We are moving from Indianapolis to San Francisco with a job transfer. We are looking for a place with a "community" feel where there are good schools, Moms Groups, lots of kids, walking distance to restaurants, bars, transportation, and young, fun people to befriend. Sound unrealistic...I hope not. I also hope to not be looking at a 2 million dollar price tag to get that. We need to either live in the city or a maximum of 30-40 miles outside. Please help!
Change your location in your profile here on MamaSource to San Francico. I'm guessing they will be just as helpful as the mamas here:)
We just moved from the San Francisco area to Indy 3 years ago! I miss the area. Some places are great for families and others aren't. You probably dont' want to be on the pennisula at all... it's crowded and expensive. Silicon Valley (Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, etc) is very expensive and is geared more toward singles with lots of disposable income. We had a house in Concord and it was great. Walnut Creek is also nice but slightly more expensive. Concord is very much like Carmel, IN - where we live now. Some of the best schools in the state, "affordable" houses, mother's groups, lots of shopping nearby, tons of city parks/playgrounds, etc. It's about a 40 minute drive to San Francisco and 50 minutes if you take BART (the train).
House prices in the area are insane compared to here. They are some of the highest in the country. I know prices have gone up since we moved. At time we moved, your average house on the pennisula was well over $700K and easily $1 million in places like Palo Alto. San Jose was slightly better at around $650k but it's a very crappy school system. The houses in Walnut Creek were around $600k and just next door in Concord they were $500k. To give you an idea, we had a 2000k square foot, 30 year old house. It was a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage, no basement house on less than 1/4 acre and we sold it for $550K. I know a very similiar house in my old neighborhood recently sold for $750K, though.
http://www.sheilaeggers.com/ is the website of an old friend and the realtor we used when buying/selling our house out there. She knows the area well, not just the east Bay, and you could call and discuss the different areas of the Bay area.
If you have any specific questions, feel free to send me a private message to talk about it. I lived out there for 12 years after graduating from Purdue so I know the areas pretty well. :-)
J.,
My good friend just moved from Carmel, IN to San Francisco area last summer. She moved to Alamo, CA. Obviously, home ownership comes with a much higher price tag than in the Midwest, but I know the area has fantastic schools, is close to the city, and has low crime rate. Be sure to look on the California Dept. of Education website to find out district/school performance for any district in CA. www.cde.ca.gov
Good Luck!
K. S.
Dear J.,
I knew a family with young children who lived in Walnut Grove out there for several years on a job transfer before they returned to Indy, and they seemed to like that community.
This was probably 10 years ago so I don't know about it now but you could look into it.
I do know that the SF area is very, very expensive for families so good luck.
