Living in the Bay Area

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The fiance and I are looking towards where we’ll be applying to PhD programs next year, and some of our long shots (Berkeley and Santa Cruz for me, Berkeley and UCSF for her) are in the Bay Area. While I would love to end up at one of those schools (Santa Cruz in particular), I’ve heard many nasty things about trying to live there on a graduate student’s type of salary; with assistantships in our fields we’ll each be making about $20-22,000 a year.

Unfortunately all of our friends out there are either still undergraduates being supported by parents and/or financial aid, or are employed at major Silicon Valley corporations, and no one can give us much of a picture of the viability of living in the Bay Area on that kind of money. I’ve looked at some of the off-campus housing info at the schools’ web sites, but I don’t know much about the neighborhoods referenced, so it doesn’t mean much to me. So, are there any Dopers out there who can give us a realistic picture of what living in any of these areas can cost (rent, utilities, etc.)? What about owning a car (insurance, parking, etc.)? Thanks in advance.

2

Well, I live at the southern end of Monterey Bay (opposite Santa Cruz) so i cant really tell you much about the rent situation up there. I do know that Housing is limited for students at UCSC…they had to make a deal with a Holiday Inn so students could have a place to live (IIRC…not sure if that was just talk). Parking is also a hassle…i hear students didnt want a Parking Garage built (even though i hear it is needed badly). But the will of the people and all.

Here’s a kind of FAQ on Santa Cruz.

http://www.cruzio.com/~djj/ssc/faq.html#1.2

3

I’m currently living in San Jose, and am getting out of Silicon Valley to move back East, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I’d say that if you were really good at budgeting, didn’t have a whole lot of existing bills/debts/what have you, you could get by on $40K a year in San Francisco proper. This is all totally IMHO, I haven’t done any surveys or studies or anything.

As far as utilities go, our water bill here just increased, due to some new rate hikes, the utilities bills are very high (that whole energy crisis thing) and gas is insane as well. Public transit, in SF/Oakland at least, is very convenient.

Not sure about insurance rates for cars and all that; I never bothered to get my CA license or register my car here… but you need to have your vehicle smog-checked and all that and make sure it meets specs.

So it’s not a cheap place to live. And in my experience, it’s not an easy place to live. But, if I could pick one place in the world to live, it’d be here. Unfortunately, the universe has other plans for me, so I’m going back East.

Best of luck to you, and I’m sure there are some other more seasoned BAD’s (Bay Area Dopers–they’re an amazing crew) that can give better advice. I kind of envy you in a way… I wish I could come back out here and start again.

4

I suggest you look at the salary calculator to compare how far your money here would go compared with places that you’re more familiar with.

Despite all that you hear, it is possible to live in the Bay Area without being rich, but $20k is awfully low. If you can get student housing, and don’t drive, it might be possible.

On the other hand, rents are finally going down… a little bit.

5

And housing is hard to come by. While rents are going down a bit, they are nowhere near what they were before the whole dotcom debacle. Typical rents in San Francisco (for a one bedroom apartment) are around $1500.00/mo and you may not be in a very safe neighborhood.

I know that shared housing is a difficult choice for a grad student but that may be a good option for you. You might also consider looking into renting a small house over in the East Bay. This will mean a longer commute if you end up at UCSF but housing is slightly cheaper in the East Bay than San Francisco or the South Bay.

Have you tried the local papers? They all have on-line editions as do some of the weeklies (S.F. Weekly, Bay Guardian, East Bay Express.) Also, there are some decent rental agencies around, although they are more roommate oriented. Let me know if I can help out on the neighborhood issue.

I don’t know about Santa Cruz; that’s not, speaking as a snotty S.F. native, really part of the Bay Area.

6

Oh, and here’s a vital resource when looking for jobs/houses/etc in the Bay Area: Craigslist.org.

7

when I lived in the bay area, it wsn’t so much the money issue … we had a hard time finding a place, period!

We were hearing stories about bidding wars for apartments. and have a pet? forget it.

But, that was 2 years ago, then we moved. maybe the situation has changed since then. when we were there, the occupancy rate was at 97%.

you may want to consider getting a finder service. we used Cal-Rents.

to give you an idea:
we lived in San Fran (about 3 blocks from Union Square) in between the Tenderloin and Nob hill.

Due to rent control, the Tiny (and I do mean TINY) studio apartment was $560 a month (we moved in to it in 94). when we moved out in 98, then rent was jacked up to $1000 a month. the rent may be cheaper as you move away from the downtown area.

then we moved to San Jose. we rented a house there (2 bed 1 bath) in, well -shall we say, the “industrial” part of town. rent was $1200. I had a problem with my mail being robbed. It simply was not a nice part of town. that was from 98 to 99.
keep in mind the following:

your electric bill in San Fran will be rather small:there is no need for air conditioning really. same with heat.

in San Jose it gets hot, so your bill will be much higher.

In SF you do not need a car. otherwise, you’ll have to pay extra for a garage. if your apartment does not offer a space, you will have to pay for a spot, about $170ish.

In San Jose, you will need a car to get around, but most places there have parking.

so, I hope this helps give you an idea of costs.

