Home price = deal breaker for moving to Bay Area? (Oakland: house prices, neighborhood)

[shooting4life]

Originally Posted by Jerry Stansfield

Where can you do that? Concord? Antioch, Pittsburg? Who wants to live way out there.?

I ended up purchasing in San Lorenzo. I am in a decent neighborhood with ok schools, though I don't have children. I am still within 20 miles of work (Redwood City). To find a 3/2 1600 sq foot home on the peninsula would have cost us over 600k in Daly City or SSF and costing even more the closer I got to RWC. The schools are about the same, the distance and time to work is about the same, the crime rate is similar and the house cost 370k, almost half the price of the lower cost areas of the peninsula.

Though people on this and others forums say differently; you can live a nice life reasonably close to work without living in Burlingame, Mt. View or Cupertino. Some act like if you don't spend near 1 mil for a house you'll get shot in a drive by and your kids will drop out of school and end up in prison everywhere else in the bay area.

[kat949]

Bay area's very beautiful but expensive. With the money on your home, property alone will probably afford you a small space and that's not including living expenses which are a bit higher, transportation, property tax, among medical/personal expenses.

I'd probably not use my house as an investment.

The money you have can probably afford you an adequate property in the suburbs of S.F. but still pretty pricey. San Jose is a nice alternative but not quite Bay area.

[bentobox34]

Originally Posted by EdJS

Sometimes I think people have forgotten how to have patience. I have been living in the Bay Area for almost 30 years. For the first 10 years, I rented apartments with roommates. That's how I could afford it. For five years, I rented an apartment on my own. Finally, then, I bought my first house. So it took 15 years of gaining skills and experience, moving up in my career, and increasing my my salary, until I could reach that level of stability and security.

Or you could move practically anywhere else in the country and only have to put up with roommates in college, live in your own apartment until your mid/late 20s and achieve that level of stability and security before your 30th birthday, rather than sometime in your late 40s (if you're lucky).

[bentobox34]

Originally Posted by shooting4life

You can still purchase a home in the bay area when you are 25-30 and make ok money for the area. My wife and I have a combined household income of a little less than 160k.

That is more than double the median four-person family income in California, and you are calling it "ok money." I also note that in a later comment you said you don't have kids.

I'm not trying to pick on you, just noting the extant to which the absurd economy of the Bay Area skews people's perception of "normal."

[shooting4life]

Originally Posted by bentobox34

That is more than double the median four-person family income in California, and you are calling it "ok money." I also note that in a later comment you said you don't have kids.

I'm not trying to pick on you, just noting the extant to which the absurd economy of the Bay Area skews people's perception of "normal."

I know what we make as a couple is not normal for california or most of the nation. But it average for many places in the bay area and below average for many others. 80k a year for one person is distinctly middle class for the bay area and that is my driving point.

[Obamadon1]

Originally Posted by shooting4life

I know what we make as a couple is not normal for california or most of the nation. But it average for many places in the bay area and below average for many others. 80k a year for one person is distinctly middle class for the bay area and that is my driving point.

It is below average in probably 3 tiny towns. It is far above average for the vast majority of the bay area population

[charmed59]

Originally Posted by Obamadon1

It is below average in probably 3 tiny towns. It is far above average for the vast majority of the bay area population

Over in the Charlotte, NC forum someone pointed out this handy site:

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

You can look it up, and yeah, it's not most, but more than 3 tiny towns...

[Obamadon1]

Originally Posted by charmed59

Over in the Charlotte, NC forum someone pointed out this handy site:

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

You can look it up, and yeah, it's not most, but more than 3 tiny towns...

It's below the median household income in Atherton ($186k). Woodside is $216k. Blackhawk is $164k. Those are three tiny towns. What other towns have a higher median household income?

[shooting4life]

Originally Posted by Obamadon1

It's below the median household income in Atherton ($186k). Woodside is $216k. Blackhawk is $164k. Those are three tiny towns. What other towns have a higher median household income?

I think a better comparison would be required house hold income to purchase a house currently. Because someone purchased and payed a house off 30 years ago and now lives off of a fixed lower income brings a lot of these numbers down. Try and buy a house in any of those towns with a joint income listed. You could not get a lone with that income, let alone trying to save 20% down payment.

[EdJS]

Originally Posted by bentobox34

Or you could move practically anywhere else in the country and only have to put up with roommates in college, live in your own apartment until your mid/late 20s and achieve that level of stability and security before your 30th birthday, rather than sometime in your late 40s (if you're lucky).

Actually, I bought my house when I was 35 years old. As I said, that was 15 years after I moved to the Bay Area, and I moved here when I was 20, right after graduating from college. I moved to the Bay Area to attend grad school at Stanford, and I think that was a good decision. I've been here ever since.