Welcome to B'game

Whether or not the SF Examiner lands in my driveway on any given morning is totally random but this morning it did and what a nice cover story it had titled: Amid population boom, many homeowners are selling and leaving SF.  Let the Voice be among the first to welcome our new residents and remind ourselves this is not news

When Deann and Jason Sonoda sold their 2,000-square-foot condo in the Haight recently, they did not buy another home in San Francisco — they had already relocated to Burlingame.

The couple, both in their mid-30s, decided to decamp from The City for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was better schools and fewer hassles associated with urban life.

“We looked for around six months between San Carlos and Burlingame and ended up buying a place in Burlingame,” Deann Sonoda said. “It’s a single-family home, in a great school district and has parking. It’s only 15 to 20 minutes from San Francisco, a 10-minute walk to Caltrain and an easier commute to the South Bay.”

The bottom line was

Sixty percent of all people who sell their homes in The City are leaving San Francisco after they sell, according to a survey of real estate agent sales over the past 12 months.

And then there is this gem which speaks for itself or you can look here

The perception that San Francisco schools aren’t as good as public schools in nearby counties is wrong, said Gentle Blythe, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Unified School District.

Here's a warm welcome to B'game for all our newest ex-EssEffers.

Comments

[AK]

Yes, I've been chatting with my friends about this trend for a couple years.

You can see more and more tech companies wanting to locate in SOMA as their young software engineers prefer to be there.

When those young 20 somethings grow up, some will get married, have kids and want to move to the suburbs. They will choose south because they need to keep flexible with South Bay job opportunities and Marin is too far.

The first great school district is Burlingame and Hillsborough, then Redwood Shores, Foster City, Belmont and parts of San Mateo. Look at the API score list for San Mateo County, the renting/buying families will look at it.

Invest accordingly. Large apartment units, townhouses, single family, and retail alike.

AK

[longwong]

Hai Guyz ;-) U know b-game is also a grrrrrrreat place 4 us younga ones too... foodtrucks, near airport, close to my friends in sf, palo alto tech friendz not to far away, bars, restaurants, fun attmostphere... yea lots of familys here --not to mention some pretty hot moms pushin all the strollerz.....rrreowwwwwww!! :-) --prolly why brucey D & all the male old timerz trolling 'round town so much....hahhahhaaaa.. j/k !

TTFN ;-)

[Mom]

Gentle Blythe is a fool. Perhaps even a dangerous fool.

[homeowner mom]

Our Burlingame schools will not be great in the near future. Too many families are renting houses and apartments for the sole reason of using our schools. These students are usually behind, and need expensive resources to help. We taxpayers will continually be forced to fund the education of renter's children. Albemarle Way is the worst offender for school rentals.

[Hard Facts]

Homeowner Mom,

What an uneducated perspective you have on 51% of the residents of Burlingame.

We rent, and my son is in the Gifted & Talented Program (not "usually behind" as a renter).

If you want almost no rentals, then move to Hillsborough.

We rent our 2,000 sf home, and have for several years.

It's really more of a financing decision. It's an investment, and it doesn't always go up!

I saw many homeowners lose a few hundred thousand dollars when they had to sell during the recent downturn. It's not so rosy, all the time.

We've also needed flexibility as my wife traveled extensively, and we needed to be ready to re-locate quickly, for her Ph.D process.

Also, while I have an MBA from a top business school, I've chosen to work with schools, faith-based groups and non profits on their real estate and business strategy.

Let me explain how property taxes work...

The apartment building owners pay huge amounts of property tax. Where do they get the money to pay the property tax? From the renters' rent!

The only property with apartment buildings is that Prop 13 has SOME of the multi-millionaire apartment building owners paying a very low property tax. Prop 13 needs to be re-worked.

Also, the Dem voters of CA recently passed a Prop that steers more of our property tax dollars away from Burlingame, so yes, less money for our children's teachers.

The other real problem in Burlingame is simply fraud. I've noticed several family names on one apartment mailbox. It's not a bunch of young people, and it's not because they're all living there. Each student in our school district should have their address checked or in some way tested so that are abiding by the rules for being able to attend the school district.

Cheers,

AK

[Hard Facts]

It's frustrating that we can't edit our comments on this blog.

Correction from last comment:

"The only property [problem] with apartment buildings is that Prop 13 has SOME of the multi-millionaire apartment building owners paying a very low property tax. Prop 13 needs to be re-worked."

[Bruce Dickinson]

Homeowner mom, I think it's time you get a crash course on how Burlingame and its schools work, and while I typically don't do this for throwaway xenophobic and closed minded comments, Professor Dickinson is about to provide you a free but important lesson as it can teach many others who post here, so you should feel very privileged, as my opportunity cost of time is high, yes actually very high.

