hey guys,

so i'm taking a new job that's in SF and i'd like to live in berkeley. gf goes to law school there and i can take the bart across the bay to SF for my job. i've been scouring craigslist for some leads. so far i've narrowed it down to the following (in order of preference)

rockridge
north berkeley
downtown berkeley
lake merritt

(ashby and the downtown oakland bart stops seem pretty ghetto)

i was wondering if you guys had any other suggestions/tips on areas and neighborhoods. i'm looking for a 2br/1ba place. i want to be no more than a 10-15 minute walk to the bart, since i have a 25-30 minute ride followed by another 20 minute walk to work. i'll be content if the whole trip takes no more than an hour.

i'm finding there's lots of old housing and very little in the way of decent parking options. i'm pretty flexible on budget and am willing to go for a higher end place.

thanks!

 

lake merritt can be ghetto.... unless ure on east side of freeway. lake shore ave is nice. college ave is my favorite.

 

North berkeley rockridge are your upscale areas, also consider Albany and El Cerrito, cheaper but very safe. Avoid richmond.

 

thanks! i'm scouring craigslist daily. it's tough since i need something in January and i'll be out of town all of December and can't look then.

 

I definitely like Rockridge and College Ave... but make sure you have a garage!!!!! I had my car stolen there a few months ago!

 

yeah, a garage is a must, i agree. still hunting

 

I know there's an F line (AC Transit, Transbay bus that goes to SF) that you can possibly hop on instead of taking BART. I dont personally have any experience taking it, but from what I hear it's pretty quick and may be slightly cheaper than BART. Just wanted to give you another avenue with which to explore options.

Where are you living now?

 

I'll have to check out AC Transit, thanks for the tip. I live in Sunnyvale right now....

 

rockridge would be my first choice too.

 

ashby bart isn't that shady, bums are everywhere in berkeley.

the f bus takes like 20-30 min on a good day and only because ac transit drivers are on crack and drive their busses like they're sports cars.

while craigslist is great you should also actually talk to rental companies as a lot of them don't post all their listing on cl.

also, a great resource for a LOT of things is the berkeley parents' network. while half the stuff isn't relevant to people our age b/c we're not parents, there's a hell of a lot of good insider info about everything. literally.
http://parents.berkeley.edu/recommend/housing/