Bay area scoop

[thebipper]

We may be moving to the Bay are for dh's job. What is the scoop on the different areas in the BAy area? Housing? Schools? We don't know yet if we'll be in the Peninsula, East bay, or north in Marin...I'd love any feedback, general overview, pros/cons of the areas. Also, if there is a really great place in particular. Thanks!

[bunny's mama]

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[thebipper]

Thanks for the feedback. I was afraid I asked the wrong question! We are excited to move to the Bay area but are concerned about housing. We really want to buy and it looks like it will cost us an arm and a leg. Thanks for the overview of the peninsula. Do you have any info on the east bay? Or Marin? Thanks, Laura

[bunny's mama]

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[bloodrayne]

I moved to the Bay area from another state and so I don't really know that much about the different cities and such because I didn't grow up here.

We live in the east bay and it seems pretty expensive to me (for what you're getting). Fremont is pretty nice but really expensive. It is very industrial though - the east bay in general, not Fremont.

What I like about living in the east bay is that we're really close to everything. It only takes about 25 minutes for us to drive to SFO, about 20 minutes to Oakland airport. Everything from Berkeley to SF to San Jose is really near to us (relatively speaking - I come from a place where it takes 45 - 60 min. to get to the mall, so I find that people here tend to be a bit 'wimpy' about how long it takes to get somewhere :LOL )

[Cindi]

I grew up in west Marin, which is more rural and at least in the 70's and 80's very hippy with lots of artists. I love it, and Marin is amazing for open space. But now I live in Sonoma County, as we can better afford it here. In Marin the ridges are all open to hiking, and between State parks, watershed district, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Pt Reyes National Seashore and Mt. Tam you've got a LOT of beautiful land to hike and enjoy.

My father is a real estate agent/broker with offices in both Novato and Petaluma if you want to contact him. If you need to stay farther south he could also refer you to an agent in that area. I am not knowledgeable enough to quote prices, but here is the web site my dad and dh put together: http://www.marinsonoma.info.

[thebipper]

Thanks for all the information. This gives me a better idea of the area.

[N2theWoods]

Marin is lovely, but it's a bridge to get anywhere. And it is verra expensive - I think my galfriend bought a 2 bedroom house in San Anselmo for almost 600,000 last year & prices have gone up. Eeek!

We moved from Pacifica (which is Peninsula,) to Alameda (which is east Bay - by Oakland and San Leandro) and we LOVE it in Alameda. It's an island and it's pretty central to anywhere you want to go. Relatively inexpensive (everything's relative in the Bay Area - housing is outrageous and that's all there is to that.) there are great neighborhoods & super friendly neighbors. Our neighbors have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome. There's also a great organic grocery store that just opened "downtown". I would highly recommend you check out Alameda when you're looking for a place to settle.

There are indeed some lovely places in Oakland and Berkeley. Berkeley is extremely expensive, though - it's "hip" lol!

[mama2boys]

I'm in Sonoma County (North Bay) and I love it here. I've lived here all my life. It's a little more afforable than Marin. It's hard to call an average home price of $400,000+ afforable though :eek. I'm lucky we bought a long time ago!

~Kori

[StarMama]

We are in the East Bay area, and while we LOVE the area housing is VERY VERY expensive like everyone has said. We currently rent a tiny one bedroom for $880 a month, and are looking to buy a condo which generally go for about $200,000 (we're attempting to buy one that is asking for $189,000 for a little less... they should get back to us on monday)... My In laws have a 5 bedroom house that is nice, and if they sold it now they'd be looking at $500,000+. Its a nice house in a good neighborhood but its not fancy or anything...