22,071
Population
Sunny Days: 262
80100 Affordability
89100 Schools
90100 Diversity
95100 Safety
Millbrae, California
A Place In The Sun
Millbrae Aerial
Downtown View
Millbrae Train Museum, Credit: Sanfranman59/WikiCommons
Millbrae Art & Wine Festival
LookyLOO Review of Millbrae
A Sunny Day is a Happy Day
Millbrae is the northernmost city on the peninsula before you run deep into the fog belt. That means it is the most convenient city to live in (proximity to SF) and still avoids much of the foggy days of the city. This can vary as some parts of Millbrae stretch into the foggy-ish areas but overall the weather here is awesome and the combo of great climate and some of the best commuting options with BART, Caltrain, next door to SFO airport, and a very short drive to San Francisco makes the location damn near perfect.
Lifestyle
Millbrae is for sure a suburb but it’s one with a pretty active downtown commercial district. This includes lots of boutique shopping and casual dining options.Han Sang and Millbrae Pancake House are two of the family favorites. The fact that excellent but chill and casual spots are two of the local favorites should give you a sense of the laid-back vibe of the city. There’s also plenty of shopping, some big-box and some family-run one-of-a-kind options.
Outside of the dining and shopping options much of Millbrae is residential living on the rolling hills that give the city its name (Millbrae is Scottish for rolling hills). Families enjoy the peaceful, quiet, and kiddo-friendly blocks and parks that fill the city. The city hosts a hugely popular
annual art and wine festival, held over Labor Day weekend that is much beloved by locals for its live music and an excellent selection of food, wine, and art. The city also hosts a weekly farmer’s market and a variety of different holiday festivals. There is also the beautiful Bayfront Park where you feel like a stroll along the water, and Central Park, 13 acres of wonderful open green space for kiddos and doggos to run, tennis courts, playgrounds, and fields for soccer and other sports.
One of the great appeals of Millbrae is its absolute perfection as a transportation hub to the rest of the Bay Area and the world. The Millbrae train station/transportation hub is one of the largest on the West Coast and brings together options for getting pretty much anywhere you’d like to go. The city is also in the process of building a massive mixed-use center around the hub, in the vein of more transit-friendly cities in Europe and Asia-Pacific.
We highly recommend visiting Millbrae and staying in the community in a VRBO rather than a hotel to get a feel for living among the locals. You can receive discounted fares on travel via our partnership with Expedia as well.
Schools
Children in Millbrae are served by the Millbrae School District which rates a B+ on niche.com for academics. Several of the elementary school options rank up at the A level, including Green Hills, Taylor and Spring Valley, so if you’re into that kind of thing check out how the neighborhoods align with the different schools. At the high school level Millbrae is part of the San Mateo Union High School District and that grades out at an A+ on niche.com with Mills High School in Millbrae in particular a shining star for academic performance.
Why You Should Move Here Now?
Be On The Go!
Millbrae is pricey, like all bay area cities, but what it has the others don’t is being an epicenter of transportation. There really is no other city like it if you want to ride public transportation (including airlines which are kind of public transport?) to get everywhere in the bay area and west coast. You could make a case that moving to Millbrae puts you in the center of an emerging transportation model more akin to European cities.
Reviews of Millbrae from Locals
LoveJesus101
1mo ago
🦉🦉🦉
I grew up in Millbrae in the 90s and 2000s. Here’s my two cents. It’s a solid town that’s safe and has decent weather. The school system is really good and it’s relatively close distance to the city all make it desirable to a lot of ppl. But at the same time I think Millbrae is often thought of to be nicer than it actually is. Mainly because it’s compared to the towns north of it. While Daly City,SSF,San Bruno all have a similar foggy more working class vibe, Millbrae is where the sun comes out. Add to the fact that it’s pretty middle class(with a significant upper class presence in the hills, especially off Millbrae Ave and Trousdale) and people hype it up to be something special.
But really the towns south of it all have better weather and are richer too(with maybe western San Mateo being an equal). There’s also more lively down towns in Burlingame,San Mateo, San Carlos, and Redwood City. Millbrae downtown is just for the locals or if you want Chinese food. It’s also not very diverse. It’s whites and Asians. There’s a stronger Hispanic, Filipino, Indian, and also Middle Eastern presence in virtually all the other towns on the peninsula.
For more reviews of what living in Millbrae is like from locals, check out The Reviews.
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Living in Millbrae
Neighborhoods in Millbrae
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Bayside Manor
Bayside Manor is a small neighborhood on the east side of the city with just six square blocks of residential development that includes the BART and Caltrain station although the quiet, tree-lined streets protect the area from the noise of the station.
The neighborhood was established in 1945, and many of the homes from that era remain. Modest, single-story homes, originally built for government workers and WWII vets but now filled with a mix of multi-generational owners, and first time newer tech-scene/bio-tech workers.
The homes are mostly two and three bedroom and between 1,000 and 1,500 square feet and mostly small lots. Many homes have front porches and nice shade trees that bring residents out on warm days and nights. Prices are lower for the city at averages around $1.4m, a good price considering its access to Bayside Park, the best recreational spot in the city. Commuters also love the neighborhood since the BART/Caltrain stations is just a ten-minute walk.