[jgoens]

I have lived in San Mateo for 25 years and grew up in Sonoma.

One thing to consider is what kind of weather you like or can live with as the bay area is many different micro-climates. If you are fine with cooler, cloudier weather then areas such as South San Francisco, Daly City, San Bruno and even Pacifica might be an option as they have lower rents and are pretty close to downtown. I like warmer weather and it is amazing the difference in weather five minutes south of these places gives.

The East bay pretty much is warmer all the way around, but the traffic there is worse--and I'm not talking about the times in traffic as we have it bad everywhere. It's the drivers. Much more aggressive and more gangsters.

The areas over the hills such as Dublin are nice but the commute is not. As for Bart--it pretty much sucks. Dirty cars with a lot of homeless and punks. If you able to find a place on the Peninsula or even near San Jose, Cal train is a good option .

As for rents, there are opportunites--my brother in law rents a 4 bedroom house ( not large, probably around 1500sq ft) around the block from me for $3500. I live in the Shoreview part of San Mateo which is a quiet area with mostly families. You can walk down the street at midnight and not see a soul down out anywhere.

As for SF, once again full of microclimates with some areas being suburban like and others city-like.