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Living in Brentwood?

hattie b said:
I still think its something to really consider since a small apt is going to be cheaper then a 3000+ house..
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Consider this....

My apartment in Dublin rented for $1900 a month. My mortgage payment isn't even that high. I spend less on insurance with my house than with an apartment. I have a real garage, a backyard and, probably the best part, I don't share a wall with anyone. Why should I rent again?
 
OP-anything longer than a 1 hour each way commute and you're fooling yourself. That shit is miserable and wears you out.


Have you considered Boulder creek? They have houses in your price range, and it's way closer.
 
or if you can afford 300K plus all the commute costs why don't you just spend more on the house by your work and cut down the commute cost?
 
Kornholio said:
It gets just as hot in Livermore as it does in Brentwood. However, in my 1400 sq-ft home, I've never had an electric bill higher than $80 and I leave my air-conditioner at 70 in the summer and 65 in the winter. There's ways around paying a $300 a month electricity bill but it requires just a tiny bit of homework on your part.
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DON'T HOLD OUT ON ME BRO.
 
Kornholio said:
Consider this....

My apartment in Dublin rented for $1900 a month. My mortgage payment isn't even that high. I spend less on insurance with my house than with an apartment. I have a real garage, a backyard and, probably the best part, I don't share a wall with anyone. Why should I rent again?
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So you could get out of libmo? :twofinger
 
Thinking about that as a commute makes me want to hang myself.

I got tired of a 45 minute commute from the Aves in San Francisco to Lake Merritt area after a few months.

I was even tired of the TI to Oakland commute.

I now have a 2 mile each way commute and it is fantastic.
 
Kornholio said:
If you don't understand how much money you actually save by owning a house over renting, you're doing it wrong.
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whether you save depends on your housing costs versus rental costs.

all the -nicer- areas in the peninsula are a lot more expensive to own versus rent.
 
Slick51o said:
or if you can afford 300K plus all the commute costs why don't you just spend more on the house by your work and cut down the commute cost?
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This.

Even a conservative estimate of .25 per mile operating costs = $750 per month in commuting costs (3000 miles * .24). Just fuel will be around $300 to $350.

That is a lot of cheddar.

Fuel prices will be going up also.
 
ipunchfish said:
You are right. I am looking at the long run.
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If you are looking at the long term, you need to increase your scope and forecast your family needs for the future. It sounds like you have no kids at the moment, so if you do raise a family, you definitely need to be closer, both in terms of the time spent with the family and the constant immediate things kids/families need. Does this have a good school district, etc.. Remember time is money, thus your flushing money down the drain sitting in traffic.

I just moved back to the Bay Area a little over a month ago, spent the last 9 years in the Pismo Beach area. In Pismo, we had a larger home, the wife worked 5 minutes away, kids schools were down the block, everything was close by. Both of us went to the gym 5 days a week (during the work week) and we were still able to cook dinner at home and have plenty of time with the family during the weekdays.

When we moved back to the bay, we still wanted the larger home, but we couldn't afford some of the places in/around the area (Sunnyvale, Cupertino) where my wife got transferred to. So we went to Fremont where the rents were cheaper, but the commute was longer. We figured we're from the Bay, we've done bumper to bumper traffic before, it's not a big deal.

Needless to say, my wife HATES the commute. Yes, we have a bigger house to go home to, but she wastes a lot of time stuck in traffic. She spends an hour or more getting home each day. So we can't do what we were doing before because our whole schedule is off.

These are things you need to consider too. Remember, time is money.
 
mike23w said:
whether you save depends on your housing costs versus rental costs.

all the -nicer- areas in the peninsula are a lot more expensive to own versus rent.
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I think that depends if you're getting yourself into more than you can afford. If you're making a 20% down payment, your statement shouldn't necessarily work out unless you're trying to buy a $500,000 home when you only make $50,000 a year. You're right, it'd be cheaper to rent in that instance.
 
ipunchfish said:
Definitely. I realize this as I get older.

I made the trip yesterday at 5:30 and the time was 1h 25. So its not exactly the 2h 45 someone was telling me.
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In Brentwood you have to be careful, because OJ might try to cut off your head.
 
ipunchfish said:
Definitely. I realize this as I get older.

I made the trip yesterday at 5:30 and the time was 1h 25. So its not exactly the 2h 45 someone was telling me.
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You need to make that trip again on a different day, maybe a Monday or Friday. When we were thinking about Fremont, we spent the night in town and made the commute for a day. 1st time my wife did it, she got to her office in 20 minutes, took her 30 to get back. We did it again a month later, took her about the same time. That sealed the deal for us and we decided on Fremont. Unfortunately, those commute times were not reality. Don't know if it was because she did it mid-week or if it was late summer, but she definitely hasn't made in those times since we moved.

An 1h 25 is still a long time. Think about it this way, that 3 hours of your day, if you make $25 per hour, that's $75 per day, $375 per week, $1500 per month that you spend in traffic. If you don't like that scenario, thats 3 hours per day, 15 hours per week, 60 hours per month you could of been doing something else, like playing video games or watching porn.:laughing
 
It's funny how much having school in session affects traffic. Definitely don't check commute times whenever school is not in session.

One of the things I love about where I live and work is I never have to sit in traffic.
 
No school in Brentwood tomorrow so not a good day to judge the commute fyi.
 
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