Have you considered moving away from the bay area? (San Jose: rental market, neighborhood)

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

It is unless commuting more than one hour each way is the way you want to spend the rest of your life. Jobs are concentrated in SF, peninsula and south bay.

I have been commuting one hour each day for the last 30 years and am very tired of it.

[shooting4life]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

I think moving for quality of life preferences is fine. So if you were planning to move to Vancouver Washington to be near activities and or family you preferred, yeah. I suspect if you do an actual accounting of your savings potential, you might be pretty disappointed. The difference in gas prices is probably no more than $10 a month for the average driver. Groceries? Same. No tax on that either place. So what would you save tax on? Unless you are really wealthy in retirement, California income taxes aren't much. To go to Washington to eliminate income tax and then have to pay double to triple real estate taxes doesn't save much if anything. Your house would cost less in Vancouver, sure. But have you ever been to that crappy town? Especially half the year in winter? And drive over to Oregon to save sales tax when you buy a taxable item? Really? How many things do you buy a year that pay to drive $20 worth of gas to save sales tax? And sales tax in Washington is nearly identical to California's.

Rent your California home? You'll pay California tax on that income. Etc.

I come up to Washington every year. Love it. In summer. Wouldn't live here for nothing though. No way!

The thing about higher property taxes in other states is the housing is so much cheaper that even with a double or Tripple rate the total dollars paid per year is still much less because the houses are worth so much less. My 500k house here that I pay just over 1% a year in property taxes will still be more than 3% on a similar house that only costs $150k in other states.

And not paying the roughly 9% sales tax and 8% income tax would be a huge difference. Would pretty easily be a 20k-30k difference a year.

Having the extra income would allow me to do all the things I cannot afford to do now, mainly travel.

[shooting4life]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Just don't do this in the Portland-Vancouver area. The traffic on I-5 right there is an absolute nightmare!

It cant be worse than the Bay Area.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by shooting4life

It cant be worse than the Bay Area.

I don't think there is anything worse especially the Bay Bridge commute and the I-80 east bound and west bound during those commute hours.
It's only getting worse and worse up here.
lots of collisions on hwy 24 Lafayette area and out in East county Hwy 4 which used to have only 2 lanes.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by Marina50

EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

It was ok for a year, tolerable for 5 years and now I truly hate San Francisco. We can comfortably afford it but we still don't like it. At this point, I am embarrassed we're still here. Of all our close friends from five years ago, we are the only ones still here. Most of the gripes about San Francisco have been covered here (homeless, really grubby, don't like the chilly summer weather) but no one really talks about this one: Seems like no one here has kids except of a few people. My brother lives in Manhattan and I am shocked at the amount of kids you see out and about walking and playing and at the playgrounds whenever we go to visit. NYC and San Francisco have a similar density but it seems way more child friendly and normal. Or more sane people live there than here. I would love to join him and move there.

Or just save myself some money (A LOT, actually) and move to Seattle or Austin. Or just go back to my hometown of San Diego.

The thought of leaving seems so easy but it's not in reality. We are stuck here for at least another year. I also do not want to live in the suburbs at all...at least not in these suburbs.

There are kid-friendly areas in SF but living in a small space with an active baby gets real tiring fast. Not to mention living in apartment without laundry, elevator with a baby is a nightmare!

But the biggest problem is overall anti-kid vibe. Go to a restaurant and get stink eye even when a baby barely makes a sound.... No one looking at or interacting with babies. It's amazing how people on the street avoid eye contact with babies who are naturally prone to staring at human faces. Kids in SF will learn early in life that humans avoid eye contact, look depressed and are not friendly. I think the social skill development will be seriously hampered for a kid growing up in SF.

[dalparadise]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

There are kid-friendly areas in SF but living in a small space with an active baby gets real tiring fast. Not to mention living in apartment without laundry, elevator with a baby is a nightmare!

But the biggest problem is overall anti-kid vibe. Go to a restaurant and get stink eye even when a baby barely makes a sound.... No one looking at or interacting with babies. It's amazing how people on the street avoid eye contact with babies who are naturally prone to staring at human faces. Kids in SF will learn early in life that humans avoid eye contact, look depressed and are not friendly. I think the social skill development will be seriously hampered for a kid growing up in SF.

So, you have kids, right?

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

There are kid-friendly areas in SF but living in a small space with an active baby gets real tiring fast. Not to mention living in apartment without laundry, elevator with a baby is a nightmare!

But the biggest problem is overall anti-kid vibe. Go to a restaurant and get stink eye even when a baby barely makes a sound.... No one looking at or interacting with babies. It's amazing how people on the street avoid eye contact with babies who are naturally prone to staring at human faces. Kids in SF will learn early in life that humans avoid eye contact, look depressed and are not friendly. I think the social skill development will be seriously hampered for a kid growing up in SF.

Yes what you just described is SF. I grew up there. born and raised there. Not much eye contact and don't talk to strangers. Just keep walking. Don't get to know neighbors too.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by dalparadise

So, you have kids, right?

Don't ask personal question on this forum and focus on contributing something useful to the discussion.

[TVC15]

Originally Posted by shooting4life

The thing about higher property taxes in other states is the housing is so much cheaper that even with a double or Tripple rate the total dollars paid per year is still much less because the houses are worth so much less. My 500k house here that I pay just over 1% a year in property taxes will still be more than 3% on a similar house that only costs $150k in other states.

And not paying the roughly 9% sales tax and 8% income tax would be a huge difference. Would pretty easily be a 20k-30k difference a year.
.

You are correct and that is what many CA posters don't get.

For example in Houston you can buy a very nice house for 150-350K in a desirable part of town and pay 3% or less in property taxes.

Here that house will cost a million or more and the 1% in property taxes does not mean much of a savings or lower COL. I would never ever consider buying a house in the Bay Area...especially knowing that there will be another economic down turn.

I will gladly take my well earned money somewhere else besides the Bay Area to settle down when it is time to retire.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by nowhereman427

"Fast forward three years to 2014, and those very same units are renting for around $2800-3200!! Nearly DOUBLE. I was thinking about moving back up to SF, but apparently I have been priced out of the city for now".

It's insane, isn't it? People keep saying the rental market has to "drop," but does it really? If so, when do you predict that will happen? I'm desperate to get out of San Jose (just not my cup of tea), but whenever I search Craigslist I get more & more discouraged... the prices seem to go up every month, and dog-friendly rentals are even harder to find at "affordable" rates. I hate being stuck in a town I don't love.