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Old 03-12-2008, 02:31 PM
 
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My girlfriend and I are both pharmacists badly wanting to get out of Ohio. We are both interested in the SF area, however, when I look at apts and houses it seems like we'd never be able to afford it.

I've checked salary.com for pharmacists' salaries in the bay area and it looks as if we'd have about $260,000 annual income. Is this income enough to live "nicely" or do you need to be millionaire to live comfortable in SF?

Last edited by DesperateToGetOut; 03-12-2008 at 02:31 PM.. Reason: spelling error
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Old 03-12-2008, 02:59 PM
 
Location: Northern California
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That's a little optimistic to think the combined income of 2 pharmacists would be $260K (assuming we're talking about legal drugs ), but if you can swing that, you will live very comfortably in the SF bay area.
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Old 03-12-2008, 03:17 PM
 
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Thanks for the reply. According to salary.com the average pharmacist salary for the Bay Area is $130,000, I don't know about SF, but salary.com is extremely accurate in my area regarding pharmacist salary. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a house under 700K in the Bay Area. Do these exist or did they go out with the dinosaurs?
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Old 03-12-2008, 04:48 PM
 
Location: Northern California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DesperateToGetOut View Post
I don't think I've ever seen a house under 700K in the Bay Area. Do these exist or did they go out with the dinosaurs?
Sub-prime mess or not, house prices in the immediate SF bay area are holding up and in some areas increasing a little. And $700K is about right for most any decent house around here. However, condos are less and outside the bay area such as towns as Tracy, Manteca, Fairfield, Brentwood, etc., where the sub-prime mess has hit hardest, you can find a house maybe in the $400 - $500K range. A few builders have been putting up their homes for auction to get rid of them.

But if you can jointly earn $260K, you should be able to buy a house after a short time.
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Old 03-12-2008, 08:52 PM
 
Location: San Jose, CA
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Tracy houses can be found in the $250 - $350k range. Brentwood is a little higher, Manteca they have almost new foreclosed houses for as little as 199k. Houses in SF I think cost more than $700k for the most part. You should be able to rent a nice house for as little as $2000/month in some areas, like Fremont, and Union City. But with 260k/year salary once you have $200,000 saved up you can probably afford up to $1M (800k mortgage), your marginal tax rate is probably very high so it might not be that huge a difference from paying $3300/month to rent the same type of house.

Don't pay $500k to live in Tracy, or Manteca, unless it is almost a mansion, that would be crazy IMO.
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Old 03-13-2008, 03:39 PM
 
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I wouldn't pay over $250K to live in Tracy. If you move out of Ohio for a more exciting life, don't move to a cow town like Tracy or Manteca. Live closer to S.F. That is why you are moving away from Ohio, right???

You will live fat on $250K. You could buy a condo for under $700K probably.
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Old 03-13-2008, 06:51 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
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Originally Posted by humboldtrat View Post
But if you can jointly earn $260K, you should be able to buy a house after a short time.
My sister & her husband make less than that combined (approx. $150-175K), and just bought a gorgeous house in Sunnyvale for about $1M... they started with $500K townhouse in Mtn. View 5 years ago, saved their money, sold the townhouse for a profit, and "moved on up." And they have a 6 month-old baby, so it's not like they're without expenses!

You certainly don't have to be a millionaire to live here, or it would be a rather empty metro area - right?? That being said, we do have a much higher than average number of renters, so that's how the majority of us make it work... I earn between $40-50K on average, and do just fine on a daily/monthly basis, but probably won't be able to purchase a home anytime soon.
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Old 03-13-2008, 07:00 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
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Originally Posted by Luke9686 View Post
I wouldn't pay over $250K to live in Tracy. If you move out of Ohio for a more exciting life, don't move to a cow town like Tracy or Manteca. Live closer to S.F. That is why you are moving away from Ohio, right???
Amen... Tracy is barely a step up from Ohio, so you (the original poster) may as well stay put. It's alright if you're looking for that kind of town, but it sounds like you want something more exciting & culture-rich - which wouldn't describe Tracy by a long shot. You might like the Peninsula or East Bay, which is close enough to the city for excitement, but more suburban & affordable in parts.

Quote:
You will live fat on $250K. You could buy a condo for under $700K probably.
Yes - you definitely can find a condo for less than $700K, especially if you're not limiting yourself to the CITY. My friend bought a condo in Santa Clara 4-5 years ago for $399K, and I think it's worth around $450-500K today. Daly City, South San Francisco & San Bruno are more affordable areas near the city, and I bet you can find something "cheaper" around there... also consider Pacifica, which is a beautiful and less-expensive town on the coast. Even in the city of SF you can find cheaper condos, if you're willing to go small and somewhat shady neighborhoods!
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Old 03-13-2008, 09:55 PM
 
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Hi, lurking here from another city forum...I lived in SF for years and now live in Silicon Valley (and was raised in Ohio!) I respectfully disagree with what some other people are saying. You can certainly live in SF and enjoy it on 250k, but it will be difficult to buy a house in a good school district for less than 700k. (I am assuming you may want to have kids one day.) Yes, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale are less expensive than SF, but they are also 1 hour+ from the city without traffic and don't have well-regarded school systems. (I used to live in Sunnyvale.) And that house you get, even there, won't be up to Ohio standards by a long shot. Real estate here is ridiculous. Many people have taken enormous risks to buy houses they can't really afford, and we see how that's turning out. That said, it's fun to live in SF before you have kids and when you are happy in an apartment, and prices are dropping (an article on Yahoo today said Bay Area prices are down 17% from peak.)
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Old 03-14-2008, 09:32 AM
 
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PS Some of the houses in Sunnyvale do get to use Cupertino schools, which is a good deal...but for me personally, I wouldn't have wanted to move cross-country to Sunnyvale if I could live in SF. I had major culture shock when we moved from SF to Sunnyvale and we moved again as soon as our lease was up.
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