Moving to Bay Area with 3 kids on $230K (Santa Clara, Vista: renting, mortgage)

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by fizbin

Yes, the homes are that expensive and they do sell near asking price. You may also be surprised at how little house/land you get for that money in areas with excellent public schools.

And personally I think the idea of having a live-in assist with the kids with a non-working wife seems like an extravagance that your income and desire for a relatively expensive home may not be able to support.

I second what this poster says. You will certainly be able to live decently on 230K, 3 kids or not. Most people in this area are not making that much despite having BOTH parents working (and we are talking college educated here).

That said, you will not be able to live the top notch lifestyle you desire on that income here in the Bay Area (at least not without living paycheck to paycheck or in debt over your eyeballs--and if the current financial crisis has not taught us what a bad idea that is, I do not know what will). The live in nanny does seem particularly extravagent given that your wife will not be working outside the home.

[batransplant]

We are in a similar situation as you regarding job relocation and no family/close friends in the area. It is challenging. Your wife should join a mothers club. I am not sure what the one in San Jose is called, but every area has one. This is how I found my part time child care help. You may also want to consider hiring an Au pair. They can work 45 hours per week, and cost around 250 per week plus room and board.

[coolwaves]

I had 2 kids 17 months apart with no family around to help and I tried both live in and live out help. I must say live out help is much better because you need your privacy and the help really needs time off away from child care.

It would be difficult to find a house that doesn't need upgrading in many good school districts (even with your salary) under $1M. I must say that with $230K in salary, you won't be able to afford too much luxuries if you bought a nice house in a good school district.

[AndrewSoss]

$230k, realistically, is just not all that much when you are trying to live in a home big enough for 3 kids plus a nanny in a good school district.

Something will likely have to give. You may want to consider an area with a good elementary school, but maybe not as great middle and high schools (Willow Glen and Silver Creek come to mind). This will keep the price of the home down a bit and give you 8-10 years to outgrow the nanny.

Otherwise, the thing that you will probably end up compromising on is the size/condition/updates of the house.

I wish you luck. Of course $230k sounds like a ton of income, but with 3 kids and education priorities, it doesn't go as far as most people think.

[moxiezbug]

Your kids won't go to school for a while. Why not just rent for now or live in a less expensive area until you don't need to pay for a nanny anymore?

[kittyhawk]

Originally Posted by AndrewSoss

I wish you luck. Of course $230k sounds like a ton of income, but with 3 kids and education priorities, it doesn't go as far as most people think.

I've never posted on any of the California forums but this thread grabbed my attention. A household income of 230K is in the top 3% of wage earners in the US. The claim that "230K doesn't go as far as many people think" is either a sign that something is seriously wrong with our "system" or that our expectations of life are just too high. Now, I'm not familiar with real estate values in the Bay Area and other cost of living expenses but the fact that your saying that a top 3% wage earner will just be able to get by is just plain crazy...

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by kittyhawk

I've never posted on any of the California forums but this thread grabbed my attention. A household income of 230K is in the top 3% of wage earners in the US. The claim that "230K doesn't go as far as many people think" is either a sign that something is seriously wrong with our "system" or that our expectations of life are just too high. Now, I'm not familiar with real estate values in the Bay Area and other cost of living expenses but the fact that your saying that a top 3% wage earner will just be able to get by is just plain crazy...

I guarantee you, while 230K is certainly well above average for the SF Bay Area, it is NOT as high as the top 3%.

I do think the OPs expectations are unrealistic (isn't that the human condition?). However, housing costs here are horrible. Indeed, there is something wrong with "the system" in many ways. We have lousy public schools compared to what we pay for them. And even the "good" schools are not that great compared with other developed countries.

We also have a lot of NIMBYs in California that block every new housing development possible in the name of environmentalism. Not to mention a tax structure that discourages development of new housing, thanks to Prop 13, passed in 1978. On the low end of the scale, our schools are fully of illegal immigrants, many of whom can't speak English, and a few even have parents who seem to think "bilingual education" means "Spanish only" (I have an acquantance who is a bilingual ed teacher who is frustrated by this attitude).

So, I think it's a combination of things being wrong with "the system" as well as unrealistic expectations on the part of individuals.

[aslowdodge]

If you are going to be traveling a lot and won't be in san jose in an office, you might want to try Pleasanton and north to the tri valley area. Home are a bit less and the schools are very good.

[ANIM]

$230k is what is considered to be average income for SV families (meaning both parents working at non executive, non entry level engineer positions in HiTech industry).

So with average income, you can only hope for average quality houses, meaning average quality schools. Note that I am talking about buying a house, not renting. Houses in good school areas start at 1mil, which is (with standard downpayment of %20) is well out of reach for $230k.

With cost of renting still well below cost of owning in SV, it is still possible to rent in top school areas for even lower income, provided one is not spending lavishly on other things.

Our childless household makes almost exactly twice this amount and we consider ourselves _at most_ upper middle class here and do not think we can afford houses in top school districts, even without things like live in help. If one does not own property here with substantial equity already, top school areas are affordable at executive level, having a good business or being lucky with stock options in good times, And good or bad, there are a lot of people like this in SV to sustain prices we have.


Just my 2cents

[NRaleigh Mom]

Unfortunately the people that are saying it shouldn't be a problem probably don't live in the Bay Area or are single people without kids. We lived there for many years making that kind of money and it was very difficult for us to live. Unless you have a very HEFTY down payment (From stock options, prior home sale, etc.) Cupertino, Los Altos etc. probably are not within your means unless you want to live in a 900sf condo because most single family homes are in excess of $1M. In fact $1M will usually get you a very old, small home that many people buy, tear down and then pay more $$ to build new. We once lived in Cupertino and my son went to Monta Vista High which was (and probably still is) one of the top ranked high schools. Asians/Indians specifically immigrated to these areas so they could send their children to these schools. The housing market went through the roof and is still very strong there. You will see that those areas are predominately Asian/Indian (Monta Vista's demographics show about 70%) and the schools are very competitive (news stories have been done about what they call "white flight" in these areas). I only point this out because to some this may (or may not) make a difference. We were very accustomed to living/working with all races and the competitive nature of Silicon Valley. However as we got older (and our children got older) we decided we wanted a slower pace lifestyle and one where we could live VERY comfortably...so we moved to North Carolina 3-1/2 years ago!