Family Finances

By nbr660 on Mar 30, 2009 | Reply

San Bruno is nice, it’s just a few miles south of San Francisco

By ree-Z on Mar 31, 2009 | Reply

Every city has its ghetto and I’m no expert on the bay area or anything but oakland, richmond, daly city are kind of ghetto. South San Francisco is near the airport. The upside is at least you’d be able to take BART into the city from most of the towns you listed. Hope that helps some.

By Tapestry6 on Apr 2, 2009 | Reply

If you can find a place in or near the BART station like an apartment off Treat Blvd in Walnut Creek.. lots of moderately priced ones there. You can get a 2 bedroom apartment for around 900-1000 a month.
Avoid Oakland, I grew up there its no place to raise a family , neither is Richmond. Berkeley is creepy. Piedmont, Mill Valley(anything Marin County) and Lafayette will be out of your price range.
Try realtor.com to look for places in your price range. Then find a good real estate agent, get 2, and that way you will hear 2 different opinions of the same area.. if they gel you know your getting the honest truth about the area.

By Pissed_Limey on Apr 3, 2009 | Reply

Castro Street and eat some sour dough with your your new neighbourhood friends! You can have Nappa Valley wine spritzers together

By benevebalingit on Apr 3, 2009 | Reply

Daly City is a nice place and Oakland too

By gauchogirl on Apr 5, 2009 | Reply

Try Marin County-You have listed Tiburon and Mill Valley which are both excellent, but more of the pricier towns to lvie. Try San Rafael, Corte Madera, Larkspur, or Novato. You can get a house to trent for a decent amount (check our Craigs List). There are also plenty of jobs; most places at least $10 per hour (even Starbucks!).
Marin has so much open space, beautiful parks, The schools are some of the best in the country (Forbes just said Marin school are best). The towns have a real down home feel to them. Little crime, wonderful friendly people (check out novatoaddvance.com or Marinscope.com for local neighborhood stories,crimes, etc.). A very high percentage of the population is college educated.

By ♥♡♪♫☆Baby Animal♥♡♪♫☆ on Apr 7, 2009 | Reply

Anywhere in Marin County is Nice and close to sf, you can take a ferry there and Back..
Also The Peninsula area like San Mateo, redwood city, foster city are all nice, safe area’s

By widewillie on Apr 7, 2009 | Reply

It’s truly a balancing act…finding a “safe” place…that’s affordable…and a reasonable commute distance from where you’ll be working and going to school. So…it begs the question…if you’re going to school in SF and working in SF…why not live in SF??

With the exception of the truly “safer” cities you’ve listed (which are largely unaffordable even for people making a professional salary)…any of the areas where the rent and commute will be reasonable (by Bay Area standards) aren’t much safer (if ANY) safer than SF!!

If you can’t/don’t want to/won’t live in SF proper…I’d recommend Alameda/Berkley/Emeryville…. NOT because they’re safer than SF (they’re NOT). I’d recommend these areas because the commute time and cost is more reasonable. (It will vary…but it will be about 30 to 45 minutes each way…and about $3 to $4 each way on Bart …not including the time & costs associated w/ getting to and from the station!).

While Marin county on the whole is truly a wonderful place to live…again the “safe” areas are REALLY expensive (some parts of San Rafael are lesser expensive…but that’s due to those parts being less “safe”!). And commuting from Marin into SF is among the worst commutes in the entire country. (Unless you take the Ferry…which again is REALLY expensive…about $15/day r/t…again plus the cost and time of getting to and from the terminal).

The bottom line is…you can live outside SF and pay for the privilege of commuting into the city…and wasting hours sitting in traffic or waiting for public transit…or you can spend that time w/ your family in an area of SF that’s just as safe.

Either way…best of luck to you in school and to your family!!

By SFdude on Apr 10, 2009 | Reply

Minimum wage in the City of San Francisco is currently $9.14. In all suburban counties, the minimum wage is currently $7.50.

The really nice/wealthy suburbs are just as expensive as the city. Hillsborough, according to Money Magazine, has one of the “highest median household incomes in the country.” Tiburon and Sausalito are where huge mansions with views of the San Francisco skyline sell for 8 million dollars. Frankly, I think those are a little out of your league. In fact, you can probably rule out anything in Marin County and the southern part of San Mateo County.

There are safe, middle-class suburbs out there though.

In northern San Mateo County…Millbrae, San Bruno, Brisbane, Colma, and South SF are all near the airport. That area is pretty good.

Much of the inner East Bay is rather ghetto (Oakland and Richmond are particularly bad). However, there are some safe areas like Emeryville, Alameda, and Piedmont. Places like Berkeley are hit-and-miss. It depends on which street you’re talking about.

While safe, the outer East Bay (pass Orinda) is mostly upper-middle class, so you’re unlikely to find much affordable in that direction either. However, it’s not as expensive as Marin County.

By cla!re on Apr 13, 2009 | Reply

Palo Alto is beautiful. Sausolito is right across the bay, and is beautiful as well.

By vampire13r on Apr 14, 2009 | Reply

Outer Richmond District of San Francisco is the safest place in the Bay Area. Rents are a little high. I was paying $2100 for 3 Bedrooms. Public Transportation is great, you don’t need a car.