Hello, I live in the Midwest and have been for a very long time. I'm in tech so I plan on moving to the Bay Area in in the future. Not sure when but I want to.

Can someone who is familiar with housing in the area help me with some recommendations?
Criteria:
1. Good High School. My kid is in HS, so I don't care about quality of Elementary/Middle.
2. Accessible to tech companies. That is the main reason to move there, so I don't want it to be too far of a commute.
3. Safe - Less crime as possible
4. Affordable - Everyone's affordability is different so I am looking for a list of towns for me to look into in more detail.
5. Housing - I hope to find a house that is not older than 20 years old. Yes, that will be expensive, so I might have to extend that a bit.

Can someone give me a list of towns/cities in the area from "Most affluent" and go down the list in terms of cost? I will have to find what works for me in that list.
And please also let me know the cities to avoid and why.

I don't really have anything of value to add except maybe look into Aggie alumni clubs in the area for direction. Most big cities have one.

Expect a ton of snarky responses based on your criteria and the general feeling towards the Bay Area on this board.

Good luck and I hope you find what you are looking for. It's a beautiful part of the country.

JamesBREI06 said:

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I don't really have anything of value to add except maybe look into Aggie alumni clubs in the area for direction. Most big cities have one.

Expect a ton of snarky responses based on your criteria and the general feeling towards the Bay Area on this board.

Good luck and I hope you find what you are looking for. It's a beautiful part of the country.

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Thanks James, and not to worry about the snarkiness. I've been on this board 24 years so I know how things go!

My wife's oldest daughter lives in Union City. She was very liberal when she moved there from Austin 2 years ago. She's moving back this summer, since she "can't take the liberals here" any longer.

I've gone out there twice for work. East bay is pretty much a crap-hole…Oakland proper is nasty. Further south is not terrible.

Housing prices are ridiculous. The kid is in a 3/1.5 townhome for $3000/month.

Home prices are crazy. One house I went by was built in the 50s, 1800 sqft, and valued at $1 million. Prolly worth about $200,000 in Texas.

Pretty active group. My son out there has attended a few events. Start here.

https://m.facebook.com/100064411550735/

You probably need to research what you're looking for in "tech" on LinkedIn and see where target companies you'd like to work for are as a starting point. That's way too broad for anyone realistically to give you a good answer.

I used to travel out there for consulting and would stay in east bay (Walnut Creek). Nice area, but your standard suburb. Would occasionally have to take the train to the city and would take an hour. You couldn't pay me to actually drive into the city (not sure how covid has changed traffic, but it was awful.) have a buddy who lives closer to downtown and loves it, but the people are more his vibe. Silicon Valley isn't "close" to either of these areas. Apple for example is much closer to San jose.

Nothing is affordable and your kids will either have to go to private school or spend lots of your life in a car.

Unless your trying to get some vc networking, I don't see how you can gain enough out of it to justify that you can't get elsewhere in the country. The cool places are unaffordable and the not cool places are insanely over priced and you'd spend your life commuting. Def think about your goals and if they could be accomplished in austin or Miami or some other tech hot spot.

Take a trip out there on your own for a long weekend is also good advice. Nothing beats seeing and understanding with your own eyes.

Try and get with user WoMD.

As someone who is in tech, has family in the Bay Area, and current company corporate headquarters is in the Bay Area, I wish you luck in your search. I don't even have kids and couldn't make the logic or math work for me to relocate there, either for my current company or for a job change.

Just from my frequent business and personal (pre Covid, have only been a couple times since Covid) trips out there, here's some thoughts I would look into first if for some reason I was forced out there. I don't think you could actually pay me enough to live in the city, and I even got married there, lived visiting but couldn't handle that lifestyle long term. On the peninsula, I'd recommend checking out the San Mateo area. East bay, I'd recommend Danville/Walnut Creek. And depending how far south you go, maybe as far as Gilroy to really get out of the city. Depending on where you're trying to be, any of those commutes can be brutal. I have other coworkers that live really far out off of I5, and they mostly work from home and travel in just the few days they have to be in person, but from the sounds of your situation, you want to be around the center or action so that might not work for you.

Another thing to keep in mind is state income taxes when doing the math (you didn't say which state, so can't compare directly), but that was always a big factor for me too.

There is some good housing cost data in this article https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/real-estate/bay-area-home-prices/

We were somewhat forced to move to this area in 2021 when my wife and I both lost our jobs due to our company's bankruptcy and ended up getting offers from Bay Area companies. The only place we could afford to buy was in a small town in the Santa Cruz Mountains which is in between San Jose and Santa Cruz.

Live in Bay and have for 22yrs.

Most affordable with good HS would be Almaden - where I live. Leland is a top HS in CA. It's South SJ. Nice, clean neighborhoods, have raised 2 kids here. Very quiet, etc. Now, it is South SJ, so I wouldn't recommend if you have to commute to north peninsula or SF or even east bay.

Now, for a home under 20yrs that is decent size (>2ksqft) you are going to pay > $2M.

