Anyone considering leaving Bay Area to raise a family? (rental, mortgage)

[DriveInsAndMaltShops]

Originally Posted by aslowdodge

I moved from Pleasanton in the Bay Area to Marietta ga.
In my home town I couldn't afford a home. Here I just bought a 5000 sq ft beautiful home. My mortgage is $1849 a month. The equivalent home in the Bay Area the mortgage would be about $10,000 a month. Lots of amenities, everything I ever needed in ca is here. Good schools too.

I bought my first home in half moon bay while working minimum wage in 1958. I’m not sure why you had so much trouble.

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by DriveInsAndMaltShops

I bought my first home in half moon bay while working minimum wage in 1958. I’m not sure why you had so much trouble.

Well maybe you can help me. I've seen your posts popping up all over and frankly you are living in the past.
You have a real disconnect to today
Let's hit reset and have you working as a clerk today , not a gazillion years ago. Let's take your salary say 70k a year as a clerk and you can show me how you buy a modest 3/2 house in Pleasanton for 1 million. Show me how the numbers work. I'd like to know the secret to this as would many others who work full time and can't afford a house.
Please don't make it vague and tell the same story who keep posting on other threads about someone you knew who bought a 1000 acres in the San Jose area a long time ago and made a lot of money off of it then tell everyone to find their 1000 acres while preaching hard work is the American way.

[DriveInsAndMaltShops]

Originally Posted by aslowdodge

Well maybe you can help me. I've seen your posts popping up all over and frankly you are living in the past.
You have a real disconnect to today
Let's hit reset and have you working as a clerk today , not a gazillion years ago. Let's take your salary say 70k a year as a clerk and you can show me how you buy a modest 3/2 house in Pleasanton for 1 million. Show me how the numbers work. I'd like to know the secret to this as would many others who work full time and can't afford a house.
Please don't make it vague and tell the same story who keep posting on other threads about someone you knew who bought a 1000 acres in the San Jose area a long time ago and made a lot of money off of it then tell everyone to find their 1000 acres while preaching hard work is the American way.

I can’t tell you how to live your life, you refuse to listen to my advice involving hard work or dedication. I had my thousand acres and so did ultra runner. Neither of us can tell you something that only you can know.

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by DriveInsAndMaltShops

I can’t tell you how to live your life, you refuse to listen to my advice involving hard work or dedication. I had my thousand acres and so did ultra runner. Neither of us can tell you something that only you can know.

Well you are obviously a troll. You need to stick to your same lies as you are losing track. You said you went to Berkeley and after graduation became a clerk?
Ha ha . . . Loser.

[Independentthinking]

Originally Posted by aslowdodge

Well maybe you can help me. I've seen your posts popping up all over and frankly you are living in the past.
You have a real disconnect to today
Let's hit reset and have you working as a clerk today , not a gazillion years ago. Let's take your salary say 70k a year as a clerk and you can show me how you buy a modest 3/2 house in Pleasanton for 1 million. Show me how the numbers work. I'd like to know the secret to this as would many others who work full time and can't afford a house.
Please don't make it vague and tell the same story who keep posting on other threads about someone you knew who bought a 1000 acres in the San Jose area a long time ago and made a lot of money off of it then tell everyone to find their 1000 acres while preaching hard work is the American way.

Honestly, I think the disconnect is with people thinking things should be handed to them. Your example won't fly as most banks have a 43% debt to income ratio on mortgage loans. It's also unrealistic as no one should be starting off at that level.

We have historically low interest rates right now. When my wife and I were buying, the interest rate was 9%. I posted this in the other thread and gave the comparison with a current rate of 3.5% and there isn't really all that much difference between when we bought and now. And the formula is pretty much the same. You stay at home and work initially (both of us were also taking classes in school at the same time). You save up for the downpayment so you don't incur PMI. You make sure you don't have any debt so you're focusing on a mortgage and minimal cost on utilities. Your modest cars are paid off and you make sure they're good on gas mileage. Everything gets streamlined (all the way down to a cheap cell phone that you use for a phone). You brown bag every day. You don't have children. And you look for a more modest home to start off with. And you work your way up.

