Northern California Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
moving to the Bay Area
Hello all -
DH and I will be relocating to the Bay Area in the spring at some point. We are socal natives, but not that familiar with the specific areas/neighborhoods/towns of the Bay. Does anyone have any suggestions for areas? We're looking for something outside of the city, but within an 30-40 min BART commute. I'll be commuting 2-3 days/wk to the financial district, DH all over the Bay - but mostly in the eastern/northern side of things. Budget around $1500 or so, but can flex if needed. We'd like to be in an area within walking distance of a downtown, cute areas, restaurants, shopping, etc.
I have no idea about safety, good/bad places, etc. I would really appreciate some input!
Thanks!
Re: moving to the Bay Area
We live in Lafayette, and it sounds like it might work for you...Lafayette is in the East Bay, and is 35 minutes from the City via BART. It's got a quiet/small town feel, but there are plenty of really good, highly rated restaurants in town. We live in an apartment half a mile from BART, and less than that from "downtown." We are able to walk everywhere.
Shopping-wise, lots of small boutiques--Walnut Creek is a 5 minute drive, and it has a TON of shopping.
Our 1-BR is ~800 square feet and we pay 1150...what size apartment are you looking for?
Another idea: Rockridge (nice area of Oakland--also has a BART stop and is probably 20 minutes on BART to the City). More urban, but definitely very walkable with lots of cute shops/restaurants.
The other nesties will have better/more ideas.
Hi and welcome to the Bay Area!
Can you be more specific about what you mean in terms of your DH's work mostly being in the "eastern/northern side?" The East and North Bay are both pretty big areas; if you can name some specific cities, that'd be useful.
Also, what kind of housing are you looking for? Single family or apartment? About how many bedrooms and bathrooms? What are your parking needs? Do you like urban or suburban better?
Based on the info you gave, I'd look at Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill and some parts of Concord (there are good and bad parts). If you give us a little more info, I could probably think of more.
Yes! To clarify - hubby works for a company that works all over the bay area, but mostly in East Bay, Marin area, and beyond. He works on job sites (location varies) so we would need to be centrally located for him, while I can either work from home or down in the financial district. We're flexible on location for the right area.
We're looking for at least a 2bdrm, with a garage or storage space, 2 parking spots (although if we're close to BART we'll probably get rid of my car). We'd love a single family if it's in the budget. We like small towns (love San Luis Obispo - we lived there for a few years) and would like to be within walking distance, if possible, of a downtown area with restaurants, shopping, etc.
I guess what I'm really trying to understand is the good/bad parts of these areas. I've been looking online, trying to get a grasp of what we're looking at in terms of rent, and not really sure.
Thanks!
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I'd second this. There's the North Berkeley BART with that Monterey shopping area by Monterey Market or you can be closer to Solano Ave and Albany. If in Albany, you might be closer to the El Cerrito Plaza BART. That BART station has a shopping center that's has big chain stores (Trader Joe's, Pier 1, Barnes and Noble, Lucky, Game Stop, Marshall's, video store, etc).
N. Berkeley - Albany - El Cerrito would allow you to get to SF easily on BART (or bus, which I hear has wifi) and would also get your husband quickly to Marin via the Richmond bridge. I probably wouldn't recommend going further north than El Cerrito -- the commute to SF gets longer and the neighborhoods get sketchier.
El Cerrito would be cheaper than N. Berkeley and Albany, but I'm not sure what prices are.