Moving to San Francisco

Statesbound

Hi! Myself, my husband and my 1 year old plan on moving to San Francisco in 7 weeks. Just wondering if anyone has ever lived there and can recommend any suburbs to lives, hospitals (I'm 21 weeks pregnant), and useful information about the place really. We have never been but it's something we have wanted to do for a while. My husband had been offered a good job, our visa is E3 and the company are paying for all of our health care. Is there anything else I should worry about.

Thanks in advance!

Ken.

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Manic Moran

This will depend very much on where your job is. I live in Dublin, getting to the Financial District SF is a 60-90 minute trek combining car and train.
Where is the job, and I'll try to help out.

Statesbound

Hi Manic Moran. His work will be based around visticion valley. We were advised to look for accommodation south rather than East or north. Accommodation looks V expensive and our budget would be around the 3k mark. I have only looked on Zillow and find that there isn't alot south (daly city, san bruno) for that price!

dwayneshintzy

Have a look on Craigslist; https://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/sby/apa

Might be worth getting in touch with the Irish Pastoral Center. They're a good resource and might be able to offer advice;

https://www.facebook.com/IIPCSF/
http://www.sfiipc.org/

Manic Moran

Well, the city ain't going to be much better. V. Valley is closer in character to Mos Eisley than it is to Trantor's empire district, so I'm not sure you want to live there. Unfortunately, you won't be able to rely on public transport, unless the work is located within walking distance of the Brisbane CalTrain station. Fortunately, being south of the 101/280 crossover, traffic to and from shouldn't be -too- unGodly. My first thoughts were, indeed, South San Francisco, Daly City, or, at a push, Pacifica. I would strongly advocate against the East Bay, unless you have a really, really nice car to spend your time in, or unless you can telecommute several days of the year. It's not as if it can't be done, but you'll be spending a lot of time in traffic which makes the M50 seem like the Monaco Grand Prix.

By the time you get as far South as San Mateo/Foster City, costs should be more reasonable, but watch for the traffic near the 92/101 crossover. I would suggest that at suitable commute hours (Say 8am here, which is 16:00 for you, and 5:30 here, so you may have to stay up late), go to Google Maps, and try a few different routes to the office, see how long it says it will take to drive the distance.

At a push, you may consider the Sunset district of SW SF, which is almost entirely residential and quiet, but I have no idea how long the cross-town commute would take.

Ultimately, affordable housing, though, will come with a commute. Especially if you want to park a second car. There's a reason I live over an hour from my office (28 miles).

DonQuigleone

Hi, I live in San Francisco at the moment, so can offer some advice.

I would recommend one of you moving a month ahead to find accommodation before you all move out. They can stay relatively cheaply at a hostel to start (40 to 60 dollars a night). In terms of the new job study the public transport lines and use that to focus your search. The southwest of the city in general is quite nice and safe and the prices are a bit more affordable, that or daly city, south San Francisco or millbrae. Further south and you get into silicon valley which is crazy expensive.

In terms of finding accommodation its going to be hard. Plan for it to take a month. Craigslist is the best and you can find real gems especially of people who don't know the value of their property. For example a couple I knew rented a studio in law apartment for 1800 a month. Given you have just babies that might be a good arrangement. Rooms themselves are very large in san francisco compared to Ireland so even if you only have one room you won't be hard up for space. If you can find such a space that'll give you the breathing room to find something more spacious in terms of craigslist itself I recommend casting a very wide net. Spam the listings as many will ignore you. If you need any further help shoot me a pm and I'll gladly meet you in person to give pointers once you get here.