i was curious to know anyone can provide me with some details on how cost of living in Dublin or surrounding areas is?

good place to live? eat? drink? have fun? relax? calm? weather? airports? far from SF?

i'll take anything at this point. TIA

Snow is 3 hours. Beaches are 1 hour away. SF is 30 min. Summers temp is 90-100 sometimes higher. Winter is anywhere from 30s at night to 50s during the day. Coming from Chicago, you'll be wearing shorts.

glad to see this area does not see -10+ degrees in the winter like good ole chi-town.

Dublin's a little removed from SF (traffic can be quite bad), but as long as you don't have to drive the commute, it's not terrible.

They're really developing the surrounding area, so there's a a lot around - mostly the suburban sprawl mix of housing developments/corporate parks/malls.

Pretty central to everything, though. Crapple lives out there, but don't know if he exists any more.

Where you looking? Sybase? (I don't know what else is there).

Pleasanton is more expensive..of the three..but they are all next to each other...traffic is bad near there...680 freeway...so if you are going there...get a place near where your gonna work...as close as possible. Meraj, you can call me if you want more details...

well i havent decided on making any move yet, but there is a pretty small to good chance, a position of major interest is opening in that area, and i have an interview or two set up.

dont know much about the area, and can only ask for real life experience to compare it against chicago.

what airport is easiet to fly into and get to Dublin in a direct way? oakland or SFO? probably not san jose...?

as sad as this is, i would be looking for more of a suburban life style, since the wifey and i are sick of city life (as we are in the northside of chicago right now).

expect an email once i can find out when the on-site interview will occur.

love to talk via phone too at that point as well!

after the kid and wife, my car's moved to the bottom of the totem pole, so I didn't want to hear about all the mods I'll no longer be able to do :(

Now I'm pretty much an AWOTer. Good luck with the job!

i can foresee something quite similar happening to me soon enough. except my kid will be wearing either a UCONN or FIGHTING ILLINI sweatshirt! =)

i'll keep steve and you in da loop....

SJ Airport may be closer or Oakland definitely is

I have a number of friends who had been living in Dublin before the Hacienda Complex opened. I always found it to be a nice central, upscale place. The schools were pretty much sub par, so all of their kids are in private schools. There's lots of ongoing development now though.

Dublin is one of the few places I consider relocating. Although if you like Asian food, you have to drive to SF or San Jose area. Both a short jaunt away. Plus the 680 freeway to San Jose can be fun at times :)

Dublin is in the middle between both. If you're going to be working in the San Ramon or Pleasanton business parks, it's a good place to live.

For renting- it's the most affordable.
For buying- the whole area is expensive. Figure between 600-750k for 1600sq ft 3bd/3bth type of home.

It's in the center of everything, with 1hr away from most major cities (SF, Sacramento, San Jose).

Airports are 60-90min for SFO, 40min to OAK and 60min to SJC. It also has a BART station, which is the rapid transit/train system that get's you to San Francisco, and down the peninsula. So it's a great option if you have to commute into the SF.

East of the 580/650 corridor it's growing. Livermore is coming into it's own as the "undiscoverd" wine country. There about 40+ wineries now, and all top notch. What Napa was 20 years ago before they started to nickle and dime you for tastings etc.

Dining is great- basically the whole 680 corridor up from Pleasanton, up north to Walnut Creek is a great for dining. Lot of smalltown feel places, next to new 'modern fusion cuisine'.

Pleasanton has the best school system in the area, San Ramon next, and then Livermore and Dublin.

Let me know if you have any questions. Happy to help. Overall it's a great area with a bit of everything for everyone.

HTH-
Ernesto

sheesh! thats the size of my condo right now in the city!! i can get nearly 3500+ 5 bedroom home in the chicago burbs for that! OOCH!

thanks for the offer for help, i might surely take up some of it from you guys soon.

Never seen it that bad.

Maybe if there was a big accident. Off commute you can do it in under an hour from Pleasanton.

I prefer Oakland and San Jose airports, but when I travel internationally for work, usually no choice but SFO.

Currently in Pleasanton, for the past 7 years. I work in the valley (Sunnyvale), as does my wife.

The area is quite nice. Very suburbs, but in the heart of the Bay Area. Traffic can be rough to SF or SJ, depending on conditions and time.

I just really enjoy the atmosphere and people in the Tri-Valley area (Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, etc). Very family oriented. The longer commute is worth the quality of family life that we get living in Pleasanton. Great schools, killer downtown and great restaurants.

If you do decide to move out here, you should really take a look at Pleasanton as well.

It's typical suburbia really. I like it. Good neighborhoods, low crime, good schools, nice mall right next door in Pleasanton. It's a bit pricey (but that's just the SF Bay Area), but it is a little less expensive than the surrounding towns of Pleasanton and San Ramon.

Commute gets bad at rush hour since Dublin is the crossroads of a couple of highways, but how it affects you is totally dependant on where you work. If you work in downtown San Francisco, the best option is to take the BART train from the local station.

