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by abritinthebay 3156 days ago
If you are paying that much in rent you can afford a mortgage on a larger place that’s a reasonable commute to the city.

Now it'll likely be a condo, not a single-family home (that'll be more, or further way, or not as nice) but it's doable for sure. Not in SF, but just outside (Oakland, Fremont, Daly City, etc)

What you can get will depend on what you can wrangle as a deposit but there are plenty of options if you can get 10% down.

Source: it’s what I did recently and I pay less than that for a 1300sq ft place in Oakland
2 comments
5706906c06c 3156 days ago
I looked over 35th ave, which is fairly decent. Are there other pockets I should be looking at?
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abritinthebay 3156 days ago
It's amazing what comes up. A lot depends on your deposit. If you can swing a total cost of ~$750-850k home price then you have a LOT of options in the East Bay.

There are some really nice places that show up in Rockridge that are reasonable and if you're ok with a little less nice of an area the NoBe area is good too. In Oakland you can do surprisingly well near Highway 13 in the foothills or nearish Mills College.

If you don't mind the commute (I would) then Pleasanton is affordable (just) for large single-family homes, but it's a long ass commute.

There's a ton in the Fremont/Hayward area if you're doing a South Bay commute tho, and that opens up Pleasanton a bit more too.

If you're already driving to work then look to neighborhoods nowhere near BART as reasonable proximity to that can add a 1.5-2x multiplier to the price.

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wils1245 3156 days ago
What’s a reasonable commute? If you’re in any of those places and commuting to SF you’re likely looking at an hour to get to work.
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abritinthebay 3155 days ago
It can be an hour to get to work if you live in SF. Just depends where you live and where you work (commute from the Sunset by bus to the FiDi - it’s going to take close to an hour).

Whereas I live in Oakland and door to door it’s about 45mins if I time it right.

So I’m not sure what your objection is. Working in a big city (be it SF, NYC, or London) means you’ll have commute time.

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