $180k, for a family of five, would be daunting in and around the Bay Area; the quality of life is not that great for folks who are earning less than that and have a big family!

The weather is fabulous, the folks are super nice, the schools in the affluent neighborhoods are good, and gazillion things to do all year round, but like all good things, it ain't free!

If your hub is making a decent wage in Houston, and the quality of life is good, I'd say that it's best to stay rather than relocating to a place that enforces you to become "creative" to make ends meet.

Having said that, if you want to experience the California life, go for it, you won't regret it!

I was not earning $180k when we first moved to the Bay Area (we are a family of 5), but we treated the move as an extended holiday, and we loved it; once we realized that there is not much in the savings account, and we are not willing to pay $1.8mil for a pigeon hole, we moved to another expensive place, for another "extended holiday"

ChocolateBabz

Stop making life difficult for yourself, leave one of the kids with me, and suck it up in a 2 bed, the first 2 can share and I'll keep the little one

Parisangel

Haha! You'd regret it the mood she's in today, three months old and super stroppy! Don't want to leave you though my lovely friend

Parisangel

I think even with bonuses we'd be a little less than 180. The thing is, it's not just another job, it's a very exciting opportunity to be on the cutting edge of a new business and potentially very lucrative in the future, so is it worth suffering a bit short term, that's the dilemma. Hohum. Or stay in sunny Texas with no significant prospects but lots of very awesome friends like ChocolateBabz .