However, I lived in Livermore - and I was married with kids, so not sure how much good advice I would have for a single guy. That said, I can tell you that you don't really want to live anywhere near Oakland, including Hayward, so if you are going to go east bay, I would get no closer than Castro Valley and anything east of that is good (Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore, San Ramon). If you could find a good deal on the peninsula (Foster City is a bit nicer than San Mateo), I would imagine a single guy might enjoy being closer to the bay and dowtown SF.