How much does a social worker's salary pay to live in San Jose or anywhere in The Bay Area? (San Francisco: rental, find a job)

[AnythingOutdoors]

Originally Posted by Janoritish

Yes, I was talking about Tracy and those small towns outside of San Jose. So without traffic, you can get from Morgan Hill and Gilroy to San Jose in 30 minutes? Now what if I got a job in one of those towns, although hiring might be limited because they are small towns.

Yes I am talking about SMART. Is Tracy closer to Oakland? How far is the drive from Tracy to Oakland? If it's close enough, I'm fine with that. I'm fine with any small town close to either SF, Oakland, or San Jose. So to get to SF itself from Santa Rosa, it's a 1hr 40min journey without driving each way?

It is still a deal breaker. I imagine the small towns are very friendly around The Bay Area. I have a feeling many young people my age with kids raise them in those towns and they call The Bay Area the city.

It depends on where in San Jose you're headed. It's less than 30 minutes to the city limit. But if you're headed from Morgan Hill to the North or West side of San Jose during morning rush hour it's gonna be a long trip of stop an go traffic on the 101 and or 85.

Tracy to Oakland during morning rush hour is typically 1-2 hrs. Google Maps has a feature that can give you this information for any route. Enter a destination (e.g. Oakland), then click the button for directions, then put in the starting point (e.g. Tracy). Then click on the "Leave now" drop down and select "Depart at" and then select a mid-week day/time (e.g. Wed at 7am).

Yes, Santa Rosa to SF/Oakland via SMART + Ferry is at least 1:40 hr each way, probably more with transfer times. Getting to San Jose is closer to 3 hrs each way.

Living in a small towns in the outskirts of the Bay Area almost always means a long commute by car. I don't recommend it. There's not much to do in bedroom communities like Tracy, Morgan Hill, Gilroy... they are basic towns. So you're going to commute to the city for work, dining, and social outings. You're going to spend a lot of your time just getting around, and families with kids will mostly navigate towards other families with kids about the same age.

If you're going to live and work in the Bay Area my number one piece of advice is to live as close to work as possible. This will save a lot of time and money in commute costs, and greatly improve your quality of life.

[Janoritish]

Originally Posted by AnythingOutdoors

Friendliness is difficult to quantify, and it varies by city and neighborhood. There are small enclaves that are more community/civic minded, which is also true in pockets of Phoenix. But the Bay Area also has vast tracks of urban sprawl where neighbors aren't necessarily friendly. It's not that they are bad people, just very busy. IMO, bedroom communities (like Tracy) can be even worse in this regard because so much time is spent commuting. Also, the Bay Area metro has a population of nearly 8M, just a lot of people everywhere so it's not like folks go around waving and saying "hi."

I don't know if it's just me, but I'm still very used to the Texas way. I feel like Texas and maybe some states down south are the only states where people say hi and you get to know your neighbors. There and I heard the northeast has a good sense of community. For some reason, in the west coast, people don't say hi and neighbors don't know each other. My friend in Woodland Hills said he knows his neighbors, but it doesn't go beyond a wave hello. It is the same in Phoenix too. I live in a suburb, not actual Phoenix, and it's the same here too.

I also looked into Las Vegas, and I read the exact same thing, that nobody engages there in the real suburbs of Las Vegas, excluding the strip. The strip is not the Vegas people live in. I deeply considered Vegas, but I read horror stories about living there.

I'm still somewhat looking into The Bay Area, and I want to go up there and visit and see for myself what it's really like. I considered the LA area, went to visit recently, and I did not like it. People were rude overall and it felt stressful and was really dirty. The public transportation was very unsafe and I almost had my phone taken. I pulled it out to text and some guy walks to me, turns, and stands looking at me. I then put it away and never took it back out.

I hope the BART is safe. From what I saw in 2016, it seemed very safe and I thought how the locals take it to work and back.

[Janoritish]

Originally Posted by AnythingOutdoors

It depends on where in San Jose you're headed. It's less than 30 minutes to the city limit. But if you're headed from Morgan Hill to the North or West side of San Jose during morning rush hour it's gonna be a long trip of stop an go traffic on the 101 and or 85.

Tracy to Oakland during morning rush hour is typically 1-2 hrs. Google Maps has a feature that can give you this information for any route. Enter a destination (e.g. Oakland), then click the button for directions, then put in the starting point (e.g. Tracy). Then click on the "Leave now" drop down and select "Depart at" and then select a mid-week day/time (e.g. Wed at 7am).

Yes, Santa Rosa to SF/Oakland via SMART + Ferry is at least 1:40 hr each way, probably more with transfer times. Getting to San Jose is closer to 3 hrs each way.

Living in a small towns in the outskirts of the Bay Area almost always means a long commute by car. I don't recommend it. There's not much to do in bedroom communities like Tracy, Morgan Hill, Gilroy... they are basic towns. So you're going to commute to the city for work, dining, and social outings. You're going to spend a lot of your time just getting around, and families with kids will mostly navigate towards other families with kids about the same age.

If you're going to live and work in the Bay Area my number one piece of advice is to live as close to work as possible. This will save a lot of time and money in commute costs, and greatly improve your quality of life.

Living in the cities seems so expensive. I'd have to look at what I can get for apartments starting at $2,000 and up. Anything below $2,000 looks really old and sketchy. Probably non working A/Cs and bugs as well as the areas being sketchy and bad. Where I currently live in Chandler, AZ, it's getting up to that same price too. I pay almost that amount currently.

