Don’t make $235,000? Good luck buying a home in the Bay Area (San Jose: income, living in)

[Vision67]

California house payment hits record $4,332 a month

Median price of $838,260 in June is sixth-highest

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/07...mauram202pw03e

"Buzz: California’s homebuying is comparatively frozen as sales run near record lows because a typical buyer’s house payment hit $4,332, a record high.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed the June homebuying report for existing single-family houses, crafted by the California Association of Realtors, and included 33 years of history for perspective.

Fuzzy math: How can prices be rising when few are buying? Or is it, who can afford to buy with mortgage rates and prices so high?"

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by Vision67

California house payment hits record $4,332 a month

Median price of $838,260 in June is sixth-highest

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/07...mauram202pw03e

"Buzz: California’s homebuying is comparatively frozen as sales run near record lows because a typical buyer’s house payment hit $4,332, a record high.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed the June homebuying report for existing single-family houses, crafted by the California Association of Realtors, and included 33 years of history for perspective.

Fuzzy math: How can prices be rising when few are buying? Or is it, who can afford to buy with mortgage rates and prices so high?"

Nothing fuzzy at all about it. Low inventory and the ones that are buying are paying market price. Why is this so hard for you to understand?

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by BayAreaResiding

Bay Area is overrated. LA is way better than the Bay Area , and some nice suburbs are decently affordable.

Disagree. The Bay Area is a highly desirable place to live for a myriad of reasons. Climate and scenic beauty being a big part of it

[mattja]

Originally Posted by blameyourself

Disagree. The Bay Area is a highly desirable place to live for a myriad of reasons. Climate and scenic beauty being a big part of it

The L.A. area certainly has a superior recreation profile.

Beaches and oceans you can use without a wetsuit.
Those centrally located can ski and surf on the same day.
Mountains and desert.

The Bay Area has freezing ocean water and hills. No mountains, no desert.

The Bay Area is beautiful. In many ways prettier than SoCal, but if you want a varied environment, SoCal has more to offer.

[ssmaster]

Originally Posted by mattja

The L.A. area certainly has a superior recreation profile.

Beaches and oceans you can use without a wetsuit.
Those centrally located can ski and surf on the same day.
Mountains and desert.

The Bay Area has freezing ocean water and hills. No mountains, no desert.

The Bay Area is beautiful. In many ways prettier than SoCal, but if you want a varied environment, SoCal has more to offer.

It’s too hot in tHe summer, not as many walkable desirable neighborhoods, traffic is awful

[mattja]

Originally Posted by ssmaster

It’s too hot in tHe summer, not as many walkable desirable neighborhoods, traffic is awful

We've had 110-degree summer days where I live in Central Contra Costa, similar to the hottest days around Los Angeles. The beach areas are cooler, of course, just like the Bay Area.

There are plenty of walkable areas, even in LA.

San Francisco does not represent the SF Bay Area any more than Los Angeles represents the entirely of LA County.

[Vision67]

Less home for more money: Home prices rise as buyers swallow higher interest rates

Bay Area prices rose 6.6% while sales declined nearly 24%

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/10...nterest-rates/

"Mortgage rates, at their highest level in 23 years, also have discouraged would-be sellers from trading up their homes, creating tight supply. The lack of inventory has pushed up prices for a second month in a row. The median home price in the nine-county Bay Area hit $1.3 million in September, a 6.6% increase from a year earlier, according to new data from the California Association of Realtors.

“We have an extreme lack of inventory here, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon,” said Jim Hamilton, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors and an agent with Compass in Los Gatos."

"Sellers, too, complain that despite prices rebounding in recent months, they haven’t been able to fetch the high prices seen when interest rates were lower, said Ana Mernik Bohra, an agent with Christie’s International Real Estate Sereno in Santa Clara County.

“Both the buyers and sellers feel like they’re getting the short end of the stick,” she said."

[blameyourself]

I still laugh at the title of this thread and how it's suppose to invoke shock and awe for the reader.

The average home price in San Francisco is roughly $1.3 million. Should I be surprised by this? It's simple math. Anyone who is not an established homeowner in San Francisco would need to do this... this is not rocket science

[NW4me]

Originally Posted by mattja

The L.A. area certainly has a superior recreation profile.

Beaches and oceans you can use without a wetsuit.
Those centrally located can ski and surf on the same day.
Mountains and desert.

The Bay Area has freezing ocean water and hills. No mountains, no desert.

The Bay Area is beautiful. In many ways prettier than SoCal,
but if you want a varied environment, SoCal has more to offer.

It depends what you're looking for.

I don't surf or ski, but I like to hike, and the Bay area has some great offerings.
Point Reyes National Seashore and Mt Tamalpais State Park are my favorites.
It's true that the "mountains" up here are small compared to those in southern CA,
but they're also greener.... hence more scenic IMHO... Mt Tam even has redwoods!

OTOH, if you want a more alpine environment, then So Cal wins,
with Mts Baden-Powell, Baldy, San Jacinto, San Gorgonio, etc.
Bay people would have to travel all the way to the Sierras
to see peaks of that scale.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by NW4me

It depends what you're looking for.

I don't surf or ski, but I like to hike, and the Bay area has some great offerings.
Point Reyes National Seashore and Mt Tamalpais State Park are my favorites.
It's true that the "mountains" up here are small compared to those in southern CA,
but they're also greener.... hence more scenic IMHO... Mt Tam even has redwoods!

OTOH, if you want a more alpine environment, then So Cal wins,
with Mts Baden-Powell, Baldy, San Jacinto, San Gorgonio, etc.
Bay people would have to travel all the way to the Sierras
to see peaks of that scale.

Hiking is good in the Bay Area. Point Reyes is so far from a lot of the urban Bay Area cores though I barely consider it the Bay Area. It could easily take 2-3 hours to get there from SF, even more from the peninsula, east bay or south bay.

Surfing in the Bay Area is generally bigger than SoCal too, but wind is more problematic here. Only Santa Cruz (is that even the Bay Area?), Bolinas, and Ano Nuevo have shelter from the howling onshore NW winds that trash the surf far too often. But when the elements align it can be awesome. No breaks in SoCal have the same size consistency as breaks like Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

Skiing you have to go a solid 5 hours for here. I rarely bother honestly. One little known fact though is you can see snow some years as low as 3000 feet so basically an hour past Roseville or occasionally mount Hamilton. I took my kid sledding this year in Dutch Flatsnand it was fun.