Need advice on housing in the Bay Area

So I am relocating to the Bay Area because of work... I will be working out of either the downtown San Francisco office or the Santa Clara office (I don't know yet)

What areas should I be looking at for housing that is nice? I am not looking for condos just homes.

If anyone knows the Miami area, something is comparable to Coral Gables....

Thanks in advance....

 

well, if you dont mind commute (which isn't that bad anyways) i would recomend Lafayette, orinda, walnut creek or pleasant hill. pleasant hill is really the only under 1M for a "home".. walnut creek is over 1M and so is lafayette and orinda.. YES you can find a home for under 1M in walnut creek, but to put it in perspective, the town house my mom lives in, the second largest floor plan of 1800 sq feet which sits on 2300 sq foot lot just closed for 780K 2 months ago.. maybe 3 months.. lol.. soooo you get my drift.. built in early 80's.. lafayette average is higher but much nicer homes in walnut creek once you get towards the mountain (mt diablo).. what is your price range? this is for san fransisco btw.. the east bay is the best place to live if you work in san fran.. you can just BART (bay area rapid transit) to anywhere in san fran from anywhere basically in east bay.. PM.. i've lived here my whole life..

peter

 

I would counter that and say stay within the penninsula (unless you are in santa clara in which case you can consider moving further south, but don't have to).

Not sure what Coral Gables is like, but if you give us more background that would help?

--Dan

 

It depends on what you are looking for.
If you don't care about going into the city (SF) and are happy with the suburbia, the east bay (Walnut Creek, San Ramon, etc.) can be nice. Forget about an easy commute to Santa Clara though. It will take an hour easy. Any time you have to cross a bridge in the bay area, its a mess. You can take bart into the city from WC. That's an hour (get to the station, park, wait, take the train, walk to your office...). If you stay in the mid-peninsula, real estate is more expensive, but you can easiliy work in the city or in the valley. North to south, areas like Burlingame, San Mateo, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City are more reasonable. Hillsborough, Palo Alto, Atherton, Woodside, Los Altos are more expensive. Then, further south you go (San Jose, etc), cheaper things get, in general (except for Saratoga).
Stay away from Oakland and Berkely unless you enjoy the urban experience.
I also would not recommend Fremont and Milpitas - boring, boring.

 

Awesome info... Coral Gables is an older established neighborhood.. price range for the area varies alot but starts at about $700K until $5M or so...

How are the property taxes and insurance costs?

Miami is skyhigh due to the fact that there is no state income tax and the insurance is high because of the freaking hurricanes... I am sure that insurance is on the way up as well after Katrina...

 

well, i think it will be around the $1M range roughly..

I am currently in Monterey/Carmel on vacation..

So I will check these areas out on my way back to San Francisco this afternoon... I am going back to Florida tomorrow...

 

Santa Clara is my back yard, so i know the communities well. Someone mentioned Coral Gables is an older established neighborhood from $700K-$5M, so if that is your comparable, you probably won't get "sticker shock". For an established older neighborhoold look at the Willow Glen district in the city of San Jose, Los Gatos is upscale while having a small town flavor (though $1M is on the very lower edge) and Cupertino is a typical California suburb with good freeway/commute access and good schools. Your money will go further in communities like Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Santa Clara itself. If you like the hillside/country style, then the outskirts of Almaden Valley and the hills to Santa Cruz have a lot of country roads and homes (though commute can be more tedious if you're forced to go at rush hour peaks).

I didn't mention Saratoga because $1M won't buy anything except a condo.

You're welcome to contact me if you want more info on the Santa Clara region.

 

I would recommend Redwood City...I've lived in the Mt. Carmel area and its a good area...houses are about 1400-220o sq. feet and a house that is in great condition will cost around 800-1,000,000...the mt. carmel area is nice b/c there are two good private schools, and everything you need is not more than a mile away...its also easy access to 280 if you go to work in santa clara and probably a 20minute walk to the train station to go to san francisco...

 

Just to echo what Yin said about Cupertino and Saratoga, I think they are both excellent options. Modest sized homes (2000-3000 sq ft.) can be found for in Cupertino $1-1.25M. It will be more difficult to find homes at this price in Saratoga, but they are around. Also as previously mentioned there is easy access to highways, specifically hwy 85 and 280. Santa Clara is less than 20 minutes away on 280 and there are two options (85/101 and 280) to get to San Francisco (about an hour away). Hope this helps!

-Jon

Edit: Forgot to mention that if you have kids, Cupertino has great schools (Faria Elementary was the best public school in the state a couple of years ago, should still be up there now), and the high schools are great as well. Very safe, relatively quiet suburb to raise kids.

