Moving to San Francisco...advice needed please

[madiba]

We are moving to SF in June. We will be over for a visit in March to check out places to live. Although we have been to SF before, we spent most of our time down town and the surrounding wine valleys . Does anyone live in the SF bay area and can recommend nice areas? Dh will be working down town and our ds will be 20 month when we move. I am grateful for any advice!

lol at you x

I lived in Lafayette (east bay)which is served by BART and is a lovely area for families. I've also lived in Oakland which has also some very nice areas but some not so nice areas. Orinda is very nice but expensive (or used to be). Another area I lived in is Woodside which is in the South Bay.

I was working as a nanny at the time so was fortunate to live in some gorgeous houses.

Sorry forgot to add that parts of Berkley are nice too.

Yes, we have friends in Berkley and it is lovely. Very family area.

Enjoy - you'll have a great time out there.

But apart from that:

May I recommend Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge?

Mill Valley v v nice and child friendly, Sausolito a bit arty and can be touristy.
That side of the bridge can be a bit less foggy, quite suburban, not big city, depends what you like I suppose. And of course where exactly your DH is going to work whether it will add to his commute.

Check out Muir Woods and Stinson Beach.

again!
Good luck with the move.

Oh yes Marin county is fab too. I love Stinson Beach.

Hope your husband is getting paid a lot.

SF very expensive.

I only ever go downtown, or Palo Alto - and the house prices are totally horrific there. Most of our staff seem to commute for an hour each way into PA

Ever see Anne Maurice (the House Doctor)'s house in SF? You can see the bay as a dot from her rooftop garden and it has a garage at street level.

And she sold it for millions.

My boss lived in a 2 bed little house - one room downstairs, kitchen, office in the garage, nice but small garden. Sold it for $1.5 million two years ago

I visited a few weeks back as we were thinking about moving to SF but looks like we're staying here for a while. This was what I thought but I didn't spend loads of time anywhere, just a quick scout.

Palo Alto is gorgeous. I'd love to live there but probably too much of a commute if your dh is working downtown.

Berkeley is ok but struck me as quite dodgy in parts - on the high street, a bottle of water dropped out of my car and a woman hurried over, grabbed it and put it in her bag! A lot of it surprised me with how run down it was near the university. Other parts of it are beautiful - found a street full of very high class shops and cafes that was lovely (but a block away, there were dodgy characters loitering all over the streets). Oakland looked rough and is high crime.

The city is fab. If money is no object, there are some stunning houses downtown. I really liked the area north of the city over the bridge too.

Sausalito! That's the place. It looked lovely.

Hi all and many thanks for the advice , I will look into all areas mentioned. I will have a closer look at Berkley as there is a German nursery in Albany (ds is raised bilingual) which I am interested in for ds. Also very interested in Marin County as it would be easy to commute and I only hear good things about it. I am planning to drive around and look areas more closely in March but it's great to have an idea where to start ... Does anyone have any experience with nurseries for under 2s?

PS: I know it's really really expensive out there. Luckily we are in a good position and will also get a 'housing allowance' in dh's relocation package Basically dh's company employed a company to sort out all our relocation needs and to find us a house. But of course I will need to have an idea what is available and where I want to live. So the plan is to check with estate agents and look at a few houses (we will rent for the first 2 years). All a bit overwhelming

Parts of Oakland are very dodgy though it is a real contrast to the wealthier parts.

Just looked at Sausalito, it looks absolutely beautiful!!! That has to go on my list