In America’s most expensive housing markets, homebuyers have a hard time finding their sweet spot.

It’s tough to find relatively affordable neighborhoods with short commutes, schools, low crime and some decent restaurants.

We examined the nation’s 100 biggest metros to find the neighborhoods that offered the best value for first-time buyers. To do this, we generated a neighborhood value score that takes into account not only the cost to live in a neighborhood, but also the level of amenities it offers. More specifically, we used listing prices and our measure of entry-level affordability, then added school information, crime statistics, commute times and other neighborhood amenities such as restaurants.

The result: we found reasonably priced neighborhoods that offered the best combination of price and livability even in the most expensive metros including New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington.

To be clear: these are not the cheapest neighborhoods in each of the metros. Trulia offers affordability maps for most big U.S. cities. Instead, our best value neighborhoods reflect the best bang for your buck. To make our list, neighborhoods had to score well in our categories, and even those that did were cut from our list if they had outliers such as high crime, but that doesn’t mean they don’t come with flaws. Some are near freeways and airports and may be noisy. Others are far away from city centers where commutes are longer.

Among our findings:

The best values in the San Francisco metro aren’t in San Francisco itself but just south of the city in Redwood City, Calif., where the Palm Park, Roosevelt, Redwood Oaks and Woodside Plaza neighborhoods capture the top four spots for value.

where the Palm Park, Roosevelt, Redwood Oaks and Woodside Plaza neighborhoods capture the top four spots for value. In greater Seattle, Burien, Wash., offers the top two value neighborhoods, Gunthers Highland View and Gregory Heights, but there are also a few in the city limits including North Beacon Hill and Pinehurst.

offers the top two value neighborhoods, Gunthers Highland View and Gregory Heights, but there are also a few in the city limits including North Beacon Hill and Pinehurst. In the New York metro, the Ludlow neighborhood in Yonkers, N.Y., is No. 1, but outer borough neighborhoods Woodlawn Heights, Pelham Gardens and Westerleigh offer value in the city.

To see the best value neighborhoods in the biggest U.S. housing markets, you can enter the metro name in the map below.