Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:00:00] I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara and welcome to The Bay, local news to keep you rooted. Having a kid is no small choice, and having a kid in the Bay Area means compromise.
Kate Knuttel [00:00:17] We’ve gotten really good at balance transfer credit cards to kind of make it work.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:00:25] For many families in the Bay, having kids means something’s gotta give. Maybe it’s longer commute times just to have more space or stacking the kids up in bunk beds to live closer to friends and parks.
Logan Truman [00:00:41] We definitely explored leaving San Francisco. I looked at going back to school to change careers. We looked at moving back to Canada.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:00:53] So today, as part of KQED’s How We Get By series, we’ll meet three families with kids to hear about what they’re doing to make it in the Bay.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:01:15] I feel like this story really hits the nail on the head when it comes to affordability.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:01:32] Raising children is really, really expensive, but when you try to do so in one of the most expensive regions in the world, how does that happen? And I wanted to understand how parents were making it work. If you look at data over the past decade, it’s really interesting because the number of students enrolled in public schools in the Bay Area gradually goes down. But at the same time, if you look like the median home price, that ticks up. And what’s also interesting is that you see enrollment numbers in those Central Valley school districts rise as Bay Area families move out there to raise their kids.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:22] So how exactly are families making it work here? What did your reporting find?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:02:29] You know, I went around the Bay Area in search of parents who were trying to make it work, and the resounding theme that I heard was that people had to compromise on something. Whether they were compromising on space, on walkability, commute times, on the prospect of home ownership or on affordability itself, there was a compromise that people had to make in order to live here.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:01] Let’s get into it then and talk about some of the sacrifices that people have been making in order to have kids here. I know you talked to families that were making sacrifices around their physical space and giving up space as opposed to looking for more of it.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:03:22] We talked to Logan Truman, who lives in the inner sunset with his wife, Heidi, and their two sons.
Logan Truman [00:03:30] I’ve been here for 17 years now, and I moved here from Alberta, Canada. So I’m not a native, but yeah, I’ve come to call San Francisco home.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:03:40] The interesting thing about their situation is that the four of them live in a studio apartment in the inner sunset, which sounds like a cramped living situation, and it is.
Logan Truman [00:03:51] So my wife works for UCSF. So when she first moved to San Francisco, she found a little studio apartment and it was super convenient for her. And then I moved down and then eventually two boys came along and it just was easier to stay and make it work than to try and figure something else out.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:04:13] It’s in a walkable neighborhood, there are busses, there’s bike paths, there’s so many amenities nearby.
Logan Truman [00:04:22] And were within two blocks of Golden Gate Park. And so when they were little, I would put them into the stroller and into Golden Gate park every day. That was our backyard, that was our playground. That’s where we went to play.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:04:38] The way that they make it work is that they turned a walk-in closet into the boys’ bedroom. They have like these bunk beds that are in a walk in closet.
Logan Truman [00:04:52] When we started having the children, I built a wall bed so we can flip that up during the day and have living room space. And then at night, we pull the wall bed down and it becomes a bedroom.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:05:06] It does mean that they have had to compromise on space. Logan was saying that if he wants to buy a new jacket, he’s got to actively think about whether they have space for it.
Logan Truman [00:05:19] We live without a microwave and we don’t have a dishwasher and we have to go without a lot of the appliances that make sometimes life simpler or I guess easier you might say.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:05:37] But they don’t accumulate a lot of stuff because there’s just not space for it. But the benefit of that is that it has allowed them to spend money on experiences as opposed to on physical things.
Logan Truman [00:05:50] And it’s kind of nice not owning stuff. Sometimes stuff can begin to own you. So we save our money. We like to take vacations and holidays. I want to, it’s a big world out there. And I wanna show the boys what there is.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:06:07] And he feels like it’s more environmentally friendly too, because they’re just consuming less.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:13] I do wonder, though, as their kids grow older and, I mean, bigger, if there might be more pressure over time to find more space for their family and if that’s something they think about.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:06:29] I think it’s something that he and his wife, they think about it, they revisit that idea, but I think for now it works.
