NorCal Housing
 

OK,

Where's a reasonably nice place to live that won't leave me house poor, and isn't too far a drive from KSFO?

Preferably somewhere with a nice little uncontrolled airport.

Pick any two and try again.

:D

Now that's funny!

But, I'm actually very interested in the "best" answer to that question as well.

Right now, my wife and I are east coasters and we'd love to make the move out west. I'm still in my first year and my wife is just starting, so Denver will be a few years out, optimistically still two years AT BEST.

So is SFO just that crazy that it just doesn't make sense?

SFO is a tough market to break into right now. You will be able to hold DEN as it is growing and will continue to as we take delivery of more 737's and a319's, so that's probably your best bet. Plus you won't take the California state income tax hit. Financially, California makes no sense.

But the weather

Look north of petaluma....less than a two hour drive and you can find some bargains (relatively speaking). Rohnert park, Santa rosa, Windsor.....good luck

I am interested in this as well... My research on Zillow hasn't yielded many options. Depending on the trips you may be interested in flying, it is feasible that a weekly commute as far as Tahoe (200 miles)or Reno might work. The bonus with Nevada is the lack of CA state taxes. The local bay area is expensive in all directions... Silicon Valley, Napa, Marin County,...

I forgot to mention Napa and Vallejo. East of petaluma and you might find some deals there. Tahoe is getting expensive and the traffic can be terrible depending on when you go due to all the weekend ski traffic. Reno is just a ****hole with a capital *. Remember the show Reno 911?

The cheapest bet is in the central valley around Sacramento or Stockton. About a 2hr drive to SFO in NON-rush hour which is only at night time just about. If your willing to live 3 hrs out, you can live in the Sierra foothills which is nice. Summers in the Central Valley are 100* plus, though.

Silicon Valley salaries and overseas investors have made the Bay Area unaffordable. You could try for Sec. 8, though. Lots of bums in my brother's neighborhood living in dumps worth 750K.

A small house will cost you 3000/mo to rent, at least.

Tons of pilots live in the Rocklin/Roseville area outside of Sac. 30 min south of Beale, 2 hours-ish northeast of SFO. Great schools and homes about 1/3 the price of the Bay Area. Lincoln airport is just up the road.

Vegas baby! If the CA cost of living is too much or you don't want to drive three hours to work, Vegas is not a bad option. It's a pretty easy commute to SFO with roughly 9 UAL flights a day plus another dozen on our competitors (most of whom fly Airbii, so two jumpseats). LAX/DEN are easily commutable as well so a lot of flexibility if things at UAL change, heaven forbid. NV has no state income tax and housing is still comparatively cheap, so the savings are considerable. The schools are not great, so you might consider private schooling if you have any kids who are entering elementary school. Otherwise, if I lived in Norcal I'd live within a reasonable drive of a BART station and take that to work to avoid the traffic misery.