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New job in San Francisco
DBReed
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I recently landed a job playing with an orchestra in San Francisco, and I had some questions about the cost of living over there. I'd be making a little over $52,000 for the first year, but that might also be supplemented by things like teaching music lessons and playing other small jobs around the area, so that figure is a minimum of what I'd be making. Also, my girlfriend will be living with me as well, and she will be trying to get a job as a teacher in the area, or at the very least will return to working in retail.
With that in mind, what are some options for me as far as places to live? I figure that I won't be making enough money to live directly in San Francisco, but I don't mind commuting. I would like to avoid having a car if at all possible and just get around using public transportation, but I don't know if that would be feasible living outside of the city.
If you can think of any other information that might be helpful, please chime in. All of this stuff is new to me, as this will be my first actual job.
With that in mind, what are some options for me as far as places to live? I figure that I won't be making enough money to live directly in San Francisco, but I don't mind commuting. I would like to avoid having a car if at all possible and just get around using public transportation, but I don't know if that would be feasible living outside of the city.
If you can think of any other information that might be helpful, please chime in. All of this stuff is new to me, as this will be my first actual job.
DBReed on
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$52k isn't too bad especially if you don't have a car. You can live in the city on that. Just plan on looking for a room for rent with 1 or more roommates.
For living outside the city there are plenty of options even if you don't have a car, especially if you have a bike. On the east side of the bay, Oakland and Berkeley are probably your best options. You can go south of Oakland, but the further south you go, the harder it will be to get around by bike and public transit. Don't bother going any further south than San Leandro; besides the long BART rides, once you end up south of Oakland Coliseum it turns into car country.
It's a similar principle for the west side of the bay. The further south you go, the harder it is to get around by bike. Don't bother going south of Millbrae. (You can get around by bike in Burlingame and San Mateo, but you're not saving any money living there.)
Basically, as long as you're staying close (1 mile-ish) to the BART lines, you're fine for commuting. There's also CalTrain, but CalTrain sucks.
But don't count the city itself out, it's expensive but it's not that expensive.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
its cleaner than bart and you're allowed to drink on it
of course its also expensive as all hell and slow
Oakland would be significantly more comfortable though, and your gf would have an easier time finding work.
Oh yeah I don't mind it sometimes.
I just hate relying on it for commuting. If you miss your train, depending your station and the time you're working, it might be an hour until the next one. It's not like you can just say to your boss "sure, I can stay another 15 minutes" because then you might be screwed getting home. And they're often running late because of cars that get stalled on the outdoor tracks.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
If you're in the city, a more realistic expectation for her would be a part-time tutoring job supplemented by another part-time tutoring job or a retail job. You can't even count on substituting.
The outlying suburbs are a lot easier for teaching positions.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Look, to put this in perspective, my fiancee and I have a comfortably roomy one-bedroom in a decent area at $1250/month. You could handle that fine by yourself with the salary you'll have even if your gf has to take a while to find a job.
Steam: badger2d
And commuting by car across the Bay Bridge can be a nightmare. And at four dollars (only collected going west) it adds up pretty quickly though a FasTrak is a great idea if that kind of money is 'no object'. Living within the city might be expensive, but it's not New York expensive.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
I second this.
I live on the west side of the bay (the peninsula) and I prefer it over the east side of the bay.
Benefits: Easier to get to/from SF, nicer apartments and neighborhoods in general, less traffic
Drawbacks: More suburban, less nightlife outside of SF, less culture outside of SF, worse weather (depending on where we're talking about)
I live on the border between South San Francisco and Colma, which means it's often windy and foggy where I live, and some people hate that but I love it. And traffic is surprisingly minimal. It's a quick drive or a 20 minute train ride to get to the city - I have to commute down to San Jose right now, which sucks, but when I was taking the BART up to SF for my commute it was fucking sweet.
That said, because you're going to be walking/biking, the lack of traffic doesn't matter as much to you, and the worse weather is much more of a drawback, so you might be better off in the east bay.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
West Bay wins for Fast Food Valhalla in Daly City.
We have a roomy, one bedroom apartment in Nob Hill and pay $1,600 a month, which includes water and a garage. With 2 incomes, even though they aren't very high, rent is totally manageable when split between us. The rest of it just comes down to living frugally, which actually isn't that hard, considering the average cost of living here.
We're still looking at places outside of the city. I've heard that Oakland is not a safe place to live. Any truth to that?
Also, if we did live in the city and my girlfriend got a teaching job in one of the suburbs, would it be possible for her to commute using BART, or would that be too much of a hassle?
Oakland is plenty safe. It has a few bad neighborhoods, but overall I've never had a problem. (Born here) Neighborhoods to look at for Oakland are, Adams Point, Montclair (not many rentals though), Lakeshore (Pretty much anywhere around the lake is good, the south part of the lake being kinda crappy. Piedmont Ave is also a great neighborhood as is anything around College Ave. Also if you're looking at a map, pretty much anything "above" (north) highway 580 is good.
I also created this map a while ago, it's very tongue in cheek and biased (also swear words if you're wary of that kind of thing), but I think it's ok for an initial reference. Or a laugh. YMMV
1. Some neighborhoods in Oakland are pretty dangerous, but the same can be said for SF. It also has some very nice areas. But, it's true, the violent crime rate in Oakland is quite a bit higher than it is in SF.
2. That depends entirely on where she got a job. BART goes to a lot of the suburbs in the bay area, but there's usually only 1 or 2 stops per town. If the school isn't within walking distance of a BART station, she's probably out of luck, unless the town her school is in happens to have decent public transportation.
No, she's not a music teacher. By the time we move out there, she'll have her Master's in Early Childhood Education and have gone through Teacher Certification in Texas. We're hoping she can get re-certified in California without much difficulty. I just mentioned retail because she's had a lot of experience working in it and it would be a fallback for her in case she couldn't find some kind of teaching position.