Why this is so hard for people to understand is beyond me. But if I had to guess, I think these very basic things are tough for people to accept as they're all about "wants" instead of "needs".

This was pretty much how everyone I knew bought their homes back in the 90s. Obviously there were some who's parents helped them out with a downpayment. But the majority took this route. If you weren't lucky enough to have that situation, what can I say. Sorry. You'll have to find a more creative way to do it (perhaps buying a house with roommates, building up equity, and then selling and getting your own). I have actually seen some couples go in together on a home. Although I'm going to assume this isn't about you, but a general question on how it would be done (and I think you knew the answer but got into it with the other poster).

[rodentraiser]

Originally Posted by DriveInsAndMaltShops

I bought my first home in half moon bay while working minimum wage in 1958. I’m not sure why you had so much trouble.

Geez, how I would've love to have done that. There's just a couple small problems, though. One, I was only three years old, and two, I don't how to time travel.

[checkup]

Originally Posted by DriveInsAndMaltShops

I can’t tell you how to live your life, you refuse to listen to my advice involving hard work or dedication. I had my thousand acres and so did ultra runner. Neither of us can tell you something that only you can know.

if your posts -- which say 1 of the same 5 things over and over again (thousand acres, 1958, paper boy in Atherton, minimum wage clerk who now owns 6 multimillion properties in the Bay Area) -- are serious, you need a reality check.

if your posts are trolling, it's pretty funny actually -- please continue

[twiggidy]

Look, let's talk about today, not 1958.

First off, as said in a previous post, some of which I'll agree with, there are certain choices that must be made if you're going to buy just about anywhere in the Bay Area. You definitely need to have your debt in order, ie, next to zero so you can dedicate money to a down payment. That means a functional cheap car with good gas mileage as was said about. Forget about the BMW payment. Children is also a choice. Kids cost money and that's money that goes towards your down payment.
If we take the median cost in the Bay Area, which is like 742k, that means you need about a 150k downpayment. That's just to have the bank even talk to you seriously. Not to mention the annual property tax that would be about 7k, homeowners insurance, the mortgage itself, plus closing cost to buy the house. Banks want you to have 3-6 months of expenses in SAVINGS to even close (that's not money you're supposed to be able to spend. that's SAVED money in addition to all the other money involved with the sale) Mortgage on a 594k loan is like 2800/mth.

So yeah, it's pretty damn expensive for a "average" Bay Area home and that's only one side.....

A family of four (2 parents and 2 kids I assume that's what they mean) with an income of 105k is low income in some counties. I think some East Bay counties that drops to 95k. Anyway, let's say you make 80k and you're just a couple, because remember those 2 kids cost extra money. I think it's close to 6700 a month so you could afford that mortgage, but you need to save that 150k first and have about 10-20k in extra savings. Barring no other debts it's still going to take you a while to save that money.

This is a reason why many life long New Yorkers for example are renters.

So to sum up for the OP, personally, if I were going to raise a family, I would probably consider moving. That's just me. But I also don't have strong ties to the Bay Area. I'd like to have the possibility of ownership and to put my kid through a good school without necessarily having to chuck out the expense of private school, but having it as an option because my house or saving for a house isn't killing me. I just watched someone I know fight for a house in Oakland and finally got it but with help for at least half the downpayment and they had some sort of deal with the seller to use a specific bank to avoid a lot of red tape.

I think when we see people buying homes around here, especially young couples, we underestimate their salaries and also FAMILY MONEY. There's a lot of family money that's being thrown around at these homes. Also foreign money is a big thing. I'd say almost any offer that beats you out and is a cash offer is likely tied to rich people or rich families overseas.


my 2 ct

[DriveInsAndMaltShops]

Originally Posted by aslowdodge

Well you are obviously a troll. You need to stick to your same lies as you are losing track. You said you went to Berkeley and after graduation became a clerk?
Ha ha . . . Loser.

I know you’ve read my other replies. If you did you’d know “my thousand acres” is an expression .

[DriveInsAndMaltShops]

Originally Posted by rodentraiser

Geez, how I would've love to have done that. There's just a couple small problems, though. One, I was only three years old, and two, I don't how to time travel.

I guess you need to find a way to leverage or gain new skills to make more money.