Housing cost in LA and SF

[Hard24Get]

Any residents out there go to UCLA (esp near Harbor) or UCSF? These programs will likely be in my top 3 but I am trying to figure out affordability. Where do you live, what kind of place is it (house, studio, 1BR apt), how far from the hospital is it, and how much does it cost? Thanks for helping out the poor, guys.

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[DarksideAllstar]

Any residents out there go to UCLA (esp near Harbor) or UCSF? These programs will likely be in my top 3 but I am trying to figure out affordability. Where do you live, what kind of place is it (house, studio, 1BR apt), how far from the hospital is it, and how much does it cost? Thanks for helping out the poor, guys.

Check out craigslist.org for general housing info (there are multiple cities posted on that site) in your area of interest. This will give you a general idea of what type of rent will get you in certain neighborhoods in LA and SF or wherever else you are considering.

I am currently a resident at UCSF and I pay $1700 for a 1bd/1ba with garage about a 15 minute walk from Moffitt Long in the sunset. I share with my GF, so its not that bad. Obviously, if you take on a roommate it can be cheaper. Rent will definitely vary with the neighborhood that you live in (same size place out at the ocean would probably be a couple hundred bucks a month cheaper, same size place in Cole Valley would be a couple hundred more). Almost no one I know in San Francisco owns anything ($350-400k for a small 1bd condo). Rent will definitely depend on whether the apartment/flat has been remodeled recently (ie newer inside= more expensive). PM me with more specific ?s.

 

[babel]

Hey there - not a resident, just a medical student, but I lived in LA for 7 years up until this past summer, and almost went to UCSF for medical school (so I was looking at prices there just a mere 6 months ago).

Sooo... first off, Craigslist is a great resource for both LA and SF apartment hunting.

I lived in LA proper (which tends to be even more expensive), not by Harbor, but my best guess would be $700-$900/mo for a studio depending on exact location, building type (big complexes w/ amenities always seem to cost more).

Add at least $100-$200/mo to that for SF.

Good luck, and I'm sure some people will post soon with more accurate figures!

Hmm..... seeing Darksideallstar's post, perhaps I was a bit too optimistic about SF..... When I was looking, though, I was definitely going as cheap as possible (nothing more than a studio) - but yeah, as I recall, you probably won't find much for under $1000 in SF. Good luck!

 

[Hard24Get]

Thanks for your responses! I was on Craig's list, but since I don't know the area that well, places that seem close may not be so I just wanted some real life stories.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Thanks for your responses! I was on Craig's list, but since I don't know the area that well, places that seem close may not be so I just wanted some real life stories.

At UCSF, most of the residents I work with live in the Sunset, Cole Valley, Haight Ashbury, or Inner Richmond. Some people also live in the East Bay and commute in Q day, but that would make me crazy. If you live along the N-Judah MUNI line you can take it right to the hospital. There is a free shuttle service that runs between Moffitt Long (Sunset), SF General (Mission), and Mt Zion (Pac Heights-ish area), so you could live near any of these sites and be able to reach the others with relative ease, although the shuttle tends to make me car sick.

 

[kuhlguy]

hey ... im an undergrad at ucla right now ... ill be going to med school next year


if i get into ucla med ill be living where i live right now ... about a 10 minute walk to the hospital ... i live in a 2b2b for $540 a month ... i share an extremely large bedroom ... its a 22 by 13 room so its large ... its unusual to get such a great deal in westwood, but it can be found

if u want to live in the valley ... thats about a 15 minute drive in no traffic or 30 minute drive in traffic ... ull pay 700 a month there for ur own room ... personally id rather live in westwood and share rather than live in the valley .... westwood is a great college town to live in ... doesnt feel so much like a ginormous city although its still busy

 

[velo]

Any residents out there go to UCLA (esp near Harbor) or UCSF? These programs will likely be in my top 3 but I am trying to figure out affordability. Where do you live, what kind of place is it (house, studio, 1BR apt), how far from the hospital is it, and how much does it cost? Thanks for helping out the poor, guys.

Hey, I'm applying right now and pretty sure I'm ranking UCSF #1 so I've gone through this concern over housing costs. One thing to remember is that your pay is supplemented with a $500/month housing subsidy to offset cost of living, so that makes things a bit more doable. Most of the residents I spoke to who lived in the inner sunset managed to find places for 1200-1400/month--if you factor in the subsidy that's the equivalent of 700-900 somewhere with just a base salary, and that's really not unreasonable. Find a roommate and it becomes even more affordable, but I can't decide if I want to go that route...

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Hey, I'm applying right now and pretty sure I'm ranking UCSF #1 so I've gone through this concern over housing costs. One thing to remember is that your pay is supplemented with a $500/month housing subsidy to offset cost of living, so that makes things a bit more doable. Most of the residents I spoke to who lived in the inner sunset managed to find places for 1200-1400/month--if you factor in the subsidy that's the equivalent of 700-900 somewhere with just a base salary, and that's really not unreasonable. Find a roommate and it becomes even more affordable, but I can't decide if I want to go that route...

Re: the medical center housing subsidy. You will not be living that much better on an extra 6K/yr from the med center-- rent doesn't become more affordable, you simply don't have to live in a tier 3 slum, but rather can afford a tier 1. My department kicks us an extra $4K/yr on top of the med center's $6K, which makes it a little better. The problem is, obviously this money is pretax and not very much after taxes (state, city, fed). I looked at COL between SF and Seattle last year and I would have come out ahead by a lot of $$ (ie>5K/yr) if I ended up living in Seattle, and that was making the standard $44k/yr compared with the $54k/yr I get at UCSF.

Currently rent is going up, not down, or even staying the same. Studios in the inner sunset are going for around $1300-1400/mo. If you want to live by yourself in a one bedroon near Moffitt, it will run you above $1500/mo and it will probably be old, drafty, and probably won't have a parking space. If you move further out toward Ocean Beach you can get things a couple hundred a month cheaper. If you match in the bay area be prepared to take it in the @ss if you want your own place. That being said, as Velo suggested you could get a 2BD with a roommate and that will save you some money. This is my third year living in SF and love it here, despite the COL. This is coming from someone who grew up in a place that is the exact opposite of where I now reside.