Hellobee Boards

My MIL lives in Menlo Park! It's a really nice area, from what icould tell walking and driving around, but I know it's expensive. She used to work in San Jose, now she works in San Francisco and I know her commute is harder now.

I wish I could tell you there's somewhere close, but cheaper you can commute from, but you kinda get what you pay for.

I live in the area. I would try to avoid commuting too far if at all possible. I used to commute from San Jose to Palo Alto. Without traffic it was a 20 minute drive (about 15 miles). With traffic, it could be anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half or more if there are accidents.

Rents are high everywhere. If you find a place with low rent, well like someone else said you get what you pay for.

Just for some info for awhile I was commuting from San Jose to Palo Alto and it took me around 1.5 hours (so 3 hrs per day). But it wasn't an even split. Usually 1hr in the morning and 2 to get home. Even if a house looks close the commute may be horrible.

Tons of people live in the Central Valley and commute to the bay, that's about a 6hr commute per day. My old boss lived in Oakland and commuted to Palo Alto and it took her about as long as it took me and I lived in San Jose. So it's all about what you can handle. My aunt commuted from Lodi to downtown SF for YEARS and that was like an 7-8hr per day commute (but this was after her kids were in college so she didn't have kids to worry about).

I live on the peninsula and we rent a one bedroom for $2300. We qualify for below market rate housing but it's a lottery system and so I'm not optimistic we'll find something. We'll be moving after this lease is up because we need a second bedroom and we'll have to move further south.

They also have below market rate home buyers programs, so look into those if you think it'll apply. You'll probably be surprised at how high the median income is for most cities. I believe you can apply for SF's BMR program even if you make over $100k. I'm more familiar with the peninsula, however.

If you can afford it this is a wonderful area to live with kids. Tons of families, tons of activities, tons of everything. Restaurants are great, museums, opera, ballet, movies, concerts, etc. Menlo is a beautiful area. Without considering price I'd love to buy a house in Los Altos. They have a great little community, and even an amazing children's bookstore! Tons of family activities like Easter egg hunts, Christmas parade of lights, summer family movie nights, etc.

We are getting priced out so we're thinking we'll move to the Central Valley of California in the next two years (so take what I say with a grain of salt because I don't love this place). We are actually not leaving sooner because I'm currently pregnant and don't want to have to worry about insurance issues and looking for employment right after I give birth.

Make sure to check out the prices of daycare if you'll need it. I'm actually a SAHM because it wasn't worth it for me to work for $0 and have a crappy work environment.

Sorry for the rambling!

ETA:
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/04/07/in-search-of-cheaper-housing-silicon-valley-workers-face-long-commutes/

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/02/17/bay-area-housing-what-635000-median-price-really-will-buy-you/

https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/03/09/you-need-to-earn-142000-dollars-to-buy-a-home-in-san-francisco/

@kakimochi: How are the schools in Redwood City, Fremont, San Mateo, Santa Clara, etc? Occasionally, my husband will get a headhunting bite from Silicon Valley, but we already live in an expensive place and it seems silly to move cross country and still pay the same $/sq foot.

@Anagram: I can only talk to Santa Clara and Fremont as far as schools go--they have overall pretty good schools in areas of Santa Clara, Cupertino, Campbell, and where I live in Fremont.