I may be transferring to San Francisco (financial district).

Anyone have any recommendations on places to live? i'd prefer to be anywhere within 30 minutes.

I realize its quite an unaffordable place, but looking to rent at about $3k/month (only need decent sized 1 bedroom place.

3k will get you lots of options. If you want to stay in the city, start looking into all the districts in the city. They each have a very distinct flavor to them, which I find to be pretty awesome considering how they are all basically continuous with each other. I live in North of Panhandle (NoPa), which is sometimes labelled as Western Addition. If you want to be outside the city you have a lot more options in terms of what money will get you. I can respond a bit later, but off to work for now. I work in the Sunset District, which is more suburbia and "affordable" btw.

Just for comparisons sake, I live out in the East Bay in an area called the Tri-Valley. From here it's about a 45 minute ride to the Financial District on BART, the light rail system. A decent one bedroom would run about $1900 - $2400. The suburb I live in is a bedroom community and obviously not as exciting as the city, but I don't have to worry about parking, and there's a poker room, Safeway, and 24 Hour Fitness within 10 minutes of my apartment. Plus, I'd probably pay 1.5-2X rent in the city for my one bedroom, 650 sq ft apartment.

On that note, I work from home 5 days a week so I don't have to worry about commuting into the city everyday. If I had to commute to the city everyday, I'd probably have to think long and hard about living in the suburbs.

thank you both for the advice.

I will be in the office everyday so 45 minutes is definitely a little far for me.

txagman1998, my brother lives in danville. Nice area. Neither he nor wife commute to san fran either. she's at home, he works in concord. I still don't think $750K for a 1400 sqft 3/2 is worth it... It's not THAT nice

Man, I left San Francisco 11 years ago and still miss it.

Couple of key elements missing in your post: Single? Kids? Got a car?

I lived quite a few places in "The City" (never 'Frisco or San Fran), including Berkeley, Marin Co., Telegraph Hill and SOMA (South of Market)

If you're young and single, I'd suggest you look near in, like Hayes Valley or South Beach.

I also really liked the area around the Rock Ridge BART station. It's cheaper and just a short hop from the Financial District.

I will pass along this hint, my quality of life skyrocketed when I ditched my car and bought a motorcycle. I was nervous at first, but I took some training and bought a nice bike. (BMW) It totally eliminated all parking and traffic hassles and totally boosted my game.

no kids, but married with 1 dog 1 cat.

we will take one car, if needed, but I prefer not to drive if I can avoid it given everything I hear about parking and traffic out there.

Thanks for your input.