Finding a place to live
Note: It is encouraged that readers of this document also contribute to it when they have gained experience with their own housing situation by emailing Anubhav with their suggestions
Temporary housing while finding a place to live
You may consider finding temporary housing, e.g., through Airbnb, for a month or so while finding a more permanent place to live. It is easier to find housing while you are in Berkeley itself; however, depending on the cost of your temporary housing and moving costs, this strategy can be more expensive. Also please consider the risk that some listings for rent on some websites are fake. In summer there are many offers of sublease which are cheaper than regular offers and allow you to stay for a short period, you can find them in a Facebook community called UC Berkeley Off-Campus Housing.
Another resource to try is FurnishedFinder – you can rent rooms or small sections of people's homes for a short amount of time (and usually less money) with furniture and utilities included.
Resources for finding housing
Unless you are part of a program that assists you with finding housing, you must find a place to live on your own. Some resources for finding housing include:
http://www.zillow.com/
https://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/eby/apa?
http://csee.lbl.gov/Housing/Other_Housing_Resources.html
https://facebook.com/groups/ucberkeleyoffcampushousing/
https://www.sabbaticalhomes.com/
You can join the LBNL postdoc mailing list (http://bit.ly/2nAHAXE). You do not have to be a postdoc to join. Keep an eye on the posts for room/apartment to rent as well as moving sales.
Notes on the Bay Area housing situation
The Bay Area is a very nice place to live, which has the consequence of many people wanting housing here. Thus, one of the few problems with this area is the very high price and competition for housing. Some things you should be aware of:
prices in the $2500/month range for a very basic apartment are normal - and can easily go up from there. You can also check your official rent ceiling at: https://www.cityofberkeley.info/RentBoardUnitSearch.aspx
buildings tend to be older, and amenities like dishwashers and heating/cooling are hard to find unless you pay premium prices.
it is normal to have a lot of competition for a place such that you must agree to a lease on the spot or risk losing out. Examples:
Anubhav thought he had finalized a place to live for his first year in the North Berkeley area, but during the final signing period another bidder put in an offer for that was 10% greater than the asking price and he thus lost the place.
One postdoc in the group thought he had finalized a deal for a place to rent but was late to an appointment to meet with the owner and ended up losing the offer on the spot.
You might not expect these kinds of situations unless you are from a similar area like NYC, so please be aware of them.
Commuting
Note that if you use public transportation daily, you should consider signing up for LBL’s program which lets you deduct a bus or BART pass as a pre-tax expense. See http://www.wageworks.com/ for more info.
Biking here is common and there are many bike lanes and shared car/bike routes, but you still need to be careful as biking to the lab will mean going through traffic. The LBNL shuttle has bike racks so you can bring your bike up to the lab with you on the shuttle rather than bike uphill.
Note that the Nextbus app and website will give times that the LBL shuttle (and also city buses) are anticipated to arrive at various stops.
If you are in a rush or just need to get around town, Uber and Lyft are apps that can help get your a ride; the fees tend to be pretty low, especially with UberPool if you’re not in a hurry.
If you plan to drive, make sure use the feature in Google Maps to estimate commute times at a specific time of day. If you are headed in the same direction as traffic to San Francisco, there are very significant delays near rush hours.
General suggestions when evaluating a place to live
Look for the nearest grocery store
Look for the nearest pharmacy
Do a search for restaurants. Often, the density of restaurants in a place will tell you whether there are other things there as well.
Perhaps do a Google Street View walk-through of the neighborhood
If you consider Berkeley note that the North to the campus is considered the safest. It is fine in other parts too but please avoid the area of People’s park and don’t be in the night on University street or Telegraph avenue. Alternatively, the south east area of Berkeley (Elmwood and Rockridge) is a friendly neighborhood and has good transport links to the lab (Rockridge shuttle).
Do a Google Transit search on how to get to the lab. Note that to get to the lab itself, you cannot take public transportation. Instead, there is a lab shuttle from several spots in downtown Berkeley and near campus, so you might want to gauge how to get to the nearest shuttle stop. Google “LBL shuttle map” to see the locations of the stops.
Remember that Uber is very convenient in the Berkeley area, so not everything needs to be ideal location-wise if you need to just get somewhere once in a while.
A note about UC Village
Many postdocs, especially those with families, find that UC Village (sponsored housing from UC Berkeley and LBNL) is a nice place to live and also enjoy the community. Anubhav doesn’t have any personal experience with UC Village so it is best to research for yourself through a Google search (it does seem very friendly to having children - e.g., a nice park). For grad students the university housing is most likely not an option due to a very limited number of offerings so it is better not to wait in the line but find off-campus housing on the sites listed above.
What are the different neighborhoods like?
If you want to know how specific neighborhoods or cities surrounding Berkeley are like, the best way is to post a question to the #help channel on Slack. You can usually get very good and relevant advice.
Good luck!
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