SF Bay area on $75K a year - poverty or prosperity?

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be unemployed. I’m an urban planner, and we typically don’t make that much money. I’m single, and I own my own house, but I’m not living in the lap of luxury.

I’m looking at a planning job that’s advertised in the East Bay area. At first, I dismissed the region, because of the high cost of living. I’d never be able to own a house, much less rent anything larger than a tiny studio on a planner’s salary, or so I thought. However, this job, which I’m pretty well qualified for, has a salary range of $70,928 to $84,089. Damn impressive.

I don’t think I could afford to buy a house with that salary, as long as I’m still single. Still, though, I’m thinking “the numbers seem impressive. How well could I survive on that?” Could I live a lifestyle that’s reasonably middle-class (i.e. decent two bedroom apartment, auto insurance, utilities, etc) in the Bay area on $75K?

A two-bedroom apartment? For a single? Why? Your rent would be more than my house payment in Napa valley. I’ve always been quite happy in one bedrooms, even after I got married. OK, you own a house, I guess you’re used to a lot of room, but a 2BR in a decent neighborhood will go for $1500, at least.

But on $75,000, you could swing it. I mean, the rest of life’s expenses pale in comparison to rent.

It really depends on where in the Bay Area you’re looking at for housing. SanFran proper? Bezerkly? :wink: East Palo Alto? Woodside? Redwood City? Etc., etc., etc. General rule of thumb (from personal experience in the area): the longer you’re willing to commute, the better your chances of being able to find an affordable situation.

East Bay area, though, is usually a bit more affordable than the peninsula proper. Can you give us a specific town or narrow down the area a bit more, so we can give better factual responses?

Cost of living calculators help, if you can find one that breaks down the Bay Area enough to give you different answers for East Palo Alto versus Redwood City, for instance. I may be able to live decently in La Honda on a given salary, but be living hand to mouth down in Palo Alto, and I don’t know if the cost of living calculators out there are refined enough to show that.


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Yes, you’d be fine.

Shouldn’t this be in IMHO?

It’s Bezerkly. Bezerkly city government, as a matter of fact! Yeah, my political beliefs lean somewhat left of center, but they’re not quite in the Boulder/Berkeley/Eugene camp.

Why 2 bedrooms? Parents visiting. Two 50 pound dogs. Two bedroom apartments typically mean larger living rooms and alrger kitchens than one bedroom apartments.

BTW, it should be in IMHO. Sorry.

An excellent resource for finding just about anything you want in the Bay Area (especially housing) is craigslist. Of course there’s other places to go, but it’ll give you a good idea. You can get a 2-bedroom in Berkeley for ~$1500 but it won’t be the very nicest place. On the other hand $75k is a decent salary. If you want to live a little cheaper I’d try further north (or even more south, but probably past Oakland) and take BART into work (I would not recommend driving for your commute if you can at all help it) You can see a map of BART routes (and other transit stuff) at www.transitinfo.org.

I make in the upper end of that range and I share a rental. But in my case it is a three-bedroom house - I would rather share and get a larger space with a nice yard and a little extra discretionary income, than get an apartment to myself. As it is I live a pretty comfortable life, all in all ( eat out several days a week, can afford decent toys, etc. ).

A friend of mine ( recently moved out of state, so she had this place 6 months ago ) was renting a smallish two-bedroom house ( apartment sized, really ), with an average-sized yard in Berkeley for $1550/mnth and I would say that is reasonably typical. Some neighboring cities 10 minutes away, like El Cerrito, are just a little cheaper. Other expenses ( other than gas, which tends to be relatively expensive as well ) ) aren’t too far out of line with other large urban areas.

I will say that the insane housing prices aside, I think the Bay Area’s amenities ( weather, food, natural beauty, superior record and bookstores, other cultural stuff ) make it more than worthwhile to live here. Just have to add up your priorities. Buying a home will be a little difficult on that salary unless you are prepared to make a very long commute.

But at the very least if you are seriously giving thought to making the move you should fly out here and spend a weekend to see if it is to your liking. Personally I love it here, high rent and all :).

  • Tamerlane

I keep doing the calculations for that area and coming up with a figure right around there if I wanted to live comfortably middle class (the way that you described) and be able to save some in the case of a catastrophe (long term unemployment, etc.) …

…if it weren’t for my hideous college debt. Since you don’t seem to have that problem, the money should be fine.

I’ll add a couple data points here. I used to live in El Cerrito a couple years ago while I was in graduate school at UC Berkeley. I shared a nice one bedroom not far from El Cerrito Del Norte BART that probably could have gone for $800/month, but (luckily) was less than that most of the time I was living there. As others have said, the East Bay is cheaper than the peninsula, and it’s cheaper as you go north or south of Berkeley and Oakland. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the density of city amentities is also lower as you get further out.

Shortly before I left, my neighbors bought a two bedroom house with a partial bay view in the El Cerrito hills for about $340k. This was right about the peak of the housing market, so things may be somewhat cheaper now.

Keep in mind that there’s plenty of suburbia (with a lower cost of living in many places) on the east side of the Berkeley/Oakland hills. If buying a house is a priority, you could look there. BART extends into eastern Contra Costa county a good ways, and to Dublin/Pleasanton, so there’s at least a potential that you could live there and not be stuck in commuter traffic.

Mr. Feely, pining to get back to the Bay Area…

“Bezerkly city government, as a matter of fact!”

Have you checked with your future bosses to see if you have to live in the city limits of Berkeley? I’ve applied for jobs with the City of Chicago, and it’s a firm rule that you have to live in the city proper (at least when you start work, and for some jobs at the time you apply!). On the other hand, New York City seems to be prety loose about nonresident municipal workers.

Come and rent a room from Mr. Pug and me. He has been laid off, we’re hurting, and we live a little south of San Jose. $75K is a nice enough salary for the bay area, though not over the top. If you’re at all into good food and wine, you will love Bezerkly. Be sure to look in on Kermit Lynch, wine merchant once you arrive.

I can’t imagine that’s the case in Berkeley, since the city is so small and there is a housing shortage there.

Want to adopt a 41year old kid?:smiley:

Just some notes.

A two bedroom apartment on lower Nob Hill was going for $2500 a month.
I pay just under $600 for a room & private bath in a residential hotel in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco(not a nice neighborhood), but I been here since '95. To rent today would cost about $800 a month.

Here’s a pretty decent online comparison tool for cities. If you are re-locating it might prove useful.

http://homeadvisor.msn.com/PickAPlace/CompareCities.aspx

Check it out.