Logan Truman [00:06:38] As we explored all these different options, nothing really felt right. And so we decided that we were happy here.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:06:49] Their lack of space has actually led to them shifting the way that they think about things and about these conventional ways that we think about living.
Logan Truman [00:07:03] Like, if we can do whatever we want whenever we want, I don’t think it makes us better people. I think it is good for us to endure, you might say, kind of hardships. And so, to be able to live without and not have all my wants met is, I think, it makes me a better person. I hope it makes a better a person. I want to be a better.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:07:37] So you talked about giving up on space, and I know you actually also talked with a family who is giving up other amenities, like walkability. What does that mean?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:07:50] A person who exemplifies that is this woman who I spoke to named Aparna Simmons and her husband Andy Simmons.
Aparna Simmons [00:07:57] We met on Hinge in February 2019. Yeah, our first date was at a, it like, where was it? Oh, Taqueria Vallarta in the mission.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:08:07] They were living in San Francisco in Cole Valley. They had gotten married and they were like, okay, the next step is home ownership.
Aparna Simmons [00:08:14] I mean, we definitely wanted more space. We wanted like a yard.
Andy Simmons [00:08:18] We knew we’d be spending more time at home, so I think having a place that when we’re at home we can really just enjoy it.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:08:26] So they looked for a home that they could afford and their budget was to buy something for under a million dollars, which is practically impossible to do in San Francisco. They ended up finding a home in Redwood Heights in Oakland and it worked out really well for them because they found the house with space and a pool and great views of the city.
Aparna Simmons [00:08:53] Just really fell in love with it and like the cabinets and the green and all of that and like the pool obviously so yeah we just we really liked it.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:09:01] And it all worked out really well, because around the time that they moved in, Aparna learned that she was pregnant. But the thing that I heard Aparna say is that, you know, she was like, we had to compromise on walkability.
Aparna Simmons [00:09:17] The view is great, but I would probably prefer something more accessible, like Bart, something with like, yeah, coffee shops nearby, than even the view.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:09:28] You have to drive everywhere to get anywhere. And it’s okay because we have a lot of friends. But, you know, she was like, I can’t walk down to a little town square where there might be things happening. I have to ride there.
Aparna Simmons [00:09:43] When we were in Cole Valley, it was super close. We were able to walk wherever. But Laurel, that whole area in MacArthur is probably a 20-minute walk, but it’s hilly, so it takes longer. And it’s just a little bit too far to go quickly on a lunch break.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:10:00] Eventually, they’d like to look for another house, and when they do, walkability is going to be one of their top priorities.
Aparna Simmons [00:10:09] I realized like that is something we really want in our next place. Um, like there’s things here that we’re like, okay, this isn’t as important actually, and we prefer having it be like walkable instead. So I feel like we’re learning what we, what we like and don’t like, or like what we can live without and what we want permanently in the future.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:10:34] Like even after a person settles in a place, like walkability is something that they still want. Like so many people want walkability and the fact that it’s hard to find and that that’s an expensive feature is significant.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:10:48] Yeah, kind of a luxury, it sounds like, for families. Totally, yeah. Coming up, why one family in the North Bay is spending nearly half of their income on housing. We’ll be right back.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:11:20] So, Adhiti, you just talked about two different families who it sounds like are making a lot of adjustments and compromises, but are still making it work here in the Bay Area. But what about families who are struggling to make it work? Did you talk to anyone?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:11:39] Yeah, I mean, I think that most of the families who I spoke to were struggling on some level to kind of just keep up with the high cost of living. But one family that kind of comes to mind is Kate Knuttel and her partner, Matt Quisenberry. They live in American Canyon with their four children.
Kate Knuttel [00:12:00] Me and my partner have been together for, I think it’s gonna be 10 years this year.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:12:05] A few years ago, they were living in Vallejo. They were living in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home.
