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Old 04-23-2017, 01:46 PM
 
Location: Paranoid State
13,044 posts, read 13,867,365 times
Reputation: 15839

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevdawgg View Post
With single family homes costing nearly a million dollars and jobs with lackluster pay, how do people here can afford housing?

Homeowners have very good incomes. If you are unable to generate a very good income, you should rethink living here. Some college graduates get offers for $125K with no experience. Other college graduates go on to professional school and start out even higher (starting tax attorneys, patent attorneys, medical doctors, etc). Others don't make quite so much but they work for the Public Sector and hence don't need to save as much out of their after-tax pay for their retirement, giving them more disposable income to toss into housing.
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Old 04-23-2017, 01:48 PM
 
Location: Paranoid State
13,044 posts, read 13,867,365 times
Reputation: 15839
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevdawgg View Post
Even if you got a 100k job in Silicon Valley, you'd still be living in a van.
People earn much more than $100K in starter jobs in Silicon Valley.

My daughter's high school classmate received an offer of over $125K not to go to college but instead to work for Facebook. At age 17.
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Old 04-23-2017, 02:51 PM
 
Location: So Ca
26,731 posts, read 26,812,827 times
Reputation: 24795
Quote:
Originally Posted by evening sun View Post
Save up money for a down-payment, same as anywhere else, No eating out, live frugal & save money.
Not for everyone.
Why California stinks for first-time home buyers - LA Times
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Old 04-23-2017, 04:52 PM
 
18,172 posts, read 16,398,084 times
Reputation: 9328
Quote:
Originally Posted by CA4Now View Post
It focused on 18- 34. When I was 18 I had no money saved. That is a bit silly.

If they looked at say 25 to 34 a better view would exist. I bought my first home at 32. It takes time to make the money, get settled in a job and increase your income. CA will always be more expensive so the age at which someone can buy will be higher than say in Utah.
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Old 04-23-2017, 05:15 PM
 
Location: Sierra Nevada Land, CA
9,455 posts, read 12,546,803 times
Reputation: 16453
Quote:
Originally Posted by CA4Now View Post
Interesting read. Was a mixed bag. Not all doom and Gloom. The main issue for millennials was saving for a down payment. Fact is, being saddled with crushing student loans makes it hard to save, regardless of where you live.

If CA was not a desireable place to live, housing wounldn't be expensive. The article said Utah and Iowa were the best places for a first time buyer. Like I've said before, you get what you pay for.
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Old 04-23-2017, 05:27 PM
 
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
7,709 posts, read 5,456,509 times
Reputation: 16244
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr5150 View Post
Generally home prices and wages are related. If people couldn't afford to buy houses, prices would drop. A house is only worth what people would pay.
It is more complicated than that, at least in some locations in California. Even professionals with excellent wages are at a serious disadvantage when foreign investors buy up numerous properties or overbid significantly to get a particular piece of property. Desirable "status" real estate has become an investment—not a home that is also an investment due to normally rising prices (while homes continue to escalate)—but a straight up place to stash funds, money that is often off-shore funds laundered through the purchase and sale of real estate.
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Old 04-23-2017, 07:34 PM
 
28,115 posts, read 63,672,505 times
Reputation: 23268
Quote:
Originally Posted by expatCA View Post
It focused on 18- 34. When I was 18 I had no money saved. That is a bit silly.

If they looked at say 25 to 34 a better view would exist. I bought my first home at 32. It takes time to make the money, get settled in a job and increase your income. CA will always be more expensive so the age at which someone can buy will be higher than say in Utah.
Bought my first home at age 22...

I was bound and determine to own and have told the story before.

By age 22 I had 10 years in working and I was good at saving even paying Mom room and board on every payday...

Anyway... I soon found that even with money saved and a work history I did not meet strict underwriting so I started looking for the least expensive single family homes in the SF East Bay... and bought the least expensive home of 600 square feet on a 25 x 100 city lot and built in 1911...

The city had it scheduled for a condemnation hearing and in about week I had hauled away enough trash and made enough repairs that condemnation was off the table...

To buy it I took all my down payment money and selling my prized procession... the 1968 Camaro Z28 that I had lovingly restored... advertised it and got a buyer that flew out from Illinois...

When I hear that people can't afford... maybe they need to start at the very bottom with the least expensive fixer on the Oakland MLS and go for it.

My family was quite upset with me but I was having none of it... at 22 I owned my own Bay Area Home...

Spent about a year of nights and weekends fixing it up... since I moved I am only on my second renter...
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Old 04-23-2017, 07:45 PM
 
600 posts, read 566,845 times
Reputation: 793
Quote:
Originally Posted by SFBayBoomer View Post
It is more complicated than that, at least in some locations in California. Even professionals with excellent wages are at a serious disadvantage when foreign investors buy up numerous properties or overbid significantly to get a particular piece of property. Desirable "status" real estate has become an investment—not a home that is also an investment due to normally rising prices (while homes continue to escalate)—but a straight up place to stash funds, money that is often off-shore funds laundered through the purchase and sale of real estate.
So, do you want Trump to step in and prevent foreign investors from buying up properties or maybe heavily tax them? Or, do you prefer to let the Free Market run it's course.

Why don't CA residents do the same? Since they can't afford a $500k house in CA, why not buy up dirt cheap properties in the poorer red states and rent them out?
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Old 04-23-2017, 07:52 PM
 
18,172 posts, read 16,398,084 times
Reputation: 9328
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrarunner View Post
Bought my first home at age 22...

I was bound and determine to own and have told the story before.

By age 22 I had 10 years in working and I was good at saving even paying Mom room and board on every payday...

Anyway... I soon found that even with money saved and a work history I did not meet strict underwriting so I started looking for the least expensive single family homes in the SF East Bay... and bought the least expensive home of 600 square feet on a 25 x 100 city lot and built in 1911...

The city had it scheduled for a condemnation hearing and in about week I had hauled away enough trash and made enough repairs that condemnation was off the table...

To buy it I took all my down payment money and selling my prized procession... the 1968 Camaro Z28 that I had lovingly restored... advertised it and got a buyer that flew out from Illinois...

When I hear that people can't afford... maybe they need to start at the very bottom with the least expensive fixer on the Oakland MLS and go for it.

My family was quite upset with me but I was having none of it... at 22 I owned my own Bay Area Home...

Spent about a year of nights and weekends fixing it up... since I moved I am only on my second renter...
Aah but you are the exception. Most want a nice home right now because, ... they want it.

Now I was looking at buying when I was in my mid 20's in SD County, but life changed when I went through a divorce.
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Old 04-23-2017, 07:59 PM
 
Location: So Ca
26,731 posts, read 26,812,827 times
Reputation: 24795
Quote:
Originally Posted by expatCA View Post
It focused on 18- 34. When I was 18 I had no money saved. That is a bit silly.
If they looked at say 25 to 34 a better view would exist.
Actually, the article states ages 25-34.

Any way you look at it, today they are needing to save thousands more than we ever did. (I can't even think of what our first down payment was, but it was under 18 K.)
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