Bay area is expensive unless....

[DjRey]

Originally Posted by bayarea4ever

I recently had a houseguest for a month that is from Los Angeles or San Pedro but they all say they are from Los Angeles. Never the less generally from my experience people from southern California are some of the most superficial, arrogant but yet air headed people that exist. I am a Bay Area native and the posts that San Fransisco is always cold is a load of crap. And farmland hahahah, I believe going to LA there is absolutely nothing on the I-5 except the so called happy cows that are living in their own crap in Bakersfield. And the wonderful place King City also located in Southern California, that houses the immigrants who come here to pick our produce so if the farmland is all over the Bay Area than why are the workers in Southern California?
The Bay Area is a wonderful place. Lots of diversity and great minds. Great talent has come from the Bay Area. I really get sick of people from Southern California thinking that they are from such a great place and downing the Bay Area. But if you want to be around a bunch of self centered individuals that are so superficial that they are making their lips bigger one week and are scheduling their boob implant the next than LA is the place for you but if you want to be a individual with your own mind and are comfortable in your own skin than the Bay Area is the place for you. Both places are equally as expensive but you have to keep up with the Kardasians if you choose to live in LA.

Wow..typical biased clicky Bay Area person. You guys make me laugh. Actually there's more talented musicians and actors that came from NYC/NJ than the Bay Area by far. Way more...

[City Boy]

Originally Posted by Dexx1700

Thats why i got out of daly city when i can we were paying 3400 a month for a 4 bedroom house. Thats why i live in Flordia now

Thats not bad for a 4 bedroom house in the bay area.

[DjRey]

Originally Posted by City Boy

Thats not bad for a 4 bedroom house in the bay area.

Do you think he meant renting or owning though?

[bellalunatic]

Originally Posted by cvanripe10

You are from the tri-state area(NYC Vicinity of NYC, Long Island, CT, and NJ), which is where i'm from.

Would it be an easy adjustment in cost of living if I were to move to San Fran?

I'm also originally from the tri-state area...and you know how drastically different the area within the area.

I was born in NJ raised in CT & NJ lived in Manhattan and Westchester...all very different.

There's no way to compare SF proper to the tri state area unless you clarify where exactly you are.

If you move to SF and you're in Bethel, CT for instance, you're gonna experience sticker shock big time.

But if you move from say Hastings on the Hudson to SF proper, it'll be pretty comparable.

NYC (Manhattan specifically, not Astoria) it'll be pretty much the same as well...

But say, Hackensack, NJ to SF...you'd be a bit shocked...

and the list could go on and on...

The Bay Area is very different within itself as well, and I think you'd be better off clarifying where you're from and where you want to go to.

I've lived in SF,the East Bay and Sonoma County...each quite different from one another as well.

I think it would be a better way of figuring out and helping you if you could be more specific.


Overall they're fairly comparable but if you really want specifics, you gotta give a little more info.

[xGrendelx]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

The NY Tri-State area is very expensive as well, but from the standpoint of median home prices, the Bay Area is about 40% more expensive on average.

And as far as upscale home prices, The Bay Area takes the Gold, Silver and Bronze...a clean sweep. Not trying to boast but it is what it is.

A little off-topic, but I'm surprised Norfolk is on that list when Virginia Beach isn't. There are countless waterfront, upscale, high-end, and gated communities here in Virginia Beach and hardly any in Norfolk. Just my two-cents.

[sonarrat]

San Jose-Evergreen $1,211,617

What the hell.

That can't possibly be right, unless this list is about 2 years old. There are five houses in my ZIP on the market that cost more than that (out of 170 on the market), and one of those has a half-acre lot on Tully Road.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by cvanripe10

San Fran is so rural in comparison to NYC and there is sooooooooo much more space than in the tri-state area, so why is land in such high demand??

Well, if you're from NYC, EVERYWHERE seems "rural", lol. San Francisco has a very high population density. It is comletely built out. The only way to add more housing is to either 1. build in the beautiful parks or 2. knock down lower rise buildings and put in high rises. Neither is easy or necessarily desireable.

Same is true for the Bay Area more generally. Not much land unless you start knocking single family detached houses down and putting up apartments or start building in state parks / land set aside for conservation. Neither is likely to happen.

Plus, in general, there are other reasons why real estate is expensive here. Due to Prop 13, most cities claim they do not derive enough property tax revenue to cover the cost of services...so cities have no economic incentive to build housing. Combine that with a general "anti growth" attitude of many citizens, lots of bureaucratic red tape required to build housing, and lots of people wanting to live here....and you get sky high housing costs. Public officials seem to love wringing their hands about the working poor here, but do little to increase the housing supply, which would help out just about everyone.

[mysticaltyger]

[quote=Sassberto;3626114] , and there is less of an attraction to tract-style housing, which Californians seem to love.

quote]

I don't think people "love" tract housing. It's just that those were the development decisions made about what kind of housing stock to build, and now we're stuck with those tract houses whether we like them or not.

[jman650]

Originally Posted by cvanripe10

It depends what city you look at. You can't give an example of a bad neighborhood in Jersey vs an upscale neighborhood in the bay.

Check out the hamptons on long island. also alpine, nj - upper montclair,nj - saddle river,nj - morristown, nj - fairfield, ct

last time i checked alpine, nj was the most expensive place to live in the states.

I know this is an old post, but just out of curiosity, where were you checking? I have never seen a list that included Alpine, NJ. I did see this list though: Top 20 Most Expensive Cities in the U.S.

That has 16 of the top 20 most expensive cities in the US being in CA. Not one was in NJ. Not that it really makes much of a difference to me, but I was just curious if I should be checking somewhere else to find correct info when I want to.

[jman650]

Originally Posted by xGrendelx

A little off-topic, but I'm surprised Norfolk is on that list when Virginia Beach isn't. There are countless waterfront, upscale, high-end, and gated communities here in Virginia Beach and hardly any in Norfolk. Just my two-cents.

Yeah that is weird. VA Beach is way nicer than Norfolk overall. It may be a similar principle of less land space and more population density in Norfolk vs. VA Beach which is still being developed and has an abundance of land space. It has almost twice the land space of San Jose! But I would think it would rank higher than Norfolk.