Los Gatos is nice, but more expensive. Nice areas on the peninsula will be more expensive as well - Menlo, Palo Alto, Burlingame, Los Altos. I don't list San Mateo as their public HS isn't one I would recommend.

East bay, I can't really say. Mission HS in Fremont is highly ranked and Fremont has some nice neighborhoods, but I don't know them by name. Livermore and Pleasanton both are nice too as is Walnut Creek, though I can't speak to their HS.

Shoot me a DM if you'd like more info

SteveBott said:

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Pretty active group. My son out there has attended a few events. Start here.

https://m.facebook.com/100064411550735/

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Thanks! I will take a look.

Rexter said:

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My wife's oldest daughter lives in Union City. She was very liberal when she moved there from Austin 2 years ago. She's moving back this summer, since she "can't take the liberals here" any longer.

I've gone out there twice for work. East bay is pretty much a crap-hole…Oakland proper is nasty. Further south is not terrible.

Housing prices are ridiculous. The kid is in a 3/1.5 townhome for $3000/month.

Home prices are crazy. One house I went by was built in the 50s, 1800 sqft, and valued at $1 million. Prolly worth about $200,000 in Texas.

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So the SF libs were so libby than the Austin libs could not deal with them.

I don't place myself in either bucket but I am okay with people having their own views on anything as long as it does not impinge on others. But that is not always the case as the LGBTABCD types like to push their views and make themselves visible and in your face. I worked with a gay fellow in a previous company in the Midwest where I am and he was announcing that he wanted to decorate the company meeting rooms in pink and all other (garish) colors. This was pre-COVID of course.

I would be moving solely for the job opps and for the weather. I've lived in the Midwest for 2 decades plus and my career has suffered. All my friends who moved west have advanced.

Hesitant to post this, because outside of cost of living, not trying to discourage the Bay Area at all....

But have you considered the Research triangle in NC? Unless there is specific tech drawing you to SF, obviously. But my wife is in tech and 5+ years ago 70+% of her trips were to SF. Vast majority of her trips now are North Carolina.

htxag09 said:

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Hesitant to post this, because outside of cost of living, not trying to discourage the Bay Area at all....

But have you considered the Research triangle in NC? Unless there is specific tech drawing you to SF, obviously. But my wife is in tech and 5+ years ago 70+% of her trips were to SF. Vast majority of her trips now are North Carolina.

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I had a childhood friend visit me over the weekend and she and her husband lived in Rayleigh, NC in the 90s while I was at A&M. She is in Champaign, IL since her daughter is a student but she is graduating so they plan on moving. She was trying to convince me to move to Cary, NC which is a suburb of Rayleigh. I think you might mean the same area.

I have a lot of undergrad classmates (I did my grad school at A&M, not undergrad) in the Bay Area and a cousin also with whom I grew up with. I have no personal connection with NC. Since I am in tech (Product Management), the best places for that is the Bay Area and Seattle, though Research Triangle is pretty good.

Yes, it is expensive, but I think I should be able to afford up to $2M or $2.5M for housing. I have been pretty frugal in general and I don't have any debt. I believe Bay Area housing is getting cheaper since people are moving away. Also, before I die, I want to experience life living there since people talk about it a lot.

QBCade said:

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Live in Bay and have for 22yrs.

Most affordable with good HS would be Almaden - where I live. Leland is a top HS in CA. It's South SJ. Nice, clean neighborhoods, have raised 2 kids here. Very quiet, etc. Now, it is South SJ, so I wouldn't recommend if you have to commute to north peninsula or SF or even east bay.

Now, for a home under 20yrs that is decent size (>2ksqft) you are going to pay > $2M.

Los Gatos is nice, but more expensive. Nice areas on the peninsula will be more expensive as well - Menlo, Palo Alto, Burlingame, Los Altos. I don't list San Mateo as their public HS isn't one I would recommend.

East bay, I can't really say. Mission HS in Fremont is highly ranked and Fremont has some nice neighborhoods, but I don't know them by name. Livermore and Pleasanton both are nice too as is Walnut Creek, though I can't speak to their HS.

Shoot me a DM if you'd like more info

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Thanks for your reply and the for leads. I will look into them more. I looked a the to find Almaden, I see that one of my undergrad friend lives in what Google Maps has as a boundary though his address says San Jose (Aspen Creek).

I am okay with $2M - $2.5M. Anything above may be a stretch. I have been prowling the Bay neighborhoods on realtor.com and I notice a lot more new houses. People seem to be tearing down old houses and building new ones. Good sign to renew the area.

My cousin with whom I grew up with lives in Los Gatos something close by if affordable may also be good.

Job-wise, I work for an Austin, TX company (remotely) and my boss lives in San Francisco downtown and my engineering team mainly lives in the Bay Area. So the transition should not be a problem from the work perspective. I am not look for a new job, just for a change of city. After A&M, I wanted to go to the Bay Area and even interviewed at Netscape in 1997 but did not get any jobs there. I ended up in the Chicago area and planned to move to the Bay after 1 year. Here I am, after 25 years (in June), still here. Time has flown by. As my kids fly off from the nest, it's a good time. Tech industry in Chicago sucks. Bad mentality and I enjoy my current job and people.