 

I would also say consider belmont/san carlos/san mateo areas. Closer access to both points in the penninsula, as opposed to being too far south (how many people from willow glen do you know go to SF ever?), or on the east side (which should be avoided at all costs).

Of course, I'm biased on location, since both are close to me (HB).

First you should find out if you will be in SF or SC.

--Dan

 

Rent an apartment near your work for three month. This will give you time to get the lay of the land and figure out where you want to live. The big item is how much windshield time you are willing to put in for a commute. When it rains around the Bay Area, nothing moves!

 

I visit SF maybe once every 6-8 months and that's fine with me. Being too far south is a plus not a minus! Of course, someone who hasn't lived in the Bay area before might want to visit SF a *few* times...

Actually, he has several choices which require more input. Would he rather live closer to whichever office he's assigned to (SF vs Santa Clara)? Would he rather split the difference in case they change offices on him later (San Mateo, Redwood City, Burlingame are good options in that case)? Does school district matter a lot? Does he have a tolerance for long commutes? Etc, etc.

 

i live in menlo park (the county area actually), right in the middle with a small town feel. it matches your description of coral gables.

for a mil, i'd suggest redwood shores, foster city, redwood city (hills area), san carlos, and belmont. anywhere else on the mid-penninsula will get u a shack or attic.

 

DO NOT ever buy a house based on school district, private the kids instead for less $. (my opinion.)

I'd buy a house in Hillsborough from some twit who thinks the market is about to 'crash'.

Also so I could hang with Dan.


EDIT: I don't think there's anything in HB at the $1m mark though. Los Gatos is nice. If you can work from home most days, buy land in Los Altos Hills, and build a ****-palace.

 

You're right that the typical "good" school district price delta is often more than the cost of private school. However, price appreciation usually tracks accordingly; hence a good school district neighborhood is often a better real estate investment as well.

 

Once you find out where you will be working, let us know. I live in Marin, which is a great commute to SF, but would be miserable to go any farther south. There are some great places to live near both places, but you really don't want to commute from one to the other and you don't want to commute from Walnut Creek to Santa Clara...unless your company car will be an F-430!

 

I'd second collin's recommendation. I've been in BA for 20 yo and very active in real estate (not a broker).

Around $1-1.2M for single family home, I'd choose pennisula for
1. weather, not too hot like south bay or east bay, and not foggy like SF
2. location, close to SF and SJ (30min each way)

If school is not a concern, Belmont offers bigger lots w view. San Carlos is pretty nice too. Both places are older homes that need work.

Foster City has had good appreciation lately. With a new HS on the way, it'll keep going up.

Redwood Shores has school overcrowding issues so many have moved out to San Carlos and Foster City.

Cupertino continues to offer excellent schools with reasonable prices. However, keep in mind that demographics is mostly asian, many are first gen immigrants. (not a racist remark but there is a culture barrier)

There are some smaller houses in Menlo that could be your price range.

It's probly best to get a real estate agent to show you around different neighborhoods. Be prepared for sticker shock!! It's a good thing that you don't have to worry about over bidder as much these days.

 

Good point. Desireable areas are just that.

 

I work in Santa Clara and have lived in Santa Clara, Cupertino and Saratoga. As others have said, Cupertino does have a strong ethnic element of Asians and also Indians. Its about 50/50 (caucasian/asian with some latino thrown in). Bang/buck, the best area is the parts of the Cupertino school district that are not in Cupertino. You get Cupertino public schools which are best in the state in both elementary and high school and you get a little bit of a discount for Cupertino prices.

There is a tiny part of San Jose called West San Jose that borders Cupertino and Saratoga that is excllent for this. Also, parts of Sunnyvale and Santa Clara are also in Cupertino schools.

If you are interested in renting, I'm renting out my Santa Clara house right now. It is in the Cupertino school district.

You do have to calibrate your thinking to pricing here. This may be a bit of a generalization but if your willing to accept that, pricing goes roughly like this:

lowest to highest:

San Jose
Santa Clara
Sunnyvale
Cupertino/Mt. View
Los Altos/Los Gatos/Saratoga

If you have any questions of where to start off, I can give you some guidelines if you PM me. All of these offer a relatively easy to commute to Santa Clara (with the slight exception of Los Gatos since you have to come up 17 which is a bit crowded in the morning).

Scott

 

you guys are awesome, great feedback... I love the people in California which is one of the major reasons for moving...

I think the timelines are as follows...

We are thinking that the move will occur in about 6-8 months in which we will rent a place out for 3-6 months to trial the area. When we decide the area we want, we will put the Miami house up for sale and start scoping out for the new location in Cali...