Kate Knuttel [00:12:15] And we really enjoyed it. Enjoyed Vallejo, but we did not enjoy the school district.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:12:23] Unfortunately, they didn’t feel like their kids could really play outside in the in the streets And what’s more is that Matt actually grew up in American Canyon, which is a city just north of Vallejo really and he has family here
Kate Knuttel [00:12:38] So we’re like, let’s get them into, you know, the school that your dad volunteers at and does, you know, it was like, it’s very like family oriented.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:12:46] So when they were looking to move, this was in 2021, 2022, they considered buying a house. And what they find is that the mortgage is more expensive than what they would be paying in rent and what they could afford to pay in rent.
Kate Knuttel [00:13:03] That mortgage with 20,000 down, like we were still looking at 35 to $4,000 a month. We were like, wow, yeah, actually we can’t afford that.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:13:11] The interest rates go back up again, and then Kate learns that she’s pregnant with their fourth child. They end up moving to American Canyon, but into a rental. It’s a three bedroom, two bath. So now they’ve got a little bit more space, but it’s still really, really expensive.
Kate Knuttel [00:13:33] It was like a Hail Mary. We were like, wow, it’s $3,000 a month we were paying. I think at the time maybe $2,100, maybe a little bit more for our spot.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:13:47] They spend almost 50% of their income towards rent and living costs. They are spending more than they make, and they’re living in debt.
Kate Knuttel [00:14:01] It’s expensive and we’ve gotten really good at balance transfer credit cards to kind of make it work.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:14:10] They charge their expenses to 0% credit cards and pay them off as they go, but they are living paycheck to paycheck.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:14:20] I mean, that’s so interesting. It’s like you were talking earlier about these families who are compromising on things like physical space and walkability, but it sounds like for Kate and her family, their compromise is literally affordability.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:14:30] Exactly, exactly.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:14:32] What does Kate tell you about what that is like for them? She said that it’s really stressful.
Kate Knuttel [00:14:46] And as the kids, big kids get older, like there’s more expenses, you know, braces. Oh, there’s this amazing New York, DC trip I really wanna go on and we wanna give them all these amazing opportunities, but we’re just like, okay, how are we gonna make this work?
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:15:01] Time, you know. Part of the reason why they’re there in this situation is because their youngest daughter Chloe is too young to go to school, but she’s only three years old. So they have to pay for her daycare, but her day care is a thousand dollars a month. And that’s just to send her part time. So Kate has to stay home part of the week so she can take care of of her daughter. And then she can work the other part of the week.
Kate Knuttel [00:15:33] So just kind of waiting for that to be done because hopefully that’ll bring back a couple of, you know, a couple thousand dollars back in our pocket.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:15:43] And she’s told me that, at times, it feels like she’s drowning.
Kate Knuttel [00:15:51] And, you know, credit scores are still good. We’re good now, but life has gotten expensive. And so we’ve found ourselves like, oh, Chloe fractured her arm. Oh, you, we got into, you two, both of our cars need to be in the shop. Now we’re like back in debt again. You know, and that’s where we’re at now. It’s like, maybe we’d have a little more, you know spending money or saving money or money to put in our kids’ college funds, but instead we’re just slowly chipping away at debt.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:16:20] And I think that that is a reality that a lot of Bay Area families live in.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:16:27] Yeah, it sounds like there’s not a lot of room for error there, and I have to imagine not a lotta room either to be thinking about their ultimate dream, which was to buy a home. Exactly, exactly. I mean.
Adhiti Bandlamudi [00:16:42] It’s actually really interesting because we see this in the data. There’s an online platform called Lending Tree and they released a study earlier this year which showed that nationwide, people who have a mortgage pay more every month, pay 37% more every months than people who rent. And the place where that gap is the widest is the San Francisco Bay metro area.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:17:14] It seems like there’s always gonna be, have to be a trade-off if you decide to have kids here. I imagine there are folks who are also compromising on things like their commutes. Yeah, I guess it seems like these trade-offs and these compromises are not new, but they just seem even more pronounced here in the Bay Area.
