Fairfax

When you purchase a home in Fairfax, you're also purchasing history. There's still a whiff of 1960s counterculture in Fairfax, where the Jefferson Airplane once played softball with the Grateful Dead. This town of 7,500 residents just north of Mount Tamalpais is 30 minutes from San Francisco, less than 20 miles from Point Reyes, and is known as one of Marin County’s more affordable communities. .

The heart of Fairfax is Broadway Boulevard, which parallels Sir Frances Drake Boulevard, the main traffic corridor heading west. Broadway is a perfect walking street where locals shop at Fairfax Coffee Roastery, purchase fresh local produce at the farmers' market, and duck into Fairfax Variety for toys, tchotchkes, and candy. If Fairfax feels like it is living in a time warp, that's just fine with its residents, who have passed ordinances prohibiting chain stores, plastic bags, and styrofoam takeout-food packaging. The art-deco movie theater and 19 Broadway Bar & Night Club are at the center of the action when it comes to nightlife in Fairfax.