[AnythingOutdoors]

Originally Posted by Janoritish

Living in the cities seems so expensive. I'd have to look at what I can get for apartments starting at $2,000 and up. Anything below $2,000 looks really old and sketchy. Probably non working A/Cs and bugs as well as the areas being sketchy and bad. Where I currently live in Chandler, AZ, it's getting up to that same price too. I pay almost that amount currently.

It sounds like you're looking for a friendly city with a slower pace of life and a lower cost of living relative to your profession. If I were you, I would be looking at mid-sized cities in the Midwest and South. There's a cost of living calculator on salary.com that allows you to enter your current job title, income, and location, then compare this to another location.

When I plug in "Social Worker - Bachelor's" ($62k income) in Phoenix and then compare this to San Jose it calculates a drop of $20k in disposable income.

But when I compare this job/salary to Omaha, NE the tool calculates an increase of $2.1k/year in disposable income. For Nashville, TN it's $2.4k. Tusla, OK it's $4.7k.

I don't have a sense for how friendly any of these places are, but smaller less stressful cities are often friendlier.

[Janoritish]

Are the drivers in The Bay Area rude? I always imagined they were very friendly.

[AnythingOutdoors]

Originally Posted by Janoritish

Are the drivers in The Bay Area rude? I always imagined they were very friendly.

I commuted in the Bay Area for 20 years, friendly is not how I'd describe the drivers. Are they all rude? No, of course not But it's a large metro of 8M people with bad traffic and long commutes. People are in a hurry, and they get frustrated, and it comes out in their driving. Cutting people off. Tailgating. Cutting in lines. Folks willfully gridlocking intersections. And so on.

We have family in the Phoenix area and have driven there quite a lot. Traffic is worse and the drivers more stressed in the Bay Area.

[CalWorth]

Unless you have a MSW & state of California LCSW, your employment options & salary range will be very limited & certainly not be enough to support you in the Bay Area. Even with that necessary credential, you will need to have roommates.

[Janoritish]

Originally Posted by AnythingOutdoors

I commuted in the Bay Area for 20 years, friendly is not how I'd describe the drivers. Are they all rude? No, of course not But it's a large metro of 8M people with bad traffic and long commutes. People are in a hurry, and they get frustrated, and it comes out in their driving. Cutting people off. Tailgating. Cutting in lines. Folks willfully gridlocking intersections. And so on.

We have family in the Phoenix area and have driven there quite a lot. Traffic is worse and the drivers more stressed in the Bay Area.

Driving in Phoenix is actually better than driving in The Bay Area? I for some reason thought driving in The Bay Area was much better. I will say, traffic in Phoenix isn't bad compared to other big metros I've visited. I'd say LA, Houston, Philadelphia, Denver, and Dallas all have far worse traffic. Drivers in Houston were much worse than drivers in Phoenix. I was always aggressively tailgated much more in Houston by huge large pickup trucks. On two occasions, I was honked at for switching lanes. Texas I think might have worse drivers overall, at least in their major metros. But Phoenix compared to The Bay Area, for some reason I thought it was the opposite because I noticed drivers up north were better.

The Bay Area definitely is bigger than Phoenix and has three skylines.

[Janoritish]

Originally Posted by CalWorth

Unless you have a MSW & state of California LCSW, your employment options & salary range will be very limited & certainly not be enough to support you in the Bay Area. Even with that necessary credential, you will need to have roommates.

I won't have an MSW yet, I'd plan to move there while still in online school, if I decide to. I'm still weighing the pros and cons. I have an M.Ed in Human Relations and a BS in Psychology. I won't have an LCSW yet until 2-3 years from now. I would have an ASW.

So even if I had an MSW with the ASW credential, I'd still have to have roommates? I wouldn't be making $6,000 a month? That is how much I would have to make to be able to rent a decent apartment that is not old, ghetto, or in a bad area. I would think that they would be empathetic and sympathetic about my situation.

I'm also gonna look at the rents in Gilroy, Morgan Hill, and Tracy. I was mainly looking at San Jose. Oakland seems affordable, but Oakland from what I heard is very dangerous. Not sure if this is true or not, since I haven't spent time in Oakland.

[AnythingOutdoors]

Originally Posted by Janoritish

Driving in Phoenix is actually better than driving in The Bay Area? I for some reason thought driving in The Bay Area was much better. I will say, traffic in Phoenix isn't bad compared to other big metros I've visited. I'd say LA, Houston, Philadelphia, Denver, and Dallas all have far worse traffic. Drivers in Houston were much worse than drivers in Phoenix. I was always aggressively tailgated much more in Houston by huge large pickup trucks. On two occasions, I was honked at for switching lanes. Texas I think might have worse drivers overall, at least in their major metros. But Phoenix compared to The Bay Area, for some reason I thought it was the opposite because I noticed drivers up north were better.

The Bay Area definitely is bigger than Phoenix and has three skylines.

The Bay Area isn't just bigger, the mountain ranges and the bay create multiple choke points as traffic is funneled into relatively narrow areas with no practical alternatives. If you go for a visit, I challenge you to stay one Tues night in Tracy and then try driving to San Jose or Oakland by 8:30am Wed morning. Or, try driving from San Jose to Tracy on a summer Friday departing around 6pm.

Texas may have big pickup trucks, but they're no match for the Bay Area's tech bros with expensive sports cars. Beware the BMW M5 and Tesla Model S on I-280