Home price = deal breaker for moving to Bay Area? (San Jose: mortgage, loan)

[thecooler]

Originally Posted by Mark Fitsburgh

Rare you can bet 200 rich Chinese and Filipinos will be having a cash bidding war that will push that thing to close to a million.

You're exaggerating a bit, that's about the going rate for homes in Daly City/Pacifica/South San Francisco/San Bruno, varying of course by quality of house and neighborhood. Last month I bid on a house in Daly City, it was the typical Daly city house, garage/partial conversion of living space on ground floor, main living space on the top. This place had views of Mt. Tam, Mt. Sutro and Mt. San Bruno. It was 2 bed/1 bath upstairs, 2 bd/1 bath downstairs. It was in need of updates, but in very good shape, in a nice neighborhood. It was on the market for 2 weeks (only because they didn't look at bids until 2 weeks after list), and they had 32 bids, it was listed at 499k, and ended up selling for 580k. yes, its competitive, but things aren't getting bid up quite that much if you're willing to live in a foggy area or with so-so schools.

[Mark Fitsburgh]

Originally Posted by thecooler

You're exaggerating a bit, that's about the going rate for homes in Daly City/Pacifica/South San Francisco/San Bruno, varying of course by quality of house and neighborhood. Last month I bid on a house in Daly City, it was the typical Daly city house, garage/partial conversion of living space on ground floor, main living space on the top. This place had views of Mt. Tam, Mt. Sutro and Mt. San Bruno. It was 2 bed/1 bath upstairs, 2 bd/1 bath downstairs. It was in need of updates, but in very good shape, in a nice neighborhood. It was on the market for 2 weeks (only because they didn't look at bids until 2 weeks after list), and they had 32 bids, it was listed at 499k, and ended up selling for 580k. yes, its competitive, but things aren't getting bid up quite that much if you're willing to live in a foggy area or with so-so schools.

Not sure how I"m exaggerating, you said yourself it was a 2 bedroom 1 bath house that had 32 bidders and sold for 580K. Try a 4 bedroom 2 or 3 bath house. Trust me it will go for close to 1 million.

[jeffredo]

Originally Posted by Larry Siegel

Not bad. A friend of mine just paid about $500K for a 700 square foot "condo alternative" house in the Outer Sunset. I'd rather live in a real house in Daly City.

I got a solid Junior 5 in the Sunset (Parkside) in 2009 for a little bit over that. It had just been heavily upgraded before the bubble burst a year earlier. Just under 1K sq feet. Thank goodness I was able to do it before the current feeding frenzy began. Only reason I got out there was to be near a MUNI line. I actually like Westlake a lot. Had several family members over the years live there (back in the "Little Boxes" era. )

That budget will get you a decent little house or a good condo in Pacifica - if you can stand the fog. Schools are better there than DC.

[sliverbox]

Like others said- consider renting first. The Bay Area is a generic term and covers a HUGE area. Like anywhere else, prices are going to be grossly more or less depending on where the house is. If you absolutely have to live in the choicest locations like parts of SF, certain parts of Silicon Valley, and so on then prepare to pay out the nose. If you're willing to make concessions like maybe a longer commute, places like the east bay can be a lot more doable price-wise. We rented for years before buying last year in the east bay and what we paid is about 50% less than the more desirable parts of SV and SF. The commute isn't awful: maybe 30-40 minutes each way.

[sliverbox]

True i just paid 1.4 million for a 1900 sq ft house in Berkeley. Unless you want to live in some central valley town like concord or further you're going to be paying over a million.

We bought a 1,600 square foot house in a semi-desirable east bay neighborhood for around 520k. That's quite a difference between that and a million bucks.

[Mark Fitsburgh]

What does Semi-Desirable mean? and where in the East Bay? Way out in Contra Costa somewhere?

[sliverbox]

Nope. Alameda. But shhhh.... not many people know about Alameda, yet. I like it here about 200% more than anywhere in Berkeley.

[Mark Fitsburgh]

I like Alameda. I just don't like the fact it has no BART

[sliverbox]

Alameda has buses and a ferry. Getting to SF takes me about 15 minutes via Ferry if I go. But yes, I understand it has no actual BART train there. I suppose to some people that's a deal-breaker, but to me its worth it seeing as how Alameda might be one of the last cities close to the water with decent weather in the Bay Area that is at least by area standards still remotely affordable.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by Malloric

The 800k was just the down payment. Figuring a typical 20% down, yes, $4 million will get you a pretty nice house in many parts of the Bay Area. Even in Menlo/Atherton, $2-3 million will get you something that looks like middle-class housing.

Banks will typically lend out 3-4x income, so to pull that kind of a loan you need to be making $1 million a year anyway.

Personally, given that kind of scratch, I'd buy an apartment building and live in the biggest unit for free.