Looble

Hello! My boyfriend and I currently live in New Hampshire. We are looking to relocate for jobs and weather. We are considering the bay area due to him being in the IT field and from what we have read it seems like an area more suited to our needs. My questions are:
what is typical cost of living there if renting or owning a small but nice condo?
We are looking for a town that does not have a terrible commute but far enough away from the city for it to maintain it's charm and be on the quiet but still plenty to do side. We are active and enjoy the outdoors and would lke a town with a diverse and growing culture.
I know, it's a lot to ask!
we are looking to buy or rent for no more than 1,000/mth
We are also planning tocome visit and check places out but I wanted to try to narrow it down a little more.

Thanks for your help!!

nanabee

A friend lives in Los Gatos. It is south of San Francisco (so you are close enough to go it the City for dinners, nightlife, etc) and close to Silicon Valley for work if you are hired there.

Los Gatos is a small, charming, quiet community. My friend's husband is into sports and there is a big soccer community that he is involved in. Any place in the Bay Area will be terribly expensive. Oakland may be more reasonable but not as desirable. Plus you might have to become Raider fans.


http://www.losgatoschamber.com/index.html

nanabee

Opps, just saw the $1000/month limit. You could rent possibly, but most real estate (depending on location) in the Bay Area is the most expensive in the state if not the country. You may end up living pretty far away from the actual Bay Area or if it's just the two of you, a very small place until you are more settled.

november_moon

That is a really low limit for housing for this area, but if you BF is in the IT field, you should be able to afford more than that.

Regarding location - it is pretty much impossible to narrow things down without knowing where he will be working. If he is working in SF, the answers will be a lot different than if he is working in Sunnyvale or Walnut Creek.

Parrothead

If your budget cannot exceed $1000/month you'll probably need to look into a roommate situation. Try Craigslist before you come and look at places with pictures to get a better feel.

The main IT centers would be Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties. When looking at a map this is the area from San Jose on up the peninsula to San Francisco, primarily along the 101 corridor.

As for your criteria of quiet, plenty to do and good commute cities I can't think of one place that has all 3. If there's plenty to do, it's not quiet. And a good commute in the Bay Area is a dream that rarely comes true. The only people I know with good commutes are those that live and work in the same city and don't have to use a freeway during rush hour.

nytraveler

Housing in any decent place near SF will be much more than where you are now ($1000 a month is a modest studio) - but your BF should be able too make a lot more there too. Yo haven't said what you do. I suggest doing some job hunting on monster.com to get an idea of salaries in the area - then you'll kow what type of housing you can afford.

suze

That's not enough for renting in a nice area commuting distance to San Francisco imo. MAYBE a studio apartment, maybe.

I agree... get a map so you can see the general lay-of-the-land, then go onto Craig's List and take a look at rental prices.

I very seriously looked into moving down there from Seattle a few years ago. Jobs paid similarly, but rents were WAY more expensive.

janisj

No one can really help you much w/o knowing where you'll be working.

What you want to do first is a serious job search. Telling you about a great town is next to useless if that town is a 2 hour drive each way from your jos)

You can't possibly know what you can afford until you have a job and know the salary ($1000 doesn't go very far in the Bay Area)

janisj

Sorry about that emoticon

should have been >> hour drive each way from your job (s)

sunbum1944

My daughter lives in the area (Campbell) which is a very nice little community ) She has a 1 bedroom in a nice complex for $1200/month and we think its a steal compared to other apts she has looked at. You will be very lucky if you find anything for less than that- she did find one place for less but she had a druggie living next door - had a drug raid one night and hauled her neighbor off to jail - she quickly found another place to live after that

agree with Suze- you MIGHT find a studio for $1000-

She lives in Campbell, works in Santa Clara for a high tech company - probably takes her 15 min to get to work. Campbell is a nice quiet community but has a nice little downtown area with shops and restaurants- and close to Las Gatos which is a fun place to hang out.

Good luck- think you need to consider spending around $1400 for rent in the area

sf7307

>>

I'm not commenting on the towns mentioned at all, just noting that they are quite far from San Francisco proper. Campbell, e.g. is 7 miles from San Jose but 54 miles from San Francisco.

sunbum1944

sf7307- just pointing out other options in the bay area

november_moon

The OP just said they were looking at the Bay Area, not just SF - so I think that south bay recommendations are as reasonable as anything else, perhaps moreso since the BF is in IT. She did mention living outside the city, but there are lots of cities here and I don't know that by refering to the city, she was necesarily refering to The City like we do

Looble

Thank you all for your help! Its good to get some general information such as affordability and commute times.We definitely could afford more, I just was hoping to keep it in that range if we are renting. If we ending up buying we will be willing to spend more on the investment. I currently work in insurance-Business analyst- and will likely be getting a similar job there if we were to move there.
I am definitely not set on any one place as this is really a preliminary search and we need to narrow this down much further.

I don't know exactly which town/city we would be workinig in because I wanted to get some background information on these places before I move there and we don't want to move somewhere miserable or overly expensive just for a job as we are trying to find a happy medium. We are willing to commute and currently live about 45 minutes outside of Boston but have did not want to move to Massachusetts even though the job selection is much wider just because we do not like the area as much.

We have also considered North Carolina due to the warmer nature but I am not sure if that is really the fit for us. So, at this point the options are wide open.

I will look into Campbell, thank you for that information. Right now, my goal is to narrow this down just a bit more so that we at least have a general region in mind and can take a trip out there to really see what it is all about.
I will also check on Craigslist and monster for jobs and hopefully that will help me to see what is available and go from there.

Thanks again, everyone!

tomfuller

If either of you are qualified here is a good job in Livermore:
https://hire.jobvite.com/CompanyJobs...FVfwg&s=Indeed
Having the job lined up before deciding where you can afford to live is important.

christy1

I think you could find a place to live that meets your criteria in nearly any part of the Bay Area. One nice thing about the region is that there are charming communities with good proximity to the outdoors in all directions--it's not like to many American cities, where once you leave the city limits it's just blah suburbs. There are nice places north, east, and south of the city as well as within the city itself. With that in mind, I agree with the others, find out where the jobs are first, then look for your ideal location. Doing it backwards will be a lot harder.

This article, about Bay Area rents, may interest you.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-11-1...us-millichap/2

Here's a relevant paragraph:

According to RealFacts' third-quarter report, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area had a 3 percent year-over-year average rent increase to $1,587. San Francisco-Fremont-Oakland increased just 1 percent to $1,548. The third-quarter San Jose metro-area rents were the highest in the nation of the 40 areas RealFacts tracks.

sf7307

>>

I know. I also just wanted to point out that the "Bay Area" is a big place