patrick.net

try the commute for a couple weeks, then come back and share whether or not you think the price difference is worth it.

OMG...the commute is terrible. My husband knows two guys that live there and commute to Pleasanton. They are stuck in traffic in the morning and after work for a long time and always seem tired. One of them wised up and now darts out of the office no later than 4 pm, otherwise, he is in for a heck of a wait driving home. Not worth it in my opinion. You can't put a price on a good commute. Personally, I'd rather rent and live close to work than do that horrendous commute even if my significant other could afford to stay home.

The commute isn't worth it. And prices will probably continue to drop there. I don't know much about the brentwood market, but it's far enough out there that any drops in the bay area, will force people out there to drop their prices to keep the "incentive" for that commute "worth it"

Like crash-olah said, go rent a cheap hotel for one week up there. It will be the best $400 you spend.

My feelings on commute times:
Sleep 8 hours. Work 8 Hours. 1 Hour lunch. 1 hour to get up. 30 minutes for eating dinner. 30 minutes to get ready for bed.
*note: I'm assuming your wife on the single income will take care of house hold "chores". Dinner, dishes, cleaning, bills.

For you, you're at 19 hours. You'll have roughly 5 hours. Brentwood to bay area is going to chew through at least 3 hours of that time. 90 minutes to get to work, 90 minutes to return -- if you're luckly. I knew people spending more time than that, 2-3 hours sometimes doing that commute each way.

So you'll have 2 hours to yourself to do "stuff" in life. Watch the news, read a book, etc. Going from 5 hours to 2 hours is a massive drop. You might end up with 0 hours on some days.

Brentwood and Contra Costa in general are great places to live if you are a fire fighter and only commute once a week. Other than that, most job prospects that pay well are > 1hr commute and that makes it not worth it. But people do it every day ...

That's funny, 3 comments all about the commute. We tried the commute one night and one morning and didn't think it was that bad. But...you're right, a week or more is probably needed to really have it hit home. That's a good breakdown pkennedy. I never quite put it in numbers like that, but it certainly makes sense. Thank you all for the input. The search for more options continues...

buddy,
commute matters. what is the point of having a nice home, if you are spending 3 hours in messy traffic. When you get home, you are tired, cranky and barking at your wife/kids. Never 'getting any' during the weekday because you pissed off your wife :-)

do what is recommended, do the commute for 1 week. And judge it for yourself.

camping, You hint that you work in the South Bay; how about some more details. Are you near light rail, or in downtown San Jose? If so, an affordable community along the Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) may be a good option (they also run shuttles to other locations in SV).

Live east of Brentwood - retired - commute is long, slow and dangerous. I do it on weekends and there are no end of crackheads, tailgaters, road-rage issues and overall discourteous behavior on Hwy 4 AND Vasco Rd. Yeah - just try going 55 on Vasco ... and I'm pushin 7500 lbs. of Detroit iron.

This home appears to be less than a mile from the ACE train station in Tracy. Remember, commuting on the train is a lot less stressful than driving and you can use this time to be productive: work, read, or sleep.

Thanks EBGuy, I didn't even know there was such a train. The commute would be to Sunnyvale. So from Brentwood, it would still be down Vasco (20 mins?), train to Santa Clara (40 mins?) and then drive to work (10 mins). Like you said, work can be done on the train. I'll have to look into it more.

Aside from the commute, are there other reasons to avoid Brentwood though?

Hellishly warm during the summer months (YMMV)?!

Brentwood is one of those bubble cities that grew very fast like other outer commute area and was kind of the epitome of real-estate bubble. They are known for good schools, but I hear that Brentwood is not very diverse. You can get very affordable (compared to Sunnyvale) newish houses there under $300k.