How much does it really cost to live in Danville, California? And is it worth it?

Okay, so let me start off by telling you a little bit about the pros of Danville. The weather here on average is 60 degrees Fahrenheit all year around and Best Places rated Danville, California a 9.4 on the comfort scale in summer, and a 7.4 in the winter. Danville has been rated number one by SafeWise for safety. It's the safest city in all of California! The schools in Danville have been given an A+ rating by Niche. 36% of this village is made up of families with children and69% of those are married family homes, and the rest are single parent home. The average family size is 3.15 people. ??? 3.15?? . I don't know how you 0.15 people. The average age in Danville is 46 years old and it's about 51% females and 49% males. The median household income in Danville, California is $160,000. And the average household income is $214,000. So how can people afford to live in Danville, California? Let's break it down.

My name is Lisa Peck and I'm a local real estate agent with Compass. I'm gonna break it for you really simply into the cost of utilities, the cost of food and shopping, the cost of commute and travel, the cost of healthcare, the cost of enjoying your lifestyle here in California, as well as the 10,000 pound gorilla in the room. That's right, we're gonna talk about housing. Okay. So for comparison purposes and perspective, when I talk about these six costs and expenses of living in Danville, California, I'm gonna compare it to both the US average as well as living in the South Bay and Cupertino, just to give you some perspective.

1) Cost of Utilities 

Electric generally runs a typical household of say 2,500 to 3,500 square feet about $350 a month. Now all these utility costs are assuming that the home does not have solar and that it's using gas powered utilities. So $350 a month for electric. What is gas gonna run? Gas is gonna depend if it's Summer or Winter. In the wintertime, gas up to $200 a month. And in the Summer, it's usually around $100 a month. So once you add those together, you've got a utility cost between $450 and $550 a month. Cable and internet is probably going to run you about $300 a month. Water charges are going to be around $200 a month, assuming that you do have a lawn that you need to water. A great hack for high utilitiey cost is to install solar panels and power your entire house. Solar panels on that same 2,500 to 3,500 square foot home are probably going to run you somewhere between $17,000 and $35,000, depending on how you do it and who you do it with.

2) Commuting and Transportation

So being that California is as spread out as it is. You're going to be commuting no matter where you're going. So let's talk a little bit about the cost of commuting. A gallon of gas in Danville, California is gonna cost you somewhere between $4.99 and $5.25 as of recording in Q1 2022. Taking public transit is something that a lot of people do. If they're commuting into the city. To take the bus from the Danville park and ride to the Walnut Creek, Bart is gonna cost you about $2.50. Now, once you get to the Bart, let's just take a simple round trip to San Francisco international airport. That round trip to San Francisco international airport from Walnut Creek is gonna cost you about $24. Okay? So the hack for commuting would be to drive an electric powered vehicle.

You will see our roads just loaded with electric power vehicles. If you have a Tesla you can fill up about 300 miles. You can get 300 miles at a Tesla charger in 2022 for between $11 - $18. Quite a difference between that and gas. 

3) Food and shopping

Let's talk about burgers. Do you like burgers? Everybody likes burgers, except I don't like burgers, but most normal people like burgers! A burger in Danville, California is going to cost you $5.65. The US average cost for a hamburger is $4.52. When I break it down and look at groceries, comparing Danville to the rest of the United States on average, Danville groceries are about 15% higher. So a gallon a milk for instance is $2.93 versus the US average of $2.03. Now a Loaf of bread is $4.97 versus the US average of $3.37.

Sale Tax in Danville, California is slightly higher than the US average of 5.09%. Danville, California has a sales tax of 8.75%.

4) Healthcare

It's gonna cost you about $150 to go to the doctor. If you just wanna do a regular checkup, it's $150. You wanna go to the dentist? It's around $130. The only one who gets a good deal is your furry pet. A dog or a cat to go into the vet and visit and have a regular routine checkup is about $69.

5) Lifestyle

Once you move here, you go to the doctor and you eat. What else are you gonna do? Let's talk about exercise. For instance, if I take a look at what it costs to join Core Power yoga in Danville, California, that unlimited membership is $199 a month. Elsewhere in the country, it's anywhere between $129 - $139 a month. Sometimes I've seen a few where it's $165 a month. It is significantly more expensive to join core power yoga and do unlimited yoga here in Danville, California. Date night, you've had a long week, you really wanna take a break, just go out, grab a couple glasses of wine, have a few appetizers and maybe dinner. We went out to Harvest for date night and we had two appetizers and two dinners, no desserts, but it ran us $155 plus tip. If we take the kids out for pizza night, Pizza night is probably gonna cost about $112 bucks. Assuming you get a large pizza, a couple of appetizers and a few beers. If you are movie goer, movie tickets are gonna be $12.75 per ticket. Now, when I compare that to the rest of the United States, a ticket is only $9. 20. So, significantly more. And then when I compare it to Cupertino. In Cupertino a movie ticket is $14.79. These costs are all plus taxes. So most of the people who live in Danville, or if you're considering living in Danville, you may have help with running your household. So let's break that down a little bit. If you have a typical size yard, maybe 5,000 to 8,000 or 10,000 square feet, the monthly cost for a landscaper to come to your house is somewhere between $75 and $100 a month. If you need help to keep up with the cleaning, a visit from a housekeeper every two weeks is about $150 to $200 as well. And to go for that date night that we just talked about, if you want a babysitter, a babysitter is gonna cost $19 an hour. So the hack on this is to entertain in your own home. You can even set up a movie theater, so you don't have to go to the movies, pizza ovens in the outside, you can entertain and have your friends over.

6) Housing in Danville California

With larger homes, larger outdoor spaces, some of the best schools in the state, as well as being named the safest city in California, it's no surprise that Danville has been named second in the state for price growth. We have several types of homes here in California. So let me break it down for you. In 2021, median home price for a condominium in Danville is just under $700,000. The median sale price for duet homes, which is basically two homes glued together at one wall that median sale price is $1.18 million. The median sale price for town homes in Danville in 2021 was $977,000. The median sale price for Single Family Homes in Danville in 2021 was $2.14 million. Now when we compare that to the rest of the country, that sounds really, really high, right? The rest of the country in the United States, the median sale price of a home is $375,000. However, when I compare that to the median sale price in Cupertino, it sounds much better. The median sale price in Cupertino is $2.556 million. If you really want to live in Danville. And you're trying to stick around that million dollar mark, why not go with a duet or a town home? It's a very efficient way to live in a great village. Overall, the cost of living in Danville, California is 55% higher than the United States average. However, housing is 127% higher than the US average. So if you're considering moving to Danville, California, why not check out my video over here about the pros and cons of living in Danville of California. If you have any more questions about Danville, California, just reach out to us: [email protected] or (925) 854-4799