Hacker News Reader

Comment by ilyanep | Hacker News Reader

Yeahhh I'm living in SoMa and paying much, much below the median cost for a 1BR, but I'm thinking of moving out to the peninsula after my lease is up even if I continue working in the city. $200/mo for a Caltrain monthly pass and 1 hour commute one way (on which I can do whatever I want because I'm on a train!) is worth it for me to live closer to my friends (many of whom go to Stanford), not be clumped up with thousands of other people, and have a cheaper apartment.

SF is really going to need to figure out its artificial supply scarcity problems soon.

View on HN

Where on the Peninsula would you live that's substantially cheaper than SF? The area around Stanford is fairly pricey.

Redwood City, East Palo Alto.. that should be about the min

You can easily find a bedroom in Palo Alto for $1500 (maybe not right downtown, maybe as part of a bigger house/apartment, but a bedroom to yourself). It seems like ~1k is still achievable if you're patient and any part of PA will do. And it only gets cheaper if you're willing to go to Mountain View (only a bit cheaper), Redwood City, or really any other part of the peninsula.

In Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area rents for 1BR's are approaching 2K. So I find it hard to believe that MV PA is $1500.

He said a "bedroom", not an apartment. That actually seems high to me - if you're willing to live with roommates you can find plenty of places for around $1K/month, or even a bit less.

Mountain View rents for a 1BR are running around $1700/month in a not-so-great neighborhood, or about $2k/month if you're close to the Googleplex or downtown (except for a few smaller family-owned apartments...owner-rented places tend to have smaller rent increases than manager-rented places, since usually a family just wants to find a good tenant and have them stick around rather than take the risk of getting a bad tenant).

No,you can't. I assure you as someone who lives down here than downtown PA is very expensive, as is Mountain view - a decent 1b is 1,700 at least if not more.the peninsula is cheaper in our places - not PA/ MV

Of course, the peninsula isn't dirt cheap either. As prices in SF increase, that drives up rents along Caltrain, etc.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com