Consider Hercules. Great community. Family friendly and safe. Very diverse.

We bought a house next door in Pinole in 2013 and love it here. We have friends who commute to the city -- there is an express bus to downtown SF that picks up from Richmond Parkway Transit Center, and my husband works in Berkeley and gets there by either car (San Pablo Dam Rd to 24 to avoid 80) or commuter bus (picks up right downtown, a 5-minute drive from our house, and goes to Del Norte BART). Pinole has a farmer's market and CSA subscription options; there's a small pick-your-own farm in El Sobrante. We have neighbors from a wide range of racial/ethnic backgrounds, and another friend, a former Lutheran minister, pointed out that El Sobrante has just about every house of worship you can name in one small parcel of land :)

If you have specific questions, feel free to contact me directly. I would also highly recommend the realtor we worked with, Declan Spring from Red Oak Realty; he knows West County very well and is good at meeting people where they're at and giving them a realistic sense of their options.

My parents lived in El Sobrante until 2010, so my information is a little out of date, but it doesn't seem to have changed much.

The main shopping area has a really good grocery store (Raley's) and great hardware store (Olivers) and a pretty good thrift store.  Otherwise it's unremarkable and looks like a small town in the middle of nowhere; the main movie theater has been converted to a church.  However, Hilltop Mall is pretty close for alternative shopping.  El Sobrante is unincorporated, so you have county services (sheriff, etc.), not city services.  So you'll need to be especially vigilant about house inspections, drainage, etc., because there are no city codes.  Contact the school district to find out where and how students are assigned to schools. I believe the nearest hospital has closed, so you will want to investigate the nearest emergency room.  Census data indicates people tend overall to earn less money and be less well educated than Berkeley/Albany area, and it's fairly diverse racially.  When my parents lived there, neighbors were cordial but didn't socialize much, and no one was particularly progressive (or regressive).  (As housing prices have skyrocketed, that may have changed.)  There is a significant Sikh minority population because of the Gudwara Sahib building on Hillcrest.  You'll have to drive a ways to get to the Richmond or El Cerrito BART stations. I don't now about Transbay bus service there, so check transit options carefully. There's a ferry to SF from Vallejo, but that's not an easy or cheap commute.

The major problem I know of is that Highway 80 northbound is very congested and there are frequent traffic jams and closures around the two main off-ramps to El Sobrante.  I've heard rumors of gang-related shootings around there, but those are often exaggerated in the media. Do check the crime statistics with the CHP and the West County Contra Costa Sheriff's office. From what I've seen, you'll get more space for your money in ES, but house conditions and neighborhoods vary widely.

You might also take a look at Pinole and see if that appeals to you.

Good luck!

I may be in a rut, but regularly when people talk about going north to find housing, I mention the Richmond Annex. Right across the street from El Cerrito, literally. Our daughter and son in law moved there a couple of years ago, and are happy they didn't get a place in Albany or Berkeley. As our son in law says, "El Cerrito living at Richmond prices". Actually more removed from environmental hazards than most of El Cerrito, which is further north and closer to the refinery. Richmond Annex has even rather quaint family values, like stork flag embroidered with names of local children born in the neighborhood, almost a throwback to a kinder gentler past.