Your Bay Area Real Estate refugee stories (San Jose, San Francisco: renting, condo)

[candalf]

We have a great life in the Bay Area. Loving family, good friends and a well paid tech job (which sometimes is even fun). Outdoor opportunities to die for. Open, diverse culture that keeps inspiring.

Yet we are getting to that age when endless renting starts to get old. Letting savings just sit in a bank and be nibbled away by inflation starts to feel highly irresponsible.

And yet even in our relatively good economic position we don't have much to look to in the way of getting our own place. Condo in Concord or Hercules seems like the best we can count on without ridiculously overextending ourselves. And that just feels a little discouraging, to put it mildly.

Other major tech hubs, such as Seattle or Boston are *significantly* more promising than here, at least according to Zillow. And those are the expensive cities in the US. Portland, Denver or Minneapolis, for example, are pure welfare, compared to the Bay.

So are there any folks here, who like us, put down their roots here and built good lives only to escape to a cheaper part of the country in the end? How did it work out for you? What were the good and the bad parts of the experience? Was it worth it in the end?

Thanks for sharing!

[aslowdodge]

Friends and family are extremely important. Base on what you posted I would suck it up and do the condo in Concord. If values go up and you save you might be able to leverage into a home.
I moved to Atlanta and it worked out great for me.
My friend in his mid 30's worked for Cisco and always rented in San Jose and never knew his neighbors-people kept to themselves. He got a move with Cisco to Raleigh NC. same pay. Immediately bought a beautiful 3500 sq ft new home and became friends with neighbors. A few years later he gets a raise to work for Amazon. His wife also got into Vet school whereas in Ca it was impossible plus more expensive.
He sometimes has to come back to the Bay Area and now he can compare the two places. He says he would never move back to the Bay Area. He is contemplating moving to another city just to try something different like maybe Seattle, but Ca is definitely a no go for him now.

[JJonesIII]

Candalf,

A very good question but I doubt you'll be successful getting a lot of comments on it here. From my observation, whenever someone makes a comment saying how much more they like somewhere else, either on this forum or the CA forum, they're treated to a variety of attacks by posters who can't imagine anyone finding joy outside of the area (it's a sensitive group). You might want to go to the individual forums of areas you are considering moving to, and ask the question there (just rephrasing to "has anyone moved here that used to live in the SF Bay Area?").

I will tell you that I've had many co-workers who have moved to the Austin area and they just rave about it, and the superior COL. One of them always felt SF was much too cold for him and says Austin can get oppressively hot during the summer months, but the other 8 to 8 1/2 months of the year have far superior weather than SF. The gas prices there run about $1.25 less per gallon. When I visited him, I don't think we ever paid more than $70 for a nice dinner, and most ranged from $30-$60 for a meal for two. His house was 2 1/2x bigger, with every modern convenience, and he paid 1/3 the price of San Francisco.

[dozener]

Moved to Austin and it's been an all-around great move. Overall life is just comfy here. I think Austin and the other big Texas cities may have the best salary/COL ratios in the country, it's unbelievable compared to CA

[Dapper Zoom]

Originally Posted by candalf

We have a great life in the Bay Area. Loving family, good friends and a well paid tech job (which sometimes is even fun). Outdoor opportunities to die for. Open, diverse culture that keeps inspiring.

Yet we are getting to that age when endless renting starts to get old. Letting savings just sit in a bank and be nibbled away by inflation starts to feel highly irresponsible.

And yet even in our relatively good economic position we don't have much to look to in the way of getting our own place. Condo in Concord or Hercules seems like the best we can count on without ridiculously overextending ourselves. And that just feels a little discouraging, to put it mildly.

Other major tech hubs, such as Seattle or Boston are *significantly* more promising than here, at least according to Zillow. And those are the expensive cities in the US. Portland, Denver or Minneapolis, for example, are pure welfare, compared to the Bay.

So are there any folks here, who like us, put down their roots here and built good lives only to escape to a cheaper part of the country in the end? How did it work out for you? What were the good and the bad parts of the experience? Was it worth it in the end?

Thanks for sharing!

Some good questions and observations in your post. Yes, the Bay Area has a lot to offer, but it all comes at a cost. I think you have other options with your savings then letting it sit in a bank and be nibbled away by inflation, but for many it is not possible to buy a home in the Bay Area.

I personally do not think owning a home is always the best option. Long term renting can make more sense in certain ares and situations.

It sounds like you are entering into a "settling down" phase of life. Not necessarily slowing down but putting down some deeper roots in an area where you plan to stay. One of the problems in the Bay Area, IMO, is that very few people you meet are in that mode. Most of them know they will be leaving when they decide to have kids or buy property. That changes the social science and dynamic quite a bit. Other parts of the country where the majority are homeowners or longer term residents have a much different character.

I have friends that have relocated to Portland after having a Happy lives in SF and they are happier in Portland. The same goes for Boise. If you check the forums for Austin, Boise, Portland, etc. you will often find threads full of NIMBYs from those towns complaining that so many Californians are moving in and changing the character of "their" cities.

I myself am considering a move from SF, but only for financial reasons. If I were to win the lottery, I'd probably stay at least for a while. I think as I got older the "lack of roots" thing might get to me and I may decide to leave anyways.

[Hemlock140]

Our move was not based on finances, we owned a home in Castro Valley and had good jobs. We came up here to the Seattle area to vacation and visit family and just loved it, with everything green even in summer. At the same time I had reached a dead end at work, with no one above me retiring for at least 10 years, so we decided to make the move. As it turned out there was a good financial advantage as we sold our house, and for the same amount here, got one twice as big, 2.5 x larger lot, and half the age. Our city of Sammamish is probably similar to Lafayette, but without a commercial downtown, just a couple of small strip malls. Overall we have been very happy in our 25 years here, especially with the weather. Lots of rain, just enough snow to be fun, and only hot in July and August. Even then normally not more than 85 (but this year it's been in the low 90s for a couple of weeks). We still like the Bay Area and go back to visit family and friends a couple of times a year, but have no regrets about the move. This area has grown greatly since we moved here, as has the cost of living and the traffic, but still way behind the bay area and not likely to catch up. Our house was $199k in 1993, now Zillow shows it at $866k. If it were in the East Bay it would be closer to $1.4 million.