u/Junior-Mistake-2246

My partner are I starting to think about buying a home in the Bay Area, and I would love advice from people who have gone through this recently. It's been pretty stressful seeing the interest rates and house prices.

We currently live in SF and really like being in the city. I work in SF FiDi, and my husband commutes to mountain view regularly, so commute is a big factor for us.

Our rough budget for a single-family home is around $1.8M–$2M. We don’t have kids yet, but we’re planning to have one in the next year or so, so schools / family-friendliness are starting to matter a lot more to us.

We’re open to the full Bay Area, including SF, Peninsula, South Bay, and East Bay. The main constraints are:

• Reasonable commute for one person to SF FiDi and one person to the South Bay
• Strong public school options
• Family-friendly neighborhood
• SFH preferred over condo/townhouse if possible
• Safe, walkable neighborhood feel
• Access to parks / groceries / freeway access
• Budget around $1.8M–$2M, though obviously lower would be better

Some areas we’re considering:

SF: Glen Park, West Portal, Miraloma Park, Sunnyside, Bernal Heights, Noe Valley if realistic

Peninsula / Caltrain corridor: San Mateo, Foster City, Belmont, Redwood Shores, San Carlos if realistic

South Bay: Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino if realistic, West San Jose, Campbell

East Bay: Fremont, Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, maybe Alameda if the commute tradeoff makes sense

A few questions:

1. In the $1.8M–$2M range, where are we most realistic for a SFH with strong public schools?
2. Is SF worth considering if schools are a major factor, given the school assignment system? Or would Peninsula / South Bay / East Bay be a better long-term choice?
3. For Peninsula / South Bay, which cities offer the best balance of schools, commute, and not feeling too suburban?
4. For East Bay, are Fremont / Pleasanton / Dublin / San Ramon practical for balancing both commutes, or does the commute become too painful?
5. Are there specific pockets within these cities that we should focus on or avoid?
6. For people who bought recently in this price range, which areas surprised you positively or negatively? What is the house appreciation looking like?

Would love any advice, especially from people balancing SF + South Bay commutes, bought a SFH recently, or navigated the school question in SF / Peninsula / South Bay / East Bay. Please feel free to DM too! Thanks!

Hi folks, my spouse and I are trying to decide whether buying a home right now is prudent, given our visa situation.

We live in SF and are currently renting. Rents in our area are very high, and we’ve started looking at modest townhomes/condos - mainly 2-3 bed / 2 bath places - with listings around $1.1-1.2M.

Financially, our combined base salary is around $620K. We also have a decent net worth from prior liquid RSUs and investments. I have equity in a fast-growing AI startup, but I’m treating that as paper money for now. My spouse is also at a pre-IPO company, but we are not counting on that equity either.

The main issue is immigration risk. We are both on H1B and do not currently have green card certainty. We do however have our PERMs, i140s sorted, and actively trying to move to EB1. But with everything said, the greencard is a big if. Because of that, we’re trying to be conservative and only consider homes where the mortgage could realistically be handled on one person’s salary if one of us lost our job.

For others on H1B / in the green card backlog: how are you thinking about buying in the current housing market? Did you decide to wait until getting a green card, or did you buy anyway with a larger emergency fund and backup plan?

Is buying in this situation a terrible idea, or reasonable if the numbers work on one income and we keep enough cash reserves?

Would appreciate perspectives from people who have been through this. Thanks!