My son will be moving to San Francisco and is looking to find housing on Craigslist with someone looking for a roommate. We don’t really know anything much about which neighborhoods to avoid (other than the Tenderloin) and have heard that parts of the Mission and Western Addition are also to be avoided, but not sure which parts. His job is in SOMA area near Yerba Buena. Can you help us identify which neighborhoods to look in and which to avoid? Thanks!
And by the way, if anyone else has a son or daughter moving to SF or already there and looking for a roommate, feel free to PM me.
It is practically a block-by-block scenario. Areas change from good to ‘bad’ in a matter of blocks and then change back again—even in the Tenderloin. Much gentrification has occurred with the influx of all the dot-commers.
The best plan is to actually see the space being offered. Many spaces are really, really small. There are also many scams on CraigsList these days in SF. My daughter has gotten pretty good at identifying them.
I agree with Treemaven’s post.
Also try Padmapper. Hayes Valley. Noe Valley. Parts of the Mission are nice. There are new aparment complexes rising near Mission Bay…
Does your S’s new company have housing board?
Does your S have an alumni group in the City? Goskid’s alumni group had listings of people looking for roommates, apartments, etc.
It is difficult to find rental housing in desirable areas of the City…even for those with large budgets.
Good luck to your S and keep us updated on his search…it’s a great City!
^^ He just accepted a job offer and hopes to move within the next few weeks. He’d like to pay no more than $2200/month and live with roommates who are around his age (24). After working and living in Seattle during the past year he learned that he doesn’t like living by himself – which is a helpful thing in SF!
I’ve spent some time in Hayes Valley, I think it’s great. Virtually everyone I see there is young, but probably mostly a bit older than your son, more like 25-35. But I could be wrong. My daughter says it’s very expensive to live there though. The whole city is very expensive. rental-wise. I’m told.
Parts of the Mission District I’ve seen seem ok, it’'s definitely not upscale there though. More like the lower east side of manhattan.
If he can swing it he might want to try some airbnb’s or similar for awhile to really get a feel for neighborhoods he’s targeting, as well as see what’s available. He could also try out the public transit options from various neighborhoods that way.
CC was a great source for me when my D moved to SF several years ago. Thanks to DStark, Calmom and several others I was able to help my D out with neighborhoods. My D was looking for to live alone and with a dog which made things more complicated.
What my D found is that where you work makes a difference in where you want to live. Does he want to take public transportation, walk or drive to work? My D liked having a car. She didn’t use it for getting to work but she used it on weekends to get out of the city to explore different hiking areas.
She also found that housing is so tight that you need to be ready to make a quick decision and be open about neighborhood. My D also found that her budget had to be upped. Your S has a okay budget for SF if he shares an apartment. Will he have a car? Ihe might want to bring with him when he views an apartment his offer letter and also a copy of his credit.
My D ended up on the edge of several neighborhoods. She could walk to the Marina, Fort Mason, Union St, Chestnut St in one direction but also was only a block from Polk St and Russian Hill and could walk a bit further to Pacific Heights. She walked to her job on Nob Hill. Hayes Valley is where she would have looked to move if she hadn’t decided to leave SF.
the S of a friend moved recently and works in the Soma area. He ended up living in Berkeley.
We loved visiting and are a bit sad that after 2 years in SF she made the decision to leave that area.
One scam is the “lessor” saying they are out of the country and offers a fully furnished apt or house, and I can’t remember the rest. Always sounds perfect—always turns out to be a scam.
Often, the “lessor” will respond to e-mail inquiries in broken English or odd grammar mistakes. There is no management company or property manager given. The ‘credit’ information requested is suspect. There may be photos with the listing, but they look staged–like a magazine photo or more ‘upscale’ than a model apt in an apt complex. Sometimes the photo is of a building–but with no identifiable markers. There is no precise address, usually not even cross streets. If a location is mentioned , it is just a general neighborhood or city area.
Some scammers are better (and sneakier) than others and can waste , more of your time. If you stay on the hook long enough, they eventually ask for money to be wired, giving some reason that they can’t accept checks and need cash to further negotiate the lease.
She knows of one scam that went so far as a friend of hers had an elderly couple appear at the door ready to move in! The friend owned the house and had for years, but the elderly couple had been fleeced by someone who sold them a bill of goods and they truly believed they had leased the house for the summer!
a landlord friend of mine also suggests that one pulls their own credit report to have available at application time. As some have found out, if they’ve ended up applying to multiple places, their credit score takes a hit from all the inquiries…fwiw.
That looks interesting, @gosmom. But it doesn’t have prices or say if people get their own room, own apartment, or if it’s ten people in a room. Do you know?
Well, that web site has a link at the bottom to send an email to.
It looks from the limited web site like a communal living situation similar to the housing cooperatives found around some college campuses (there are three different houses). The name “Negev” is also a name of a desert in southern Israel, hinting at similarities to kibbutzim that exist there.
I looked at some reviews online, and it looks like they have some legal problems. Too many people in the rooms (in bunkbeds), all sorts of housing violations. I think this is something I read about, a “Hacker House.” Maybe a good deal if you are trying to go inexpensively, but you’ll have a lot of company.