I personally love the Central Coast, San Luis Obispo to be exact.
Sacramento isn’t too bad of an area. I like Davis, which is nearby. It’s a small college town that absolutely loves biking.
What are you thinking of spending?
A major factor in house prices is the perceived quality of the local high school, as measured by test scores. This is often more a measure of the kids who live in the area than the quality of the school. If you don’t have kids, and are not planning on any for the moment, you can save a lot of money by looking for houses in nice neighborhoods with not very good schools. (Or even good but not great schools.)
As for BART, I agree that it is a factor. I live not far from the end of the line in Fremont, and use it fairly frequently to go into San Francisco. BART is being extended to Warm Springs in the south of Fremont and eventually San Jose. Work is well underway on the Warm Springs extension, not sure when San Jose will be connected, but they have the money.
Bookmark this thread. Come back in a few years and reread it. I predict you’ll laugh and laugh.
The Bay Area is an awesome place to live. You constantly find yourself feeling incredibly blessed to live somewhere with such amazing weather and so much great stuff to do. Yes, we have crazy housing prices and horrible traffic (though nothing like Southern California, shudder), but after a few weekend trips to wine country or Big Sur or Lake Tahoe or just some of the great neighborhoods in the city and East Bay, it stops seeming like such a big deal.
San Francisco is a great city, but very expensive and oddly cold and foggy in several areas. (Read up on the microclimates before you commit to living in any given SF neighborhood.) East Bay has much better weather and more reasonable living costs, and some great neighborhoods (look at the Rockridge/Piedmont/College areas of Berkeley/Oakland). And you’re still only a short BART ride away from the city.
P.S. Do not live in Stockton, it’s a hot, brown hellhole. (Sorry, Stockton, but it’s true.) And it’s way too far from the Bay Area for regular commuting. Blech. Davis is a cool college town, but hot as balls and also rather far away. Sacramento is somewhere between Davis and Stockton.
Last I checked (last summer), Stockton also had the second-highest violent crime rate in the state. Might have something to do with the housing prices.
I hesitate to put a dollar figure down; we’ll need to crunch some serious numbers and figure out what we can do. We have a modest inheritance from my in-laws that will help (but we need to discuss how much of it we want to use for a house). Lots of factors. My gut says we’ll land somewhere in the 300’s, which could get us anything from a studio loft to a decent 2/3 bedroom home, depending on location. Great point about the schools, thanks for that.
This mirrors some other advice we’ve already gotten, including from my SIL. This area will be high on our list for sure.
I live in Oakland/Rockridge (just moved there 8 mos ago from Voyager’s Fremont), so I’d be happy to share what I know.
The bad news is that 300k won’t get you very far there.
Yeah, that’s not a shock. We may need to go higher if my wife is OK with using a bigger chunk of her Dad’s money for a down-payment. As I said, we really haven’t discussed it in depth yet.
What kind of property taxes can we expect?
Ya got me; I rent. I imagine that’s googleable, Alameda County Assessor’s Office stuff.
It’s capped at 1% of your purchase price, plus whatever additional levies have been specifically approved by voters. Expect about 1.1% and you won’t be far off.
Something worth mentioning-- which took me a while to get used to after I moved out here-- is don’t forget outdoor space. We have practically a full room on our patio, and we sit out there all the time (I’m out there right now, actually.). Right now it’s got a table and chairs, but we’ve had a couch out there. The climate allows people here to use their outdoor space almost year round. So don’t discount the value of a nice patio. You will use it.
I also second Voyager’s point on housing and schools. I live in one such neighborhood, where you can get a house for half the price of one a couple blocks over with good schools.
Btw, even if you are not in tech, the tech companies do hire for other positions (I work in a very non technical department of one of the big tech companies), and the economy as a whole is doing well here, so it bodes well for job prospects at all kinds of companies.
ETA: And welcome! I adore living here and don’t ever want to move. As I proclaimed during my team’s White Elephant yesterday, while stealing something. . . I don’t own a pair of gloves. Being from NJ, I find joy in that.
Would two garageswork? (I just had to google around a little.) The two driveways don’t really show well in the picture. They show up on the Google Earth street view, though. (Went there to see how close the neighbor’s houses are. They’re really close.)
Five bedrooms for two people shouldn’t be much of a pinch, either.
For $300k you might consider the North Bay, Sonoma county specifically, especially if neither of you have to commute to the city. Slower pace of life, small and mid-size towns, and nearer both wine and beach than the east bay.
As someone who grew up just south of you (St. Louis) and lived only there for 32 years, then moved to Southern California 18 years ago, let me assuage your fear that you’ll miss Chi-town so much that you’ll be miserable on the coast — won’t happen. You’re going to become so spoiled by the weather and the nature and the ocean, you’ll wonder why you didn’t move there sooner.
And while I totally understand the feeling of loss at giving up a 6-year career where you’ve proven yourself valuable to your employer, you may also be amazed at what doors open up for you once you’re forced to re-start your career. I left a 10-year position with no clue where I’d go next and am now doing something I absolutely love and can’t begin to imagine myself back in that old job.
Good luck and have FUN!
I just heard this a few weeks ago from a few different people actually, and also from a Realtor. Crime rates have really gone up in Stockton, hence the low home prices.
I live in Northern CA too…welcome. 
And good luck with the transitions.
Double post, sorry.
I didn’t know there were a handful of us here. We should organize a dope meetup.
I spoke with my boss yesterday. Though there’s no real precedent, she liked my remote-working idea and wants to try to make it work, at the very least for a transitional period, which would be better than nothing. She does have to send it up the management chain, so it’s not a slam dunk.
But if the plan doesn’t fly, she’s promised to help me network. We have distributors and partner businesses in the Bay Area, and she knows people. Whatever ends up happening, I now feel much more at ease and confident that things will work out somehow.
So anyway, yeah, Stockton’s off the table. Not that it was ever firmly on it. I really like the North Bay idea; living in wine country would be awesome. But I keep coming back to the Berkeley area for some reason, even if we have to spend a bit more on housing. One of my possible job prospects is in Richmond, so there’s that. And it just looks to be the most logical and convenient spot to base ourselves. All of which could change tomorrow, of course.
That’s great news! Good karma to Ms Boss of Wheelz!
So, in case anybody is interested in an update:
My boss has yet to get a yea or nay from her boss on my remote working proposal. I think it may not fly, but as time passes I am coming to terms with moving on, and polishing up my resume. I’m less freaked out abut the whole thing, but it’s never good to be without employment. Financially, we could hadle it for a while, so I’m not panicing – yet. I’m also getting ready to call in those networking contacts we talked about before.
As for housing, the plan is still to rent for a year while looking for something to buy. After getting over the sticker shock, we raised our rent limit and a lot of options opened up. My wife is out there this weekend, and she fell in love with a house in Outer Sunset that’s a relative bargain. Plenty of room, two car garage, a yard, and four blocks from the ocean. The owners liked her and it sounds like we can get it if we want it.
Then she looked at a large 2-bedroom apartment 2 blocks from AT&T Park and fell in love with that too. I love the idea of living so close to a ballpark, but the traffic would be a hassle. Indoor parking though. So we’re a bit torn. Pros and cons to each.
I called a family friend who’s a realtor, and we’ll have our house up for sale by the end of the month. We need to do some painting and replace the carpet, but other than that, I think it’s in pretty decent shape to sell.
So that’s about it right now, or at least a quick summary thereof. I’m more excited than terrified at this point, but terrified still has a toe-hold. Crazy where life can take you.
Relax and enjoy you will love it there. I am envious
Capt