I was reading an article about housing in the bay area. Houses cost 4x what I pay here, but the jobs don’t pay 4x as much.
I know there’s not that many people living in squalor out there, so how do they do it? A dozen roomates? How can someone that works for the City of San Fran afford to live in San Fran?
roomates.
people are 30 something living with roomates. in apartments. with little space. and no parking.
personally, i’d rather live in the sticks. not worth it IMO. no offense, but cali is so screwed up. beautiful, but def screwed up.
A friend of mine workd for the City of San Francisco as a plumber, makes over $100K a year and lives in a $600K luxury condo.
You just pay a lot for housing. I make a pretty decent living, in most parts of the country I’d be considered well off…here in SF I’m just another guy struggling to make mortgage payments…but its worth it.
The first time you ride your bike or run across the Golden Gate Bride into the Marin Headlands you’ll understand.
IMO California is “Paradise Lost”. Way too many people have flooded the place. Too much pollution and the house prices are absurd.
Must have been a great place in the 1930’s,40’s and 50’s.
It’s doomed to slide into the sea any ways.
Well, first off the that figure is very misleading. Yes, the average house is over $500K in the Bay area, BUT the average person in the area doesn’t live in a house. I’d feel pretty comfortable saying California probably has the lowest home ownership percentage of any state in the country. Just take a drive through the San Jose area. The number of actually rather nice apartment buildings is astonishing. They are everywhere. Most people rent, because most people can’t afford those $500K homes.
Oh, the other thing that I don’t believe is available all over the country is an interest only mortgage. Since most people can’t afford the payments on a typical 30 year loan in California, banks are now offering loans where you don’t even pay principal. I guess some people are willing to gamble that housing will continue to increase in value rapidly around here.
FWIW in last 10 years I’ve lived in San Diego, Seattle, Long Island, and San Jose. Never even contemplated owning a house. Next month I move to Oklahoma. Already bought my first house there. The “value” of that house is so tremendous compared to places I’ve lived recently that I can’t stop from laughing. I’m paying less per month for a beautiful home on 2 acres than I paid for rent in an average apartment in San Jose and Long Island. I’ve lived on the coast long enough. I’m ready for something different.
Well, first off don’t move to San Fran, Santa Cruz or Santa Barbara those are the cities I know of with the average home price of $500-600k. You definitely want to stay out of that hell hole called LA and San Diego is very nice but getting pretty crowded.
I live in the central coast about an hour north of Santa Barbara and I am confident this is paradise found. 60-70 degrees all year long, it rains about ten times during the “winter” and I have unlimited availability of the most awesome/beautiful roads you can imagine from my driveway where I see about 5 cars per hour. The air quality is outstanding and my only problem is too much sun exposure.
The housing prices are a problem anywhere on the coast, just worst in some places. The farther inland you go the “cheaper” it gets. I have met two groups: the ones that have been here from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s whose properties have appreciated like crazy and because they know how blessed they are to be where they are at won’t ever move. And then you got the newbies that have to rent or share a house because they cannot afford one but suck it up because the place is so nice.
Most people rent,<<
True, at least the majority of people I know in the Bay Area.
But my god…Oklahoma???
clm, originally from Kansas and wouldn’t go back to the Midwest
Welcome to Oklahoma. I’ve lived here most of my life, and every time I start wanting a change I’ve not been willing to give up the value.
any hills to run and ride on? And how about IT jobs there? Any to be had? if so maybe I should move there ?
Plenty of roller coaster type hills on the east side of the state, some around OKC (I know of one 100K route that has a little over 4000 ft of climbing).
You can check out the job market at jobsok.com
There’s not a lot of product companies, but seems to be a fair share of IT type jobs.
I have a rule of thumb…don’t live in a place you wouldn’t consider as a vacation destination.
Oklahoma is very close to the top of my “places I’ll never move to” list 
We own an home in Santa Clara, but I was not brave enough to buy one by myself; I waited until after I was married so we had a combined income. My husband and I are both in pharmaceutical research, which is a more reliable industry around here than tech, and nationwide the salaries are better here than in other areas, at least in our industry. The property tax initiative also make our owndership possible; we couldn’t afford the taxes on a similarly priced home in another state. I don’t know, I guess it’s like the frog in the pot who doesn’t realize the heat is being turned up. Once you’re in the real estate market here, you can be in a pretty good position for the future, assuming we don’t slide into the sea, as previously suggested.
Being in the business, there are definitely parts of the country that people should not even consider an interest-only mortgage. Here (Arizona) and California are the perfect places for it. You can afford a lot more bang for your buck and the valuse is rising at least 12% on the average here in AZ and about 18% in Cali. I have done loans for people in California that swear by a negative ammortization mortgage in which they lose money on their homes (in mortgage terms anyhow) and sell it two years later and still make money. It is incredible. If you have the money to invest and the ability to make small cosmetic repairs, investing is the way to go in both states. My .02.
That’s a pretty good rule of thumb. Doubtful I’d be here if I wasn’t born here.
much obliged!!! by the way are the winters really cold?
Three years ago we bought a 3 bd, 2 bath, 2 car garage house in the Bay Area.
For a $500,000 home in the Bay Area you are going to have a monthly payment of about $3,500 which includes your prop tax. About 35%-40% of that will be tax deductible so around $2,100 out of pocket each month.
With a family of five now it would be next to imposible to find any kind of rental for our family for $2,100.
An identicle house 3 doors up just sold for $100,000 more than we paid and it is not in as nice candition. So, not only do I have a permanent roof over my head for $2,100 but I made $125k in three years.
How can you afford not to own a house in the Bay Area? The trick is to save for the down payment.
Save for the downpayment and have good credit are the keys for sure.
The only thing I hate worst than the heat is the cold, so take this FWIW.
The winters are freezing and the summers are scorching. We usually have a few weeks of really nice, mild weather in the spring and fall. Of course that’s usually when the tornados are worst too.
What we lack in hills we more than make up for with wind. 10-20 mph is common, it has to be going about 30mph before people will say it’s windy out.
We usually get at least a couple of snowstorms per year. Ice storms are not that uncommon either. It may be all in my head, but I associate the winters here with freezing rain. And it’s usually blowing in your face with a 15 mph wind behind it.
Yeah but you have to live in Oklahoma… There’s a good reason houses are cheaper. I hope you like chicken fried steak, evangelistic religion and country music.
<<FWIW in last 10 years I’ve lived in San Diego, Seattle, Long Island, and San Jose. Never even contemplated owning a house. Next month I move to Oklahoma. Already bought my first house there. The “value” of that house is so tremendous compared to places I’ve lived recently that I can’t stop from laughing. I’m paying less per month for a beautiful home on 2 acres than I paid for rent in an average apartment in San Jose and Long Island. I’ve lived on the coast long enough. I’m ready for something different. >>
hmm doesn’t sound appealing weather wise…grew up in Bufffalo, NY, then San Diego for 13 years. Had to move to Sh…chicago two years ago and don’t like it here and its getting stupidly expensive for such a crappy climate . I know its da culture…well for me I could care less about art galleries, openings, food shows, tasting crappy food with a million other morons either…wow showing my true colors… makes me happy to be around fellow triathletes training or relaxing over good veggies after a good race or good training session…and or KOna, or TDF viewing parties!!! thats heaven for me and being able to ride my bike outside all year!