More people renting than buying in coastal CA cities... (San Diego: sale, 2014)

[the city]

I was looking through a bunch of nice cities along the coast of California. Most of them had 50% of the houses as people renting their house. The average was 60% people were living in rentals.

It was the reverse for most inland cities with 40% living in rentals and 60% living in owner occupied homes.

My combined salary with my fiancé's salary in a couple years will be a little bit above $90,000 a year. I am guessing we rather prioritize our expenses so owning a home in a pricey community is on the top of the list by cutting out things like traveling a lot, traveling outside the USA, and buying nice things or we rent if we want to live in a pricey community. A condo in the community I like is listed at $400,000 and a home is like $450,000. We could live in another community we like that is smaller and closer to our work and find a house listed around $325,000.

Is it worth it to own a home in a pricey community? If we can buy, should we buy especially if we plan to have kids some day?

[Think4Yourself]

Where did you get the renting data?

[MIKEETC]

Originally Posted by the city

...

Is it worth it to own a home in a pricey community? If we can buy, should we buy especially if we plan to have kids some day?

Depends on the person making the decision. If it's worth it to you, do it. If not, don't.

[]

[the city]

Originally Posted by Think4Yourself

Where did you get the renting data?

2010 census. I looked at San Francisco, Berkeley, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Mateo.

[mrsltd]

No surprise if this is true.

[the city]

So if you want to live in the pricey community is better to rent or to buy?

How many young 30s couple are choosing to buy? I never heard of anyone buying in places like Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Monterey, or San Francisco unless they already owned a home that went up in price and could relocate. A lot like my parents who bought their home cheap but the price of the home went up. Monterey and Santa Cruz are probably more affordable. San Francisco it's like $850,000 right now to get a place. $500,000 and up for a small house Monterey, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, or San Luis Obispo. Even on $100,000 combined incomes a year that is a lot of money. You'd have to cut out of lot expenses, otherwise rent. And it seems that these land limited cities like San Fran, Portland, and Seattle build more condos. Condos seem to be the affordable way to go.

[justinbro2002]

A coastal home for $325k or even $450k isn't really pricey by California standards. . In middle America that would be considered pricey but here in California that is pretty cheap. I assume you must be looking at coastal communities that are far from major metro areas perhaps northern California.

[the city]

Originally Posted by justinbro2002

A coastal home for $325k or even $450k isn't really pricey by California standards. . In middle America that would be considered pricey but here in California that is pretty cheap. I assume you must be looking at coastal communities that are far from major metro areas perhaps northern California.

Uhhh......$450,000 and up is pricey period. $400,000 and under is cheap for coastal California and those coastal communities are the ones away from coastal metro areas (away from LA, San Jose, San Diego, and San Francisco)

[justinbro2002]

The median home sale price for California for July 2014 was $464,750 so $450,000 isn't really expensive by California standards and I would assume that coastal homes would be even higher. But like I said and you confirmed far away from metro areas is a different story if you are taking about upper northern California or Southern California somewhere like Lompoc then homes will be cheaper.

[the city]

Originally Posted by justinbro2002

The median home sale price for California for July 2014 was $464,750 so $450,000 isn't really expensive by California standards and I would assume that coastal homes would be even higher. But like I said and you confirmed far away from metro areas is a different story if you are taking about upper northern California or Southern California somewhere like Lompoc then homes will be cheaper.

Yeah but look at how much homes cost near Sacramento, Fresno, Davis, Roseville, Modesto, Paso Robles, Fairfield, Chico, Redding, and Eureka. Those places are much more affordable.