garage: $200-$300...
... i've done without and my bumpers and doors have suffered mightily. as has a window. i hardly ever drive to work, because a spot in my work garage is $400/mo. a bum spit on my car last week while i was stopped at a light leaving work at front and market, but i think he was demon possessed (no, seriously, i stared him straight in the eye because i was about to get out of the car and tell him whatfor) and he had yelled at the car to the left and threw punches at a runner on the sidewalk as he went to the right.

you will be able to find a decent sized 1BR for $1500 only if you're willing to move out further from the hotspots. in the SOMA/ballpark area i can find you a studio apartment roughly 290sq.ft. for about $1280 (no parking). i have two friends that live in the building, but i would go insane because of the tight quarters. i technically live in the city of sf, but it would be faster for me to live in either emeryville or on the peninsula and get to work via BART, as the move outward means a reliance on spotty public transportation (MUNI sucks). if you DO decide to stay in the city, for reference: my work arrival time varies by 20min from day to day depending on what mood the muni operator is in, if the streetcar is in operating order, and if the planet jupiter is in it's 7th stage. it takes my fiance 35mins to walk to work and she lives practically upstairs from the muni and is only a mile and a half or so from her office. the streetcar can take anywhere from 30-45mins so she might as well walk. avoid using the streetcar as public transportation. the express buses are your friends. they somehow get you to and fro in reasonable amounts of time even through traffic.

my best advice of the day: padmapper.com

we're likely moving to pac heights or laurel heights when we get married if we rent, or if we buy it will be millbrae/burlingame/san mateo.

 

bart is good option for nicer cheaper places,

my friend just got a 1br apt by geary and masonic for 1500/mo, its not quite downtown sf but it works with your budget, lots of bars on geary too

 

If your big concern is the commute, and you have $1500 a month to spend, and you work in downtown SF - they you should just live in SF. Why complicate **** and look all over the bay area?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/a...1500&bedrooms=
(lots of stuff available in the city)
example - http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/1792156679.html


Oh... and FWIW... welcome to the Bay Area -- where implying that you're homophobic is likely to make your life (and your job) really difficult.

 

I used to commute 5 days a week between SF and San Mateo.
There were days where it was less than 20 min. There were days where it was an hour and 20 minutes.
101 is hell. I'll never live or work anywhere every again where I have to commute on 101.

 

Wow, thanks for all the great advice guys.
PignoseWRX - holy SHlT, PadMapper is AWESOME! Thanks!

I don't think I will be staying in the city (downtown).
For now, I'm gonna stick to searching for a 1-bedroom with a garage for around $1500-1600 in the South SF/Daly City/Millbrae area (no further south).
BART is "spotty"? It's not reliable/on-time?

Is parking in downtown (at the Federal Building on Market Street) really hard to find and expensive? Even for motorcycles? And do you guys think the commute during rush hour morning traffic on a motorcycle will take more than 45mins from Millbrae? Sorry for such specific questions, but I'm just curious as to: motorcycle commute vs. BART.

 

Hmm, thanks for the links. Great, now you got me thinkin about living in downtown. Honestly, I thought that either (a) the motorcycle commute might be better than the car commute, and (b) that BART was much more reliable/consistent.

And ah, I'm not homophobic. Like I said in a previous post, I was joking about the Castro area. I didn't change it in my OP, but maybe I should? Not tryin to offend anyone here.

 

Motorcycle parking in that area shouldn't be a problem. There are a few designated spots around Federal Building.

Again, at that range, I wouldn't think you'd need to push pass Daly City/South SF. You can get a decent place with parking. I'm paying $1100 for a one bedroom/living/kitchen with designated indoor parking - Daly City. With a motorcycle, you can get to downtown within 15 min easily, traffic or not.

 

If you have no qualms about lane splitting, Millbrae to Civic Center, SF on motorcycle should be less than 30 minutes, I think. BART is actually quite reliable during rush hours, but at night (like, past 9pm) it can get pretty spotty.

As for motorcycle parking, it might be a little easier to find a space than if you were in a car, but it's still gonna be expensive.

In regards to DC/SSF vs. Millbrae, the two areas have a very different feel IMHO. DC/SSF feels more like an extension of residential SF in terms of layout (more than one shopping/eating area, proximity of houses to one another, amount of people and traffic, etc.), weather, and population, while Millbrae feels more like a warm weather suburb -- mostly quiet, widespread residential areas with arguably only three shopping/eating corridors (Broadway, El Camino, and the plaza over on Trousdale). Nice thing about Millbrae though is that Burlingame is just five minutes away, and there are lots of restaurants there along with a fair-sized shopping district. My personal opinion is that Millbrae is more "livable" and DC/SSF is more convenient.

Lastly, don't worry about changing your original post unless you really wanna. Most of us here are usually pretty laid back about any sort of jokes, but every so often certain topics come up a little too often and tension runs a little higher than usual for a short while. It happens, no worries. Despite being i-Club, it still is t3h iNtRAw3bZ

 

Done deal. You sir, have answered my question completely.
What you just described sounds like exactly the situation I'm looking for.
I just hope I can find a deal like that when the time comes for me to move.
Thanks for the very insightful info!

 

Get a motorcycle and live somewhere not in SF. Thats my best advice, nothing in/around the SF area is 'cheap'.

I see you've already gotten a taste of the quick-to-whine folks that reside in the Bay Area. Enjoy your stay in the land of fruits and nuts.

 

Damn, the Bay Area Regional Forum on i-Club is poppin!
I didn't get any response in the BAIC Forum on NASIOC.

Choku, great insight on DC/SSF vs. Millbrae.
In comparing the two areas, you painted a great picture for me to visualize about the two areas. Millbrae sounds really nice. But I do like being a little closer to the city (DC/SSF). I think it's really just gonna come down to which area I can find the nicer apt in...and within my budget (and with a garage).

Spoolin - LMAO...let's not start up any more trouble in this thread than already exist. I'm just tryin to find a place to live in SF. I don't want no trouble.

 

Last time I checked that forum was when I-Club was down

 

idk why you should settle and live outside sf when your budget of 1500 will easily find you a decent place with a parking spot even in some of the nicer neighborhoods in sf. Also, parking in the nicer neighborhoods is usually much easier, just stay out of russian hill/*** hill. I park on the street in lower pac heights and have never looked for a spot for more than 5 mins or parked further than 5 blocks from my building.

 

If you like going out to bars/clubs/happy hour...live downtown. nothing beats leaving the office and walking to your favorite happy hour spot. Easier to meet new people imho.

if you're more chill and like to stay home more often than not, i would definitely suggest Daly City/SSF. Adjacent and easy access to all boroughs of SF and anything south! Daly City, the gateway to the Peninsula

Millbrae/Burlingame is quiet town. Mostly families, not a lot of things going on in terms of night life. Nicer/quieter/less busy than DC and SSF.

 

I lived downtown SF for 6.5 years. If you value quiet, sleeping with the windows open, sleeping a little late some days and not being awoken by whatever ******* is outside doing something at 7am, not walking your dog over broken car window glass, etc, stay the hell out of downtown.

Downtown SF is a ****hole to live in unless you consider the above fine quality of life.