DON'T Move To San Francisco, Move to Marin County INSTEAD

If you're looking for a forever home, you probably shouldn't be looking in San Francisco. I am convinced that there's no such thing as a forever home in SF unless you have north of $5 million to spend with zero intent on having kids. And even then, if you do check those boxes, you'd only be considering a very, very small subsection of the neighborhood. So, you know, for everyone else whose boxes aren't checked by those parameters, I'm going to tell you in this video why so many people are considering Marin County to find their forever home instead of San Francisco. What's up everyone? This is Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco and Marin County. I moved to the Bay Area over a decade ago to work as a lawyer at one of the biggest law firms in the world where I represented Fortune 500 companies and C-suite executives in multi-billion-dollar cases across the country. And now I represent buyers and sellers with one of the most important financial decisions of their lives— their home. I create these videos because I love San Francisco and Marin County. I love the food, their walkability, their history, the views, the architecture. So if you like any of those things too and you want to learn more about what it's like to live in San Francisco and Marin County, make sure to subscribe to my channel so you get notified about all my videos. So back to why I believe there's no such thing as a forever home in San Francisco. First of all, you know, doesn't have the best reputation for public school. So if you want to guarantee your kid top quality education in San Francisco, chances are you're going to be looking at private schools. And then, you know, kindergarten all the way up through high school going to cost $30,000, $40,000, maybe even $50,000 a year, which is a big chunk of change that not everybody wants to spend or can afford to spend. Second of all, standard lot sizes in San Francisco are really, really small, about 2,500 square feet, 25 by 100 on average, about 2,900 square feet in the city. You're not getting these huge backyards, these huge front yards with side yards and all of that. There are also no lot line setbacks in San Francisco. So even houses where you spend like $7, $8, $9, even $10 million, you might actually be sharing a wall with your neighbor, living like in an apartment. And the median price per foot for homes in San Francisco is almost $1,000, about $970 per square foot. And that's just a median price for good neighborhoods, you know, minimal crime, very walkable with all the amenities that you want living in San Francisco. Yeah. You're gonna be spending well north of that. Plus San Francisco, as we all know, is a little bit colder and foggier more times of the year than it is, you know, bright and sunny. But there's a way to maintain access to all the great things about San Francisco without having to actually experience and live among the negative aspects of San Francisco. And that's right across the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. You don't need to give up proximity to all the best things of SF, you know, all the great food, all the Michelin star restaurants, the beautiful parks, Golden Gate Park, Alta Plaza Park, Marina Green, the Presidio, all those amazing things. You could live in Marin County, a short drive or ferry ride to San Francisco. And perhaps the biggest benefit of all, it is a lot more affordable on average to find your forever home in Marin County than it is in San Francisco. Marin County has some of the best public schools in the nation. You don't need to send your kid to private school and spend that $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 a year to make sure that your kids have top-notch education. The average lot size in Marin is also 5 times the size of the average lot size in San Francisco. Um, 16,000 square feet compared to under 3,000 1,000 square feet in San Francisco. So what does that mean? You get real front yards, you get real backyards. So whether you have kids, pets, or you simply just like spending time outdoors, you have much more ability to do that in Marin County than you do in San Francisco. And if you happen to get a really extravagant home in Marin County, you can have tennis courts, basketball courts, you know, these huge open spaces right on your property, and you can enjoy them more in Marin County because the weather in Marin County is perfect almost year-round depending on what neighborhood you live in. Marin County's also significantly less dense than San Francisco. You have a lot less homes right on top of each other. You're not sharing walls with your neighbors like you are in San Francisco. Even at the very low end of price points in Marin County, you're not on top of your neighbor, which is great. You have proper side yards, you have proper front yards, proper backyards. So you have a lot more privacy as well. And you're actually able to enjoy those open spaces a lot more in Marin County because the weather in Marin County, unlike in San Francisco, is pretty much immaculate all year round. Except in Sausalito, which, you know, weather is a lot closer to San Francisco weather than it is to Marin County weather. But I'm in Sausalito right now, and it's honestly, it's gorgeous because you don't get those fog fronts in most of Marin and have that colder weather like you do in San Francisco. You're actually able to enjoy your