The only real downside of Dublin is that some people might say it lacks "character". (Crapple moved to Berkeley a while back because of that.) But if you want character, you can always hop in the car and drive to those areas in under an hour.

I live in Walnut Creek now which is about 20 minutes from Dublin without traffic.Contra Costa county is better compared to Alameda county.If you have kids.Schools in Central Contra Costa (Orinda, Moraga, Lafayette, Danville, Walnut Creek, Alamo) are topnotch.Great shopping in Walnut Creek

We (my wife and I) live in Dublin. As Rogdog says it can be suburban, but it depends on what you are looking for.

We love it here and we always comment how good our decision was to move from SF 5 years ago. We would not trade it for the world. Dublin is really growing fast, and is gaining on San Ramon, and Pleasanton in terms of amenities, business, etc.

Property here is expensive like all of the Bay Area. Dublin being so close to BART is starting to be a premium. It's been more expensive than San Ramon for some time. My opinion is that Dublin/Pleasanton are much more exicting that sleepy San Ramon (a true bedroom community).

We are very close to OAK, and about 45 min BART to SFO door-to-door. We are also very conveniently located to get to I5/SAC/Tahoe. or to I5/LA.

The Tri-Valley (Dublin,Pleasanton,San Ramon), and Livermore Valley (Dublin, Pleasanton,Livermore) are very nice places to live, are a bit less congested than other Bay Area cities (Palo Alto say) and offer a great place to raise a family, etc.

Dood, I waved at you Friday on 680. <nods>. Sia told me it must have been you.

if you do not plan for it.

But like all of you - I used SJ or Oakland for domestic and SFO for International. Though sometimes I landed at SJ from Japan.

one set of bolts holding it up - and they never did a retofit on it and thus is risky - I use the Dumbarton since.

Since I am in San Jose now...95% of my flights go out of there these days...

:-P

Slight thread hijack - is that you & your wife I often see driving over to the Hobee's on Central Expressway on the weekends? We've waved to one another and you blipped your throttle the last time - curious if that was you. I live nearby and notice when there are S4's around ...

Pleasanton schools test VERY high, some of the highest in CA. My son (almost 4) was premie and has mild autism, and he's getting all sorts of state and district-funded therapy, evaluations, private attention.
I simply WON'T leave Pleasanton for their schools alone. The fact that my house has appreciated 150% in 8 years is nice too.

We must be slacking...

I sold my 1900 sq ft house in San Jose in July for $720K...it is nasty out here..be prepared for sticker shock...BAD sticker shock.

925-682-3150 x138

Diablo Audi - Concord CA

Whew..I feel better now.

Nice traffic, eh?

Dublin is a pretty nice area---but like the Bay Area in general, it is very pricey---and you should expect total sticker shock if you're coming in from the Midwest.

It is by the crossroads of the I-580 & I-680 highways---which can get VERY CONGESTED---as folks commuting from the Central Valley (via I-580) going into, say, west to Oakland or south to San Jose, use that route. That said, if you work in downtown SF or Oakland or Berkeley, it is accessible to BART which will make your commute tolerable. If you work locally in and around San Ramon/Pleasanton, then it's pretty OK.

Being a bit more inland and in a valley, it is warmer in the summertime than the cities on the bay such as Oakland. I'm sure you'll probably like that coming from the Midwest.

They actually have a pretty thriving downtown, which isn't to be taken for granted (Sunnyvale bulldozed their downtown some 30 years ago for a giant mall, Sunnyvale Town Center, which pretty much went out of business a couple of years ago, except for a Macy's and Target still left there).

My only gripe about the Walnut Creek to Oakland corridor (on 24) is the Caldecott Tunnel ride---ugh. It's OK if you work in downtown SF and take BART, though.

made a difference. Traffice moves at a good clip, and they expanded the # of toll booths so back up is minimal.

Now, there are new and what seem to be excellent schools in their area. One of them being off South Dublin Ranch Rd. All of the establishments around here used to be mud when they moved into the area. It definetely moved up very fast.

But their kids had been going into the private schools, some as long as 8 years.

And I agree on the jump on the homes. They got theirs for $600k. It's appraised for ~1.4M now. Wished I moved then :/

But Dublin seems to be putting alot of its new tax money from expansion into infrastructure and education. Dublin schools should be closing that gap in the next few years.

My son went to Quarry Lane pre-school through 2nd grade (private school), but started public school for his 3rd grade year. He is in 5th now, at Vintage Hills...and that school just plain rocks.

My daugher is in Quarry Lane now (day care really, as she is just under 3 years old)...but will start going to public after kindergarten.

The Pleasanton school district ranks as one of if not the best districts in California (which may be a dubious honor, since Cali is rated terribly from a country wide perspective).

taken the bridge - so that great for you all.

And the middle school is planned for '08 I believe.