What areas are good to live in near San Francisco if you have kids?

Question

We are thinking of moving up there and not too familiar with the area. Are there any suburbs? We want a suburb, family oriented area and close to S.F. Also, a place where it's not too expensive to rent. Thanks!

Answer 1

The Bay Area is very large, and has a lot of different types of neighborhoods. Most of the area is suburban except San Francisco.

Where to live depends on whether you work in San Francisco, or just want to live close enough to visit on the weekends. If you work in the city, the best place to live is on the peninsula (I hear Pacifica and Foster City are nice.) Anywhere where you have to take a bridge is going to take forever in traffic, so you should look at a map to see what towns would be close.

If you don't need to live near the city, there are a lot more options. Fremont, where I live, is one of the safest towns in America. But almost all of Silicon Valley (San Jose - Palo Alto - Milpitas) is safe suburbs.

Unfortunately, everywhere in the Bay Area is too expensive. The cheapest places are ones that are very remote from the bay, like Hollister, Tracy, and Vacaville. You will need to choose between convenience and price. I strongly suggest you look at maps to familiarize yourself with the area, and hopefully you know local people who can show you around.

Answer 2

Walnut Creek is probably one of the best suburbs in the Bay Area. It's about 25 miles east of SF and about a 30-35 min BART ride into the city. It has one of the nicest downtown districts of all the Bay Area cities and is a destination for many people in Central Contra Costa County. Tons of restaurants, shops, and other cultural amentities in the town. It has a really nice performing arts theatre and there are always little festivals they put on, like the Art and Wine festival or the Main St Art festival. The schools are top notch, the crime is very low, and it's clean. I grew up there and everyone I know went to college so the kids their have pretty level heads and ambition. It's not as stuck up or pretentious as some of the surrounding communties like Danville or Lamorinda; there's more of a mix of people and incomes, a good mix too. But it's also expensive, although there are a lot of apt and condo complexes so you still might be able to find a reasonable place. The weather is also warmer than places along the Bay or penninsula, and since you are "moving up" here I'll assume it's from somewhere south and probably warmer, so living in an inland valley might be more like what you are used to.

If you can't afford WC, I would suggest Pleasant Hill and nice parts of Concord. They are right next to WC too. PH is a nice middle class community that more affordable as WC and not as big or bad as Concord; Concord can have some bad parts to it.

You can go to the city website and check out all the things they have to offer. Everyone that lives in WC loves it and it's such a good place to raise a family, I would highly recommend this place.

http://www.ci.walnut-creek.ca.us/

Answer 3

someone mentioned some of the smaller little towns around San Francisco.. there's also San Bruno,CA. It's..maybe a 20 minute drive from the heart of SF. San Bruno is pretty flat and a lot of the stores there... have parking! That's one thing I do not like about SF is the parking situation...other then that... i love it! Pacifica is a small little town right around Daly City and South San Francisco.. but it's a bit foggy. Pretty much..anywhere close to SF is quite pricey but it won't be as much as SF itself. Good Luck to you! :)

Answer 4

Oakland sometimes gets a bad rap in the media, but there are actually some pretty nice - and affordable - neighborhoods here. I live on the Grand Lake/Piedmont border near Lake Merritt & am very happy & love where I live (it's right across the Bay Bridge and you can actually find parking here!). I'd recommend checking out Craigslist if you're looking to rent.

Answer 5

Well.. everything in the bay area is expensive.. Near S.F. depending on what you mean.. Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley are an hr. from S.F. North of S.F. is Petaluma, Santa Rosa Contact the chamber of commerce in each city.

Answer 6

Down the PENINSULA: Millbrae, San Mateo, Foster City ares nice & warmer suburban places. Daly City is the next town over but because of the hills, traffic and wide blvds., because of the traffic it might be more challenging for children to cross the major streets to get to & from from school to home or shopping. Also, it's not that warm in Daly City because it is closer to the coast. I suggest those cities down the Peninsula because If you work in SF, there would be no bridge to cross and you have the option of using hwy 101, 280, or El Camino Real to get to SF. Also there is Caltrain from San Jose and BART from Millbrae or Daly City to SF.

Answer 7

Hum
in the city it cost alot to live!!!
But if you go further south or north just like 15 min drive housing is cheap!!
Daly city on our south border is very nice like suburbs
South San francisco 15 mins nice close to eveything
San mateo 30 mins alot cheaper!!! alot of house!!!

Norther
Oakland cheap but not for familys the ghetto part i mean!!
Marin like but close to SF rent.
Navoto
But if u want really cheap and 100% suburd got o Brent wood!!! it like 45- hour drive big house alot less $$ than sf!!

hope this help have fun and good luck!!

Answer 8

Berkeley , berkeley is very expensive ,but you get much more that a equal price in SF . there very good schools and even better charter schools in oakland like http://www.baytechschool.org/ . there are lots of parks and your children can play in te streets since there are so many road blocks and force turns disatracting drivers. there are also bike roads on streets like channing way , which is the best one , that provide safe bike riding for kids. you have lots of places to shop and eat . the best place to live is between dwight way and universty ave , above san pablo road and below sacremento road. this part of berkeley is best becuase there is a child park on acton , a park with basketball , playground, feilds, cafe , tenis, voleybal, cafe trieste , a pool, very close to 4 th street shoping, and very close to bart trains , very close to highway , and easyto goto emery ville.

Answer 9

In addition to the places mentioned earlier (Petaluma stinks, though ... sorry, it is [near] a farming community):
in order of exclusivity: Walnut Creek (least exclusive), Lafayette, Orinda, Rockridge, or anywhere in between. They have BART stations for easy access to the city.

Answer 10

Petaluma is nice, 45 minutes north of the city, and pretty reasonable I grew up IN the city so 'reasonable' is obviously relative, but there's nothing too cheap around there.