Tracy, California?

[statman]

I know absolutely nothing about the area. But Tracy is the first area east of the Bay area that I could afford to live in.

Looking at a random house on Zillow, it looks like Tracy really took it in the shorts in the housing bust...

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/59...15370572_zpid/

[TripletDaddy]

Tracy is the bay area?

Where is creekster now when his geography lesson is actually applicable!

[pellegrino]

where you been Statman?

[cougjunkie]

I think Soccermom knows about Tracy.

Personally I think its a shithole and I would not call it the bay area.

[New Mexican Disaster]

I worked with a lot of folks in Tracy when I lived in San Ramon. It is a forlorn suburb of the East Bay I would say. I'm sure there are many nice people there but I think there are probably quite a few social problems as well. It is also safe to say that Tracy got its ass kicked by the recession.

The commute into the East Bay area is not wonderful from Tracy either.

[Shaka]

Super good youth baseball in that town. They send teams to the Babe Ruth and Cal Ripkin World Series tourneys on a regular basis.

[CardiacCoug]

Sounds like a long commute:

http://www.slate.com/id/2295603/

Commuting is a migraine-inducing life-suck—a mundane task about as pleasurable as assembling flat-pack furniture or getting your license renewed, and you have to do it every day. If you are commuting, you are not spending quality time with your loved ones. You are not exercising, doing challenging work, having sex, petting your dog, or playing with your kids (or your Wii). You are not doing any of the things that make human beings happy. Instead, you are getting nauseous on a bus, jostled on a train, or cut off in traffic.

In the past decade or so, researchers have produced a significant body of research measuring the dreadfulness of a long commute. People with long transit times suffer from disproportionate pain, stress, obesity, and dissatisfaction. The joy of living in a big, exurban house, or that extra income left over from your cheap rent? It is almost certainly not worth it.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Welcome back, stranger.

[Soccermom]

I consider Tracy to be a mix of things, some good and some bad, with the bad overwhelming anything good. Like Shaka said, baseball is strong there, but that comes with a lot of parents who either never played or never made their high school team and are living vicariously through their kids, or just think their child is the next MLB relief pitcher. It can get pretty ugly.

Tracy used to be a rural community. Then, with Bay Area housing prices skyrocketing, many families moved there because that was the only place they could afford a home. The rural community grew and Tracy was in some ways a partial bedroom community. But as it grew, it also acquired several gang members from Tracy's neighbor to the North, Stockton. Crime in Tracy is pretty high. Lots of murders. Several recent high profile criminal cases happened in Tracy. High schools are not great because of the gang problems. Also, it has a small town feel to it. When the economy was booming and a lot of Bay Area transplants lived there, I think it was OK. As the economy has died, many folks are walking away from homes and going back to renting in the Bay Area, and it doesn't seem to be filled with the same demographic.

We live near Tracy in a different community and my kids play against Tracy kids in baseball sometimes. Tracy isn't horrible or anything, in fact in many ways it reminds me of Spanish Fork, UT, but it definitely isn't Silicon Valley either.

[TripletDaddy]

I worked with a lot of folks in Tracy when I lived in San Ramon. It is a forlorn suburb of the East Bay I would say. I'm sure there are many nice people there but I think there are probably quite a few social problems as well. It is also safe to say that Tracy got its ass kicked by the recession.

The commute into the East Bay area is not wonderful from Tracy either.

You lived in San Ramon? I spent hundreds of days (literally) driving from the City into San Ramon to work on site at a client, over and over. I really loved that area...Danville, Alamo, moraga, out to Livermore to eat at wente vineyards, etc. Walnut creek is sketchy, though.

[Soccermom]

MC Hammer does live in Tracy though. . . . that is a definite plus.

[creekster]

I know absolutely nothing about the area. But Tracy is the first area east of the Bay area that I could afford to live in.

Looking at a random house on Zillow, it looks like Tracy really took it in the shorts in the housing bust...

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/59...15370572_zpid/

Like any place, Tracy has pluses and minuses. But if you are working anywhere over the hills (meaning on the other side of the Altamont pass) you should consider someplace closer in.

Here is the big question: Where will you be working?

[venkman]

Unless you'll actually be working in Tracy (in which case, I offer my condolences) then stay the hell away from Tracy. It sucks. Most people live there just because that's the only place they can afford to buy. Then they join the other 100,000 people inching their way on 580 over the Altamont Pass and are freaking miserable. Just some awful commutes.

It is freaking expensive in the Bay Area. Despite the great weather and great scenery, there's a reason people are leaving in droves. If you must move there, stick to the East Bay or Tri Valley and rent, not buy, you'll get alot more for your money.

For example, six years ago I lived in a house that was "worth" $650k and rented it for $1600/month. $1600 a month might have got me a crack house in Oakland, but certainly not something in the nice neighborhood I lived in and probably not even anything in Tracy (at least pre bubble-deflation).

[New Mexican Disaster]

You lived in San Ramon? I spent hundreds of days (literally) driving from the City into San Ramon to work on site at a client, over and over. I really loved that area...Danville, Alamo, moraga, out to Livermore to eat at wente vineyards, etc. Walnut creek is sketchy, though.

Yes, I lived in San Ramon for about six months. My in-laws still live there. It is a really pretty area, but my family and I were not in a good place, as we were living with my in laws whilst I tried to get a job. That is how I ended up in dear old Roswell, New Mexico.

I suppose much of my ambivalence about the area came from recognizing that it was a nice place and that I would not have minded staying there, but that it would require so much sacrifice economically that it was not even worth considering staying there.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I'd go for Manteca.