In talking to a lot of my "guys" around town about other pressing issues, some of which involved BSD, I had some pointed discussions with several real estate brokers, school district admin, teachers, and Burlingame city government, who late last fall and early spring, got subjected to a Battleship-style Full 16 Gun broadside of Dickinson questions and I would be remiss if I didn't say they gave me the answers pretty quickly and I was able to cut through the B.S. with relative ease. Some of the facts presented to me will help with your pre-conceived biases and what sounds like xenophobic tendencies. You certainly are not the first person to express this on the Voice, and you most certainly won't be the last, so it is worthwhile to hang on my every keystroke (well, actually my secretary's as she transcribes most of my postings on the Voice. Thanks Julie, you're the best!)

First of all Burlingame has been 50% rental since at least the early 70s. Yet the schools were excellent then, and they are excellent now. Secondly, rents have increased so much relative to interest rates, that believe it or not, owning a home in Burlingame, compared to renting that same property, is actually pretty compelling. And to say that when nothing is below $1 million dollars, actually means something, as it were. Because of the high cost of real estate, rental or not, the price of admission in Burlingame is quite high to begin with, rent or buy.

Have you spoken to the immigrant families in the multi-family units with children? Do they live in Burlingame because it is cheaper than Millbrae or San Bruno? Do they live here because of the dynamite Chilean Sea Bass at Ecco Restaurant? Do they live here because Burlingame has 5 yoga studios or 8 frozen yogurt joints? No, they live here because they know that their kids can get a good education at Burlingame Schools. Even if a family comes from a lower socio-economic status, if they value education, that's really all the matters for the success of the kids.

Now here are the facts: McKinley school has the lowest test scores, because as you probably guessed it, gets a disproportionate feed of kids from multi-family rentals, many of whom are non-native speakers. Also, they have a Spanish immersion program due to the Spanish speaking families that go there. The test scores for the non-native speakers are lower at McKinley and bring the school averages down. So you got it all figured out, right? But guess what? You are actually wrong! By the time these same "low scoring" students hit BIS or BHS, there is little difference between their test scores and those White and Asian kids who went to Franklin, Lincoln and Roosevelt. Burlingame High School is seeing some of the highest test scoring in its history, outranking other Peninsula High Schools, which is even more amazing, considering that Burlingame is 50% rental and is the highest rental percentage on the Peninsula and has been for decades.

So there you have it, fellas, those are the facts. All Burlingamers need to be treated equally (just like in the US Constitution) and Bruce Dickinson is quite happy that there is a vibrant immigrant rental population that cares about education. This is what makes our city such a dynamite place. If you're so fed up with it, go move to Marin. Has great schools and much more homogenous and white, which may be more your style.

[jahzebel]

Ahhhh, the tribulations of the 1% in Burlingame!! homeowner mom you must be one of those snob-ish Franklin moms up the hillside. I'll have you know, dear, my family rented a 2BR apartment, and suffered with it - for THREE YEARS - while waiting for a rental house to come open in our elementary zone. Yes indeed it really did take THREE YEARS to find a 3BR house rental at a reasonable price. (I grew to like our little apartment though, one of the smaller family-owned buildings in town, it had a nice patio and pool too.) Our apt neighbors were in similar circumstances, but most of them had only 1 kid to contend with and not 2. The rental stock is not that great for a family with 1 boy and 1 girl, you know we can't just rent a 2BR and stick them in the same room after a point. There are a few kids that do not live in the district. Yep its true, everyone knows who they are, but we tend to let it slide, and the unspoken reason is in the cause of allowing a smidgen of diversity into the school communities on the north side of town. Its still not very diverse, heck we're almost looking like Pacifica or Millbrae these days. I would say those non-resident families are actually missing out on being part of the community, and the kids miss out on a great deal too, since they can't be included in a lot of after-school activities because nobody knows how to get hold of them once they leave the campus.

[mike]

Home owners mom what a piece of work you are. Perhaps you are one of the stepford wives that were complaining of the money spent on disabled children that had no chance like your boy "Tad". I have live here 45 years and I think this is pretty much why people say "Oh, you from Burlingaaaaame" I can go on and on.

[resident]

I like when people say "Oh, you're from Burlingaaaame". I really like it when they can spell properly. I am not sticking up for homeowner mom because she is wrong as well but there is nothing wrong with our reputation outside of town. It is a plus not a negative. If you must go on and on how about moving to San Mateo. You will fit right in.

[fred]

And thus concludes today's lesson in Elitism 101. See you next class where will discuss ways to disparage Millbrae.