Help: Moving to San Francisco from the South

fellowtraveler · Post by **fellowtraveler** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:50 pm

Folks, I am pondering a position with a firm in SF downtown. I have lived most of my US life (12 years) in the South. My wife is a software developer and I have 3 yr old.

My job will be in SF downtown. After a year or two, I might enrol at Stanford. My wife will be looking for a job in IT in 6 months. We don't plan to buy a house (will not be able to afford, even after selling our current house)

Having heard all about cost of living in the SF area, here are some of my questions if you could throw some light on:
1. What kind of housing we should consider? rental house, condos etc
2. What kind of rents to expect?
3. What areas we should be looking at for living? (school, commute)
4. What kind of household income we should be looking at for a reasonable (not financially stretched) situation?

I appreciate any response.

Tweedledee · Post by **Tweedledee** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:01 am

unless youre making 120k its not worth it, IMO. plus youre throwing away money on rent at least until your wife works. you'll pay 1800/mo rent on a tiny 2br apt. depending on what program you want to enrol in at stanford, there may be low cost areas elsewhere that offer comparable programs. very few desis live in SF. most people drive to SF to work or take the train there (its called caltrain i think).

soomdy · Post by **soomdy** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:30 am

Tweedledee;44809unless youre making 120k its not worth it, IMO. plus youre throwing away money on rent at least until your wife works. you'll pay 1800/mo rent on a tiny 2br apt. depending on what program you want to enrol in at stanford, there may be low cost areas elsewhere that offer comparable programs. very few desis live in SF. most people drive to SF to work or take the train there (its called caltrain i think).[/quote]

A close friend fo mine, she worked in SF and lived in Oakdale apt for $ 800 rent and commuted in train. This was in 1998-99.

Tweedledee · Post by **Tweedledee** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 1:28 am

it's been 9 years since then ...

OP - there are 2 commuter train lines into SF. if you stay near either of them you should be ok commute wise. bear in mind living expenses will be 50% more than what you are used to. if you want to attend stanford, you should live near one of the stations where the caltrain line runs. google for caltrain to see their stops and schedules. if you live near the mountain view or sunnyvale stations, it is an hour's commute into SF. once in SF you may have to take a bus to reach your office. google for SF Muni (thats the bus service). stanford is also 20 mins from moountain view or sunnyvale. sunnyvale is a big deshi area, like oak tree rd in NJ. the mary ave. station in sunnyvale has apt complexes nearby. this way you have a commute to SF and your wife is also near to potential employers. dont know about stations south of sunnyvale. HTH.

anandr2i · Post by **anandr2i** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:04 am

fellowtraveler:

I recently moved to Bay area from south. Sold my home and moved to a 2BR apt. in the last few months. Here is what you will deal with - I am not mincing any words:

1) Cannot find parking in many places.
2) Driving is a NIGHTMARE. Period.
3) Cost of living is HUGE, esp in SF less in San Jose relatively.
4) Size of apt you will get is miniscule compared to your typical 1500sft+ home in the South which you may have bot for around $200-$280K. You will HATE it.
5) If you have kids you will have to adjust BIG time.
6) Everything you touch - you will pay a premium price - going to movies, restaurant, child care or anything for that matter.

All of this is in South Bay, SF can be far worse.

Few points:

You will HATE apartment living after living in a home.
If You have to buy a house, it is NOT LESS THAN 500K for a decent condo (not in SF but in South Bay).
if your wife does not work, and/or you are not making 6 figures, I would stay AWAY from SFO.

You will lose the peaceful life that you are probably used to in the South, with a nice home and relatively free roads and low cost of living.

Sorry to sound discouraging. But having been thru this I know it is easy to look only at the positives of the job offer $$$ and "better weather/friends" factors. If you truly have EXTREMELY good friends (who you can bank on visiting like every week or so) or close family that you can hang out with, all of these will seem minimal, if not, these things loom large.

You will be THROWN out of your comfort zone.
Tread carefully my friend. Dont say I didnt warn :)

anandr2i · Post by **anandr2i** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:08 am

pm me if you want to correspond directly.

Gupta · Post by **Gupta** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:24 am

I would recommend you rent an apartment in suburb(East BAY) and commute to SF down town, commute time will be around( by BART train) 30 - 45 min depends where you choose to live. Rent varies a lot with location and your need but decent 1BHK you will get around 1K and up.

Second option will be in live in south bay( where Stanford is) and commute through cal train.

I have been working in SF downtown for numbers of years and know lots of people who work there and commute from suburb. PM me if you need more info.

anony_mouse · Post by **anony_mouse** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:32 am

I live in SF and, yes, its not cheap. (i am paying $3700 for 2 BR apartment)

however, commuting is equally harsh and unless you want to spend 2 hours daily in train and road - here is what I will recommend.

get an apartment close to BART in *EAST BAY*. east bay is as clean as south bay and cheaper. if you like more sun and bigger house think about moving up north (walnut creek etc) or go south if you want more desis around you (Fremont etc).

in either case, make sure to get a place near a BART station. It might be slightly expensive but BART is the only civilized place to get to SF during rush hours. I am assuming that your office in SF is close to BART station (else you will have to take a bus which will add another 20-40 minutes to your commute).

pm me if you have specific questions.

anandr2i · Post by **anandr2i** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:00 am

fellowtraveler

Seems there are some people who actually live in SF/East Bay and work there.
So, if some people are doing it, then it must be possible to live/work in SF. Right?

Anyhow, couple of thoughts

One of our friends who lives in the area (South Bay) has never complained. They have a very casual (bindaas) lifestyle. Both spouses work and they seem to love this area and have never bot a home here after >5 years.

One another friend (single earner) lived here for a long time and moved out to a more "saner" place and bot a house 1.5 years after he had a kid. He said he couldnt NOT live in a house.

IMO I have always thought that friend #1 above is ABLE to enjoy this area only because they have not seen anything else, so there is no reference point to compare to, plus no kids = no responsibilities.

But people moving from a big HOUSE in other states have gone through (a rather permanent!) transformation - in that they know what it feels like to live in a huge/big house = that is truly the one thing to think about.

Again, dont mean to be discouraging. I wish you best in your career. However, I also encourage you to think carefully, step by step, about how you will feel like when you move into a tiny 2 BR paying several thousands in rent.
As a pointer, take a list of activities that you do in a regular month.
Say, commute to work, goto gym, goto grocery shopping, etc. Compare what you currently go through for these activities with what you WILL go through.
That should give you a fair idea of life in Bay Area in general.
Good luck!

-anandr2i

PS: And did I mention, you may very well have to sell that LaZBoy or your other favorite couch!

sftrade · Post by **sftrade** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:47 am

From what I've heard from my friends its easier to move to the valley when you have no kids and make over 150K of combined income. Anything under is a big monetary compromise in all respects. So if you don't want to save, then I guess it should be ok :)