How do people afford to buy a house here? (Burbank: home sales, neighborhood)

[coolbeans2000]

Originally Posted by Pennychaser11

Most people don't. Most homeowners bought when housing was actually cheap in LA. Although 100K/yr is very good for your age it ain't much here in LA especially for west LA area. Being frugal is important but being smart with investment is more important it seems

Exactly

[coolbeans2000]

Originally Posted by NyWriterdude

Every large city needs a base of poor people to work in industries like retail, hospitality (restaurant, bar, hotel), construction, janitorial, sanitation, fire department, police, etc.

No idea why you included Fire Fighters. Here in California, their pay and benefits are incredible to the point that it is an outrage to expect tax payers to even pay for them.

When including incentive pay, pay outs, and overtime pay the AVERAGE California Fire Fighter brings home 125,100 dollars annually plus enjoys arguably the most lavish city/state employee retirement system in the world. Keep in mind, these are folks who work 3 days a week, rarely put out city structure fires anymore, and have skills sets that do not justify their salary when thousands of other well qualified applicants apply for these positions.

I maybe going wwaaaaaaayyyyy too far, but I can't help but compare their compensation to a Marine Sergeant Infantrymen at Twenty Nine Palms with over 8 years of active duty time, 3 tours in Afghanistan, plus all the hardships that come with the military service like repeated PCS moves gets less than 46,000 a year (that's even INCLUDING a housing allowance that they would have to forfeit to live on base). After moving their family all over the world throughout an entire career that service member's pension will be LESS than a quarter of that of a LA City Fire Fighter.

I can understand many radically differing points of view, but describing CA Fire Fighters as poor or under compensated is ludicrous.

http://www.sacbee.com/site-services/...le2573210.html

[LuvSouthOC]

Originally Posted by NyWriterdude

Every large city needs a base of poor people to work in industries like retail, hospitality (restaurant, bar, hotel), construction, janitorial, sanitation, fire department, police, etc. People doing these jobs do not come from well off upper middle class families.

Poor people moving to Vegas? And how many new poor people come to LA? Immigrants? Americans hoping to make it big?

In addition to the fact that firefighters are paid well, too well some might say, LA IS and has been, a target for poor immigrants. Surely you must have seen a few.

If many poor people are working in food service or not at all, these same poor people contribute little to this hungry-for-poor-people city machine you seem to be describing. Many, but not all, seem to merely be taking up space.

[jm1982]

If the poor are able to work somewhere and pay their own bills it's good...but if they are only able to live because of welfare/tax payer assistance that's not a good thing.

California has the highest poverty rate.
California Has Highest Rate Of Poverty In The Nation, According To U.S. Census Bureau

Yes every big city will have poor people..but it's not great to have the highest amount of poor people...especially since many are on some form of welfare and don't make enough to pay taxes .

[Pennychaser11]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Robert Kiyosaki (of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" fame) has said that in today's world "savers are losers". While it's good to save, savings should be put into great investments. The interest in the banks for years has been ridiculous, like 1% or less.

If you keep the money in the bank then you are losing money every year because we all know cost of living goes up more than 1% per year.

The rich don't work for money, they make their money work for them. They also leverage other people's money, time and efforts,etc .

I read his books early and really changed my perspective on investing/spending. I stopped buying liabilities like new cars every 3 years. Now I drive 90's cars and I love it. No car payments really frees up funds for investments and I get to buy assets that pay me dividends. I love real estate but I do not like CA real estate. Prices are crazy, doesn't make sense, and it will get worse mostly for renters. I took calculated risk with penny stock(WAMU bankruptcy) and made close to 20X my investment hence my screen name. My only regret was that I should've put that profit into DOW instead of my house. DOW was at 7000, but oh well I'm patiently waiting for next opportunity. My budget was stretched thin when I bought my house for $350K back in 2009 but I know my housing costs will only go lower and be eliminated in 20 yrs or so.

[botticelli]

Originally Posted by No_Recess

I'm on pace to make less than half that this year and I'm doing just fine.

Then again I don't live in a fantasy world where I believe I should be able to sleep my way thru a middle management job and still afford two cars, a 3,500 sq ft house, and go out to eat every night while living in L.A.

Well said.

It is stupid to say "if you are not rich or make $150k, don't move to/live in LA".

Let's be honest, Los Angeles is NOT a particularly expensive city, if you really compare it with peers of similar size and wealth. Food is affordable and housing is not cheap but not prohibitively expensive either.

Then why do you people complain it is so unaffordable? it is because they EXPECT all the nice things people have in small towns and cities, such a huge 3000sf house with two garages. You know what? People in other large cities don't have that either - ask residents of Paris, or Tokyo or Singapore or Sydney, no, they can't afford such luxury either.

here are lists of global cities comparable to LA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city

Do I even need to compare car and gas price with that in Japan, France or Australia? Do you own math.

Anyone who complains that LA is expensive is delusional. I have more than a couple of friends who live there with combined household income less than $100,000 and they are living just fine. I never heard them complain about the cost of living once. Instead, they are able to travel internationally every year. Why? because they live in modest apartments, drive 10 year corollas, and don't splurge on fancy dinners and night life on a regular basis. They never buy $150 clothes or get the newest Iphone every time there is a new model. They wisely accumulate airlines mileage to travel in the future. They don't subscribe to $120 a month premium cable TV packages, and they don't have a $4 latte every single morning.

The problem with many people is that they are so f8cking spoiled and constantly have the need to pamper themselves with nice things. How the hell does a $100,000 BMW really provide a better QoL than a $18000 corolla? No, it doesn't. It is nothing but vanity. And why the hell does everyone think they absolutely NEED a single family detached house with 4 bedroom (2 of which are vacant for 300 days of year)? People elsewhere don't have them too, and why do you think you are entitled to it?

Give me US$60,000 a year, and I will be able to live comfortably in Los Angeles. If you can't, there is something wrong with the way you spend money, not with the city.

[909er]

Give me US$60,000 a year, and I will be able to live comfortably in Los Angeles. If you can't, there is something wrong with the way you spend money, not with the city.

Yeah well you keep living like a peasant, with your lack of standards and drive then. Some people have expectations and expect it all. I, for one, did not go to school with the expectation of graduating and still living the way I did before, "without lattes".

[jm1982]

Good points.

There is a different way of doing things in other countries. Doesn't make it right or wrong though.
I remember this one guy that was from Europe originally pointing out that in Europe everyone has a small little fridge, but in America everyone seems to have a big one.

In Paris also ,I've heard that people view public space differently. I've been there before but it was a long time ago.
The street is viewed a kind of an extension of their private space.
Paris is a more walkable city than L.A and also has an extensive metro system.

If you are out in the streets more and enjoying public spaces, it makes sense that you don't need as much space.
In L.A it's different . L.A is more a car culture.

Also regarding the airlines miles. There are ways to pretty easily get free flights even internationally pretty often with pretty little effort. Lot's of credit cards have big signup bonuses .
There are many people that even seem to fly first class regularly for practically nothing ...although some of the programs have changed.

There are also even credit cards that give you free nights at fancy resort hotels too..or can be used for multiple nights at less fancy places.
If you use credit cards anyways and pay them off...might as well get something for it if you have good credit.
Not recommended to sign up for too many cards at once if you are applying for a big loan or something
But even with a few cards in a year there can be quite a few perks.

[909er]

Dave Ramsey.

[JohnG72]

Botticelli,

The crux of why people are complaining is in the title of this thread. Buying a house in Los Angeles metro is very expensive. The cheapest 3/2 sfr