Why People Prefer Marin County Over San Francisco

There were a ton of news articles during the pandemic about people moving out of San Francisco as offices transitioned to remote work, and one of the most popular destinations for people leaving San Francisco but wanting to stay in California was Marin County, just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. And in this video, I'm gonna break down the top 5 reasons why people leave San Francisco for Marin County. This is Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent and real estate developer in San Francisco. I have lived in multiple neighborhoods throughout the city, giving me in-depth firsthand knowledge of what it's like to both live and work in San Francisco. If you're thinking about relocating or want more information about the market, definitely reach out to me. My contact information is in the description. Description below. I will personally answer every call, every email, every text, and I'd be more than happy to help you. And if you like videos just like this, please subscribe to my channel and don't forget to click the bell so you're alerted every single time I post a video. All right, so this video is all about the differences between living in SF and living in Marin County and why people left SF, especially during the pandemic, to move to Marin. Because of the influx of people from the city, Marin actually became one of the hottest housing markets in the pandemic, and it's actually more expensive to live in Marin now than it is to live in San Francisco. Now, that's not true for every single part of Marin and every single part of San Francisco. There are parts of Marin that are less expensive, and there are parts of San Francisco that are more expensive. But on the whole, on average, living in Marin is more expensive than living in the city from a cost of home perspective. So it might actually be surprising that cost of living is not one of the 5 reasons people leave San Francisco to move to Marin, because Marin is more expensive. The biggest objections I hear to living in SF and wanting to move to Marin is to get away from all the crime and homelessness in San Francisco. It is true, in certain parts of the city, streets have been taken over by tents and shopping carts. There is a ton of drug abuse, car break-ins, even violent crime like the Tenderloin, like Civic Center, and other parts immediately next to downtown. And it's unfortunate because a lot of those places are near a lot of things that people like to do in SF. And on top of that, it's almost impossible to park your car outside overnight without risk of it getting broken into, having a window smashed in. It doesn't matter if there's nothing left out, nothing in your car, there's a strong chance if you leave your car out overnight in those areas, you're gonna get your car broken into. When you cross the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin, all that stuff seemingly disappears. Of course, you know, everywhere, any major city is going to have those problems, but it is much, much, much less prevalent in Marin, and you can pretty much live anywhere in Marin and not really have those issues, whereas in San Francisco, there are certain pockets of SF you need to live in to sort of avoid those issues. Second reason people leave San Francisco for Marin is the outdoors. San Francisco has incredible outdoor amenities like Golden Gate Park, Dolores Park, Buena Vista Park, Alta Plaza Park. There are a ton of great things to do outdoors in San Francisco. But if you like a more active outdoor lifestyle, you want to do more than just hang out in a park, uh, Marin County is definitely where you want to be. Every city in Marin has access to like incredible hikes, mountains, biking trails. Um, it even has beaches of its own and it's surrounded by protected parklands that are truly incredible. Uh, Mount Tam is one of the most popular mountains. People hike and ride bikes up and down. You get incredible views from the peak. Muir Woods are also in Marin. Mm-hmm. You might recognize these from the famous film Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. It's where they shot the scenes on Endor where the Ewoks lived. It's a great place to go on a hike, great way to spend an afternoon or even— or a morning if the weather is decent. There are just beautiful outdoor spaces throughout all cities in the county. Homes in Marin tend to be on larger lots as well compared to San Francisco, so people living there get to take advantage of the outdoors from their homes too. And many of the neighborhoods themselves are in the middle of wooded areas, giving off like very serene, very tranquil vibes compared to city living. There are actually several homes that I've seen on the market in recent times where they have redwoods like in their backyard, which is something that you're not really going to get in most places in San Francisco. Third reason people leave San Francisco for Marin is that commuting from Marin is actually relatively easy. There are some big companies headquartered in Marin, but most tech and finance and you know, law firms and other big companies, they're headquartered in the city or in the South Bay, not in Marin. So chances are if you have a job at one of those places but live in Marin and gonna have to go to work at some point, you're gonna be commuting, and Marin is just a very easy place to commute from. People travel over the Golden Gate Bridge to get to San Francisco, or the South Bay Bridge traffic over the Golden Gate is actually pretty easy compared to the Bay Bridge, which is horrendous. Um, it's really not a problem commuting from Marin to San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge. A lot of people in Marin also take the ferry to the ferry terminal in San Francisco. You can get the ferry from Larkspur, Tiburon, Sausalito. There are multiple places in Marin where you can just boat to work so you don't have to pay the bridge toll. You do have to pay a toll to be on the ferry, but you don't have to have a car and pay for parking when you're in the city. So it's actually a cheaper and sometimes faster way to commute to the city, and it's a boat ride over the San Francisco Bay, so it's, it's quite lovely. Fourth reason is the schools. Marin has incredibly highly rated public schools, so it is a really big draw for people who have children of school age who don't want to pay $40,000 a year for private school in San Francisco, they leave San Francisco and move to Marin because the schools in Marin are better than they are in San Francisco, and they're some of the best in California and in the country. San Francisco has great public schools as well, but there just aren't as many of them as there are in Marin, and there are also a lot of schools in San Francisco that have their issues, so it's just a lot easier to get your kid into a great school in Marin compared to San Francisco. There are also private schools up there as well if you still want to send your kid to private school. Mm-hmm. Fifth reason people leave San Francisco for Marin is the weather. Everyone knows San Francisco has a reputation for being on the colder and foggier side. It gets the fog banks from the ocean, from the bay, keeping it, you know, in the 50s and 60s pretty much year round. Marin is the opposite of that. It is sunny all parts of the year. The weather is incredible. It gets up to 80, 90 degrees, sometimes even hotter during the summer. During the winters, it can get pretty cold as well, but for the most part, it is very moderate, very temperate. And really great weather all year round. The weather is better in Marin largely because a lot of the county is sheltered by these massive mountain hillsides. The entire county is sort of in a valley that is protected from the elements of the bay and ocean and make it a lot warmer. So those are the 5 main reasons people move from SF to Marin County, especially during the pandemic. If you want more information about living in Marin or want more information about the market or thinking about relocating, definitely reach out to me. My contact information is in the description below. I will personally answer every call, every email, every text, and I'd be more than happy to help you. And if you like videos just like this, please subscribe to my channel and don't forget to click the bell so you're alerted every single time I post a video.