SF/East Bay housing?

[KamaAina]

A long shot, but what the hey. I may be making the big move up from San Jose to civilization, as I call it , in six weeks or so. Any bargain-basement (around $1000) housing that is habitable will be considered. But -- and this is the key -- share and roommate situations will not.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. Good luck! A place to sleep on the floor was going for several hundred dollars last time I looked.

My 1,100 sf condo in downtown S.J. Rents for almost $2,000.00 per month and that's to my DIL who I rent to at cost.

[truedelphi]

2. Good luck. Bay Area housing - any part of it, is

A tough nut to crack.

[Betsy Ross]

3. We can recommend Alameda.

Close to everywhere on the inner bay, nice community, and relatively lower prices than a lot of the region. We moved from San Francisco and Palo Alto to Alameda in 1996. Great public transportation.

[KamaAina]

6. A good friend used to live in Alameda

but the prices aren't that much lower.

[Sirveri]

4. Crockett, if you can handle being at the I-80 in the East Bay.

Vallejo prices with an East Bay locations. We got a great deal on a house for a little over 1k/mo... Though it is basically under the freeway and next to a freight yard and a major train line...

[KamaAina]

5. Oh, right. I forgot to mention that I am auto-free.

It'd be nice not to be stranded after & PM and on Sundays.

But thanks.

[Betsy Ross]

7. Again Alameda

We are a one-car family. My husband uses public transit almost exclusively.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Look at Concord -- both BART and County Connection transit are pretty good

(though bus service ends around 9 PM.)

Concord has tons of retail and services along transit routes. It will take some work but a small place for $1000 isn't a pipe dream, especially in north Concord. The other nice thing about Concord for the car-free is that it's easy to bicycle around it too and most major roads have sidewalks so it's also walkable.

Downside is this part of the East Bay is very seasonal -- it gets much cooler in the winter and much hotter in the summer than much of the Bay Area. People on the coast act like it's desert hot all the time but you've been living in SJ and probably know the truth.

[KamaAina]

9. Out of the bargain basement

and at least to the ground floor. Ante just got upped. Could now do $1500. Job is in The City, so SF now seems almost doable.

[BuddhaGirl]

10. Check out Point Richmond

It's really affordable, right near the bay, great community. It's close to Marin, a short drive over the Richmond-San Rafael bridge.

It's also close to the Richmond and El Cerrito Bart Stations.

[KamaAina]

11. A dear friend lives in a mutual housing community near there

and has been pitching it to me for a while now.

But that's a punishing commute: 38 minutes just on BART. The bus out to Point Richmond runs every half hour, whether you need one or not.