8

I live in Santa Cruz. My housemate just moved out, and she said a 2-bedroom place (that isn’t a trashheap) starts at $1200 monthly. (I haven’t moved in 10 years, so I haven’t looked at the market myself recently) Santa Cruz is one of the most expensive places in the US to live. The Silicon Valley job boom really drove prices through the roof. Blah.
And if you’re thinking of buying rather than renting, SC is not the place for you.

If you want to list various neighborhoods/areas/whatever you’ve heard of, I can attempt to tell you something about them. Err, actually maybe you should email me, because I know I’ll forget to check back in this thread.

I don’t think auto insurance here is bad, but I don’t have much to compare it to. Parking in Santa Cruz is generally no big deal, it’s a small town. Utility costs are highly variable based on what sort of a house you live in. Most houses don’t have air conditioning and don’t need it, so PG&E bills go down in the summer.

This post is not organized very well, but I’m torn between the desire to be helpful and the need for sleep.

9

I lived in Berkeley until 1997, and I’ll bet rents have gone up considerably since I was there, but it’s a town you could get by in on a graduate student’s pay, especially if you don’t have a car (often more trouble than it’s worth there). Look into university-owned or assisted housing; IIRC there are some deals for grad students in university-owned apartments. Public transport in Berkeley good enough to do without a car, you can be near BART and AC Transit provides reasonable bus service.

I now live in San Jose, and would not be able to do so on a grad student’s pay. My rent alone is $1135 a month for a one-bedroom. Public transit in the South Bay sucks.

I have no idea about Santa Cruz, only visiting as an occasional tourist, but I hear it’s pretty expensive. You might look into university-owned housing there too, but the commute to UCSF or Berkeley would be difficult.

10

All of the above advice is spot on. I am a bay area native and can remember when rooms in a house were $100.[sup]00[/sup] a month!

It will require your entire combined salaries to survive here. You will probably want to investigate the east bay (Albany, Berkeley, Oakland) for housing. In those regions public transportation is quite effecient. The commute to UCSF will be a bit of a bother though. Living in San Francisco can have many advantages but if you own a car, SF can be a nightmare for parking.

So far no one has bothered to mention some other factors about the bay area, so I shall.

Quite simply, there is no other place on earth like the bay area. The abundance of parks, museums, learning centers, fine restaurants and social activities like the local music scene are second to none. The cost of living is rather high, but there is a comensurate quality of living that cannot be touched by many other urban areas, regardless of size.

Do your homework carefully. The universities that you have mentioned are among some of the finest in the entire world and your degrees from them will more than make up for any temporary discomfort with the increased earning power you will have for the rest of your working days. I could go on for many pages extolling the virtues of this area, but will refrain from doing so for the sake of the SDMB servers.

[Mrs. Lovejoy]

“Won’t someone please think of the servers!”

[/Mrs. Lovejoy]

11

I have good friends who are currently looking for a place to live. The cheapest housing they’ve been able to find is $900 for a decent sized studio in a good neighborhood. If I were in your shoes I would look for a place near BART in Oakland or in the north end of Alameda, which has good bus service to downtown Oakland and BART, which will get you to Berkeley or SF fairly conveniently. We call that the BMW commute (BART/Muni/Walk). In my experience you’ll find the best combination of accessibility, decent neighborhoods, and livable rents in this area.

If you decide to go to SF, a car will probably be more of a pain than it’s worth, if you end up in the East Bay, you will have a place to park, but you could fairly easily get by without one as well.

The housing market is loosening up here considerably. In the last 3 months that my friends have been looking, rents have dropped about 50 bucks. I have noticed that there are tons of for sale and rent signs going up in my neighborhood, and they are staying up for a while. That’s been pretty unusual, up until 6 months ago most homes sold before anybody bothered to put the sign up.

12

Right on Slackergirl. If you dont mind living in a studio, you can find one in a decent (or even nice) area for ~ $700. If you’re persistent you can find a place with quick access to an express bus line that takes you to BART and your commute wont be bad at all.

When I first moved to San Francisco I was making $45,000 and paid $1,015/ month in rent. I think its 100% worth the cost to live in the city. You will find that the extrememly diverse population, eclectic politics, excellent food and recreation (which does not have to be expensive) and overall beauty of the city will be well worth the cost of living.

I would strongly recommend looking for a place in San Francisco. Good Luck !!

13

indeed…

the cost of living is WORTH living in San Francisco.

I miss it terribly!

14

I have little too add to the above comments, other than to echo Zenster’s claim that it’s worth it :slight_smile: .

IMHO you are better off concentrating your search on the East Bay ( the above suggestions are all good ones ) regardless of which school you end up at ( Santa Cruz excepted, of course - that’d be one hell of a commute :smiley: ) both because of price and availability, but also because of weather. Personally I love the fog and mist ( used to live right off the beach in SF ), but most folks find it a little oppressive when they have to deal with it all year round, which you will in most parts of San Francisco, especially the affordable areas ( the Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods for example ). If you’re living in a cramped space ( and you likely will be ) this can be a tension mulitplier.

I’d also, again IMHO, not bother with the South Bay ( Silicon Valley, et al ). The rents aren’t appreciably cheaper, your commute will be longer ( if you drive it will be hellish ), and there is still a little less to do down there on a budget, though San Jose IS finally starting to grow into its puppy feet.

Good luck :slight_smile: .

  • Tamerlane