Question for people who bought houses in CA in the 60's and 70's (San Francisco: apartment, landscaping)

[CityGirl72]

My parents bought their house in Los Angeles in 1976 for 70K. 3 bedroom 1500 sqft

They sold it a few years back but it's worth nearly a million now

[tashina]

My parents bought in North Park in San Diego in 1965:

1300 sq ft on 4000 sq ft lot. A nothing special almost Craftsman. $14,900

Sold 2002 $350,000

Currently on the market again at about $500,000 (vacant and price reduced at least once)

[susie4]

In 1967, my sister bought a house in La Palma (orange county) for $31,000. Today its worth between $700,000-800,000. My brother bought a house in Port Hueme (Ventura county) for $27,000. Its worth around $800,000 today. My parents bought their house in San Pedro (Los Angeles county) in the 30's and paid $1,500.00 for it. Can you belive it? Today its worth $525,000.

As for what their income was, I don't remember that.

[MotleyCrew]

My parents bought a home in Ontario in 1962 for $19,000. Somewhere we have an old Homes for Sale magazine that shows homes in Orange County, Newport Beach selling for $70's to $80K, this was in 1975.

[EscapeCalifornia]

But what were you making when you bought those $20,000 houses? I know they're worth more today. I'm more interested in how affordable/unaffordable the house were back then relative to income.

[CityGirl72]

my dad worked in downtown LA and made about 36K a year, my mom worked part time at a bank (not that much pay, mostly watching us kids)

They bought their 2nd house in 1976 for 70K

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by CityGirl72

my dad worked in downtown LA and made about 36K a year, my mom worked part time at a bank (not that much pay, mostly watching us kids)

They bought their 2nd house in 1976 for 70K

Thanks. That's the kind of number that interesting. They spend about twice their annual income on a house and that's assuming they didn't put any profits down from their first house. I'd love to buy a house for 2-3x my income.

[Debsi]

We just bought our home in Texas for twice a conservative estimate of our income. (My husband is a self-employed consultant, so we never assume things will keep on keepin' on!) It's a great feeling, having our little "castle" and not being house poor to boot. We're thrilled we could realize the dream that led us to leave our beloved southern California in the first place, where we couldn't even get a 1 bedroom "condo" - c'mon, we all know those are really apartments - for anywhere close to the price we paid for our 3 bedroom house.

My parents bought their University City (San Diego) condo in 1976 for $39,000. I'm not sure what they earned though, sorry. Similar condos are listing for $500-$550,000 right now.

[Bevmo]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

I'm trying to get a feel for how expensive houses in CA were back then. People say that CA's always been expensive but I'm curious about how much people were paying relative to their incomes for a single family house.

We bought our home in San Diego in 1972 for $42,000, with an annual income of $60K, and sold it in 2005 for $800,000 to move to a larger home in New Mexico. We can't afford to move back to San Diego now and are looking at Northern CA. Our children can't afford to buy a home in CA. Housing prices are totally unreasonable, in my opinion, but we still plan to return.

[SoCal Person]

My parents' home cost 31,500 in 1968 and is now worth over 700000. My dad made about 15,000 a year when they bought it and my mom didn't work at all.

I'd love to buy a home like theirs on twice our yearly income!

Amazing, huh?

Their tract neighborhood in Orange County was full of moms/wives who didn't work, with husbands in all kinds of jobs on many socioeconomic levels including truck drivers, engineers, pharmacists, teachers, and gosh we even had a McDonald's manager (his wife worked as a secretary) next door.

In contrast, my husband and I are both professionals and our incomes are both quite decent. We could afford a home in my parents' neighborhood if we wanted to spend over half our income on a mortgage. I don't want to live that way. IT's all about timing, and due to life circumstances I guess we missed the right boat.

It really is expensive here in California, isn't it?