I am okay for my current job as I work remotely and things are great. But if I get laid off or decide to leave, I have to find something remote again and that may not happen. Hence I need to move.

How are Cupertino and Sunnyvale? My other question is how is the commute from Fremont, San Jose, etc to the areas where the tech companies are? Here pre COVID I would commute 2.5 hours a day (to and from).

That sounds about right if I had to guess time wise? However the bay is an interesting place. You could be in a tech company in far north SF or one in Fremont or one in San Jose. That's a very large triangle. At least by having the same job as you currently have but moving there you could get a feel for the different places over time and go from there.

infinity ag said:

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QBCade said:

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Live in Bay and have for 22yrs.

Most affordable with good HS would be Almaden - where I live. Leland is a top HS in CA. It's South SJ. Nice, clean neighborhoods, have raised 2 kids here. Very quiet, etc. Now, it is South SJ, so I wouldn't recommend if you have to commute to north peninsula or SF or even east bay.

Now, for a home under 20yrs that is decent size (>2ksqft) you are going to pay > $2M.

Los Gatos is nice, but more expensive. Nice areas on the peninsula will be more expensive as well - Menlo, Palo Alto, Burlingame, Los Altos. I don't list San Mateo as their public HS isn't one I would recommend.

East bay, I can't really say. Mission HS in Fremont is highly ranked and Fremont has some nice neighborhoods, but I don't know them by name. Livermore and Pleasanton both are nice too as is Walnut Creek, though I can't speak to their HS.

Shoot me a DM if you'd like more info

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Thanks for your reply and the for leads. I will look into them more. I looked a the to find Almaden, I see that one of my undergrad friend lives in what Google Maps has as a boundary though his address says San Jose (Aspen Creek).

I am okay with $2M - $2.5M. Anything above may be a stretch. I have been prowling the Bay neighborhoods on realtor.com and I notice a lot more new houses. People seem to be tearing down old houses and building new ones. Good sign to renew the area.

My cousin with whom I grew up with lives in Los Gatos something close by if affordable may also be good.

Job-wise, I work for an Austin, TX company (remotely) and my boss lives in San Francisco downtown and my engineering team mainly lives in the Bay Area. So the transition should not be a problem from the work perspective. I am not look for a new job, just for a change of city. After A&M, I wanted to go to the Bay Area and even interviewed at Netscape in 1997 but did not get any jobs there. I ended up in the Chicago area and planned to move to the Bay after 1 year. Here I am, after 25 years (in June), still here. Time has flown by. As my kids fly off from the nest, it's a good time. Tech industry in Chicago sucks. Bad mentality and I enjoy my current job and people.

I am okay for my current job as I work remotely and things are great. But if I get laid off or decide to leave, I have to find something remote again and that may not happen. Hence I need to move.

How are Cupertino and Sunnyvale? My other question is how is the commute from Fremont, San Jose, etc to the areas where the tech companies are? Here pre COVID I would commute 2.5 hours a day (to and from).

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Cupertino High schools are very good, not sure on Sunnyvale. That said, neither are where I would live personally.

LG has a nice downtown, so that's a draw. Some of the hoods on the peninsula do as well.

My commute is about 30mins in the morning. My tech company is in San Jose. Many tech companies have HQ or at least a big office in SJ now as peninsula and SF became way expensive years ago.

Yes, many have been doing the tear down and new home in Almaden, so you can find them. Prob a good time to buy as home prices have finally retreated - we bought our current in 2011 and it's been on an up cycle ever since, so it's time.

DM me if you'd like to chat

Los Gatos is a nice town. Love the proximity to the Santa Cruz mountains and nearby Monterey Bay as well.

Chipotlemonger said:

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Los Gatos is a nice town. Love the proximity to the Santa Cruz mountains and nearby Monterey Bay as well.

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LG seems good and close to the action but Monterey Bay seems very far away. The No 1 reason to move there would be career opps. Second is weather. Commute seems to be a problem from Monterey.

Commuting from Monterey would be awful.

I was not talking about commuting from Santa Cruz or the Monterey bay. Merely just saying that it is a beautiful area to live close to, and Los Gatos out of all of the Bay area has relatively easy access to Santa Cruz.

Chipotlemonger said:

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I was not talking about commuting from Santa Cruz or the Monterey bay. Merely just saying that it is a beautiful area to live close to, and Los Gatos out of all of the Bay area has relatively easy access to Santa Cruz.

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OK got it.
However, my top reason for moving is job opps since I am in tech. In the future it is likely that the norm will be hybrid working, not 100% remote like I am doing now. Weather or "change" comes down the list. That means that commute time is important for my particular case. Monterey does seems like a good place for retirement or for a visit.

Home prices in the SF area seem to be falling as per S&P's index.
https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/indices/indicators/sp-corelogic-case-shiller-san-francisco-home-price-nsa-index/#overview

Yes, they are. They have had a crazy run since 2011. Time for a retreat