My son lives in a very nice apartment right in San Francisco, in the SOMA area. It is a two bedroom, but they have sectioned off part of their living room and have a third person living there. It costs each of them about $1600/month, and the living room rents for $1300. It’s a way to make it very reasonable for them to live where they want, and it doesn’t seem crowded at all.
@SlitheyTove, to clarify, this is not just for the summer. DS and roommates have graduated (yay!) and are starting full time jobs. No one will have a car. As far as the train, that seems an unnecessary expense compared to the free shuttle, especially considering the high cost of living in SF. @busdriver11, a 2 br converted to 3, might be the way to go.
Ah, full time gainful employment, excellent!
Some companies offer to subsidize the train pass. Have your son ask. D1’s company did; the cost of the monthly pass was (of course) more than using the free shuttle but ended up being more convenient for her.
Last Friday’s Wall Street Journal discussed the hot real estate market in Sacramento, because it’s so much more affordable than the south bay. That’s an hour and a half drive without much traffic. I know someone living in the Sacramento area who works at one of the big south bay tech firms who found a private pilot who’s willing to make the flight. So there’s that approach… 
“That’s an hour and a half drive without much traffic.” Sacramento to SF? Which year are you talking about? 1950’s? Not in 2017, Sac to SF in rush hour is 5 hour drive, or if you work from 4am to 12pm and leave home at 2am.
Traffic build up as early as 6 am at the McCarthy Maze and in rush hours, you have to wait in traffic/slow down as far away as Fairfield. When I leave home at 8:30 driving against the traffic, going west, I even tried very hard to avoid McCarthy Maze. and took off at 13 on 580. The traffic is unbearable in and around Oakland.
There are many stops now with company buses in the Emeryville-Oakland or San Mateo county areas, you may luck out, OTOH, as long as you live near Bart station, you should be ok. The cost of transportation will be compensated with lower rent.
I can get from the Silicon Valley to Davis in about 90 minutes at 5:00 AM Sunday morning. :))
The kids have $6,000/month to spend, they’ll find a decent a place in the City, if they’re diligent. I’ve mentioned before elsewhere, but for my money TODAY, I’d find a place near Castro St. in Mountain View. Theaters and concerts at Shoreline, great restaurants, nightlife, safer bike trails, some along the Bay, and significantly better weather.
It just took me 30 mins. to drive from Concord, CA to my home in Walnut Creek, roughly 10 miles. No accidents, just lots of traffic.
The Rockridge area of Oakland is a good alternative to SF. There are good places to eat and the all-important BART train station. I prefer it to Lake Merritt. My hometown of Walnut Creek is very nice, also has a BART station, but not as “twenty-something friendly” as a more urban setting. Not operating a car is the way to go, imo. Yes, you will pay more in monthly rent if you go for city living, but some of that additional expense gets offset with not bringing a car. In my son’s case, he walks to work so he saves on public transport fees getting to and from work.
I’ve driven Davis to SF in an hour and a half on a rainy morning weekday commute in the last year, and can easily see how it could’ve been far worse. I can’t imagine doing it on a daily basis…but the insane thing is that people do in fact do that in order to afford larger houses. Not the situation for a group of new college grads, of course.
Another thumbs-up for Rockridge (though every time I say the name I start quoting lines from “Blazing Saddles” lol). There’s a Zachary’s Pizza just a few blocks north of the BART station. But since the group can afford it, my vote is still for living in the city while they can (meaning, while they’re young and have few other financial or personal responsibilities).
I know for those young kids, you cannot persuade them to live in the suburbs. A kid I know that is working for Apple, would rather to live in downtown SF, taking company bus to Cupertino, than live in home free that is only 1/2 hour drive to work. And traveling to Manhattan monthly just for fun seems to be the norm.
Just look up on Craigslist, for $6000/mo you can get a 3bd, 3 bath condo in China Basin, SOMA. Looks nice and new in the photo. But I do not know if it fits the requirements.
Good thIng none of them will have cars because parking in SF is extremely limited. Also, they might want to remember about the rent control policies in SF. If they get a place that has a certificate of occupancy before June 13,1979, they will have some benefits of limits on rent increases.
Agree that having everything in hand, including if possible, letters of recommendation from previous landlords that they were good tenants, will help. It’s ridiculously competitive, and they may want to be willing to explore other neighborhoods. DS#1 and his wife lived in Rockridge but his commute to SV was crazy so they moved across the bridge. They are in a cute neighborhood walking distance to BART and not too far from the bus shuttles. Younger s and fiancée are getting a place near a Caltrain station in SV.
Was at my son’s new place yesterday. Parking was a nightmare. He lives in the North Beach, Russian Hill area and there is barely enough parking for the residents of that area let alone the many visitors who were heading over to Coit Tower, Lombard St., Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39 (etc,), and Ghirardelli Square. It took me 20-30 minutes to find a spot. It then took another 30 minutes to get onto the Bay Bridge when I was leaving. SF is in continuous construction mode, with lane closures on the feeder streets leading to the bridge. I had a large load of his belongings or I would have taken public transport. The only way that any deliveries can be made in this neighborhood is by double-parking.
Interesting article in today’s Chronicle [SF paper] about commune housing: http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Starcity-turning-commercial-buildings-into-group-11192980.php?t=12a510a1fe
^^^ “Dorms for grownups” – at $2,000/mo for 220 square feet? Wow. Just wow.
Wow. Welcome to the United States Soviet Republic. 
Re. AboutTheSame’s post:
Targeting income earners in the $50,000-$100,000 bracket? If you are paying $2,000 per month rent/etc., earning $50,000 per year would not leave you with enough. I do like the concept, however!
Ds#2’s fiancée will make an ok salary in her new job, but DS will pay the bulk of the rent, I would guess. Their rent for a 1 br is actually 1.5x what DS #2’s rent was in SF for a similar sized place.
I should add, it’s an ok salary, but for that area it won’t go far
@MaineLonghorn, we just put D2 in an apartment in Austin for the summer for an internship. You wouldn’t believe the rates there now compared to back in the day.
Wonder if mcat2 is renting his house there…
The 220 square feet is the personal living space of bedroom & bath. I started out renting a studio not much bigger than that with a kitchenette. I think I might have liked the concept of a small personal space and a large common area of LR/DR/Kitchen. And you have to realize that the $2000 includes the share of that space – like a condo association fee. Does not seem that absurd to me.
You’re right of course, that “absurd” and “worth it” are completely relative. But it DOES seem absurd to some of us. Not that long ago, my mortgage payment for a 5-bedroom (+ den) Craftsman in a highly desirable historic residential area just outside of downtown Denver was around $1,300/mo.