outdoors a lot more. And the median price per square foot for a single-family home in Marin is about $100 less than it is in San Francisco. So, you know, before even taking into account the 5 times larger lots that I was just talking about, there's already a value proposition for homes in Marin County compared to San Francisco. And obviously, once you consider those 5 times larger lots on average in Marin County, the value proposition goes even farther. Marin County also has incredible outdoor amenities that rival anything else in the United States. So you have easy access to all the great outdoor amenities of San Francisco, but you also have places like the Muir Woods and Mount Tam and hiking and biking trails and waterfronts in so many different cities and areas in Marin County. Now, Marin County obviously isn't going to compare on the food front or shopping front to San Francisco, but like I said, you can get to San Francisco very easily if you want something specific that you can't get in Marin. That said, Marin's food scene and shopping scene is growing growing every single day. You know, restaurants that are based in San Francisco are opening up locations in Marin County. There's also a fair share of very high-end shopping centers in Marin with big-name brands, you know, like, like Crate and Barrel and DWR and those other home design brands. You have Whole Foods, you have all these big-name brands that are opening up stores in Marin. A San Francisco staple, Souvla, just opened up at the Marin Country Mart, which is one of my favorite places to shop. You know, they have a bunch of high-end home goods and interior design stores there, like DWR, like Hudson Grace. . But on the flip side of that, you also have these really cute, like, historic shopping areas in Marin. You know, downtown Larkspur, downtown San Rafael have a ton of charm. You're not really going to find places like that in San Francisco. So there's just so much that Marin County offers from a living standpoint compared to San Francisco when you consider the lower price point. And they've also got a farm shop there which has some of my favorite pizza in all of Marin County. There's great food all over. And honestly, if you feel like something's lacking and you really need to go to the city for something,. It's just a short drive or ferry commute to the city, so you're not really giving any of that up. So who specifically is Marin County right for? Well, one of my clients was living in Pacific Heights in San Francisco. He was living in a 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom, about 800-square-foot condo, shared laundry, no access to yard space. The yard was dedicated to the unit below his, so he had no outdoor space whatsoever. He'd lived there 15 years and was looking to move in with his long-term girlfriend and eventually start a family. He had looked and looked for, you know, about a year and a half. We sold his condo and got him into a gorgeous 4-bedroom home on a third of an acre in Marin County. It had a sick front yard space and backyard space with a huge fire pit, this terraced garden. It was absolutely gorgeous, new construction home. And the third of an acre, you're pretty much not going to find that anywhere in San Francisco except on the absolute most expensive, you know, $20+ million homes, which, you know, he wasn't buying. He's also a car guy. And, you know, not only did it have a two-car garage, but it had a huge driveway that could itself fit 4 or 5 cars. So it was the perfect option for him and something that he really wasn't ever going to find in San Francisco. For something even close to the price point of what he paid for in Marin County. Another couple that I'm working with right now, they also live in a condo in San Francisco in a beautiful neighborhood, Jordan Park. But the girlfriend of the couple is from the East Coast and wants something that reminds her more of home. She wants, you know, at least half an acre, which definitely doesn't exist in San Francisco. It only exists in Marin. And it's not even the highest price points of Marin that you can get that much land. There are actually plenty of homes in reasonable price points where you can get an abundance of land. Now they're gonna be spending some serious money. They're looking in the $4 million plus range, but even if they were to spend $10 million in San Francisco, they were never going to get what they're after. So that's why they're moving. All of them love the city. None of them want to give up the great things about the city, and they don't have to do that moving to Marin, and that's why they're so keen on doing that. So if you're thinking about relocating to the Bay Area and want a forever home, you should definitely be considering Marin County. If you want an insider's guide to relocating, check my Marin County relocation guide linked in the description below. It will tell you everything that you need to know before moving here.. And if you do end up deciding to make the move, I'd love to be your resource of choice. I'm happy to help any way that I can. You can call me, text me, email me. There's also a link to set up a call directly with me in the description below. And if you're wondering if Marin County has any downsides, if it's really a good fit for you, I have a video about the pros and cons of living in Marin County. I'll link that in the description below. You should check it out. And until then, I'll see you in the next video.