How is the situation with property taxes and insurance?

I am used to real high property taxes and really high insurance costs in Florida... I guess since we don't have state income tax, we pay alot more on property taxes... My current home is 2100 SF and we bought a few years back at $500K, my property taxes are over $10K per year and insurance is about $2800 per year so over $1000 goes to property taxes and insurance every month.

Lastly, what's the scoop with earthquakes and the San Andreas fault? I know hurricanes real well but I am clueless on earthquakes....

Thanks...

 

Your property taxes will be lower, but not much. Your insurance will be a lot lower if you don't buy earthquake coverage (maybe 50%). If you do, it will be almost as much as you are paying now. I do not buy quake, as there is a 15% deductible and the premium is just too high for the risk transferred. There is a big difference in quake risk from city to city and even block to block. You need to be aware of the seismic stability of the area you are considering. There are maps available on the Internet. A house built on fill will cost a lot more to insure than one built on granite, but you would definitely want to insure the house on fill and probably wouldn't worry about the house built on granite.

 

Hell with earthquake insurance. Live on a houseboat.

 

Better buy tsunami insurance, then!

 

Here's a map of the major faults in the Bay Area, if you find more detailed survey maps they will show there are about a dozen more small faults along each of the ones you see on this map.

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/FaultMaps/122-38.htm

Just remember not to hang heavy things on the walls without reenforcement or it will probably fall over in a big one. There was a special about all the fault lines on a local TV station (KRON-4) in fact it was on last night, but I did not record it. Informative to say the least. I think I have a VHS of this from it's earlier showing, I'll try to dig it out tonight after football.

The Hayward and Calavaras fault lines are supposed to be where the next "big one" hits, but it won't really matter because the whole region will be screwed. The quake it '89 was in Santa Cruz, which is not even on the map from the link.

The land your house sits on will probably decide the fate of it during an earthquake. All the buildings in SF that you saw slanted and turned over, and the freeways that collapsed, were all built on reclaimed land or landfills. What happens in an earthquake is that the water shakes up and out of the land, cause liquidfication and structures fail (go to the beach, get some sand and water in a box, stand an object in the sand and then shake the box back and forth you'll see what I mean).

I'm unsure about the exact location you want to move, but you'll probably live somewhere that is solid land and not fill, not really much to worry about.

A few blocks away from me is a small fault line, then another quarter mile or so is a reservior. Which was carved out by the San Andreas Fault. No one can predict a quake. When it happens I guess we'll all be screwed. The ground is constantly moving, very slowly. Look at the link, the colored boxes show recent movement. It's not much to worry about, again we'll all be in it together if something happens.

**
Here is a "shake" map from the Loma Preita quake in '89.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/shakemap/nc/shake/Loma_Prieta/intensity.html

I am located south of SF and I can tell you the shaking was bad, but I don't think anyone was hurt in my neighborhood. Nor were any homes majorly damaged, just things off the shelf.

 

Keep in mind that the most inventory is on the market in Spring through early Summer (but this also tends to see the most price jumps month/month). The houses that don't sell by the end of the Summer drag into Fall and early Winter and there may be some deals then.

Property taxes will run approximately 1.25% of your purchase price (Prop 13 is 1%, the 0.25% is local assessments and varies, so $1M => $12.5K). Increases will be limited to a few % of the last year's assessment so tax will be very predictable. Insurance isn't so bad, probably $1K, give or take (property value tends to be dominated by the land value), unless you get Earthquake insurance (which is expensive & has very high deductibles).

You learn to live with the risk (just like hurricanes). Most earthquakes are small tremors or shakers (3-6 on the Richter scale) and you use them to practice getting out, getting under a door frame or getting under a sturdy desk/table (danger is house/things falling onto you) depending on where you are. What you feel will depend on the epicenter and how far away you are (a 5.0 will feel like a 7.0 if it's right under you, but feel like a 3.0 if it's 50 miles away). Your house should be Earthquake prepped (frame bolted down, water heater tied down, etc). When you move in, anchor heavy things that might fall. Single story wood-frame houses are the most survivable (most structural flex); brick houses and brick chimneys tend to break & crack. Otherwise be ready for the "big one" (Richter 7.0 - 9.0 or greater), with 1-week emergency kit food/water/fuel/tent/blankets/etc. There is almost zero predictability except that there are faults all through the area with variable probabilities assigned to each fault of 3-30% in the next 50 years, so nothing much you can do. However, there are areas like the Marina in SF and Foster City in the Peninsula that are built on fill, so much more likely to amplify any earthquake shocks (called liquefaction, check on that when you're looking). Otherwise, pick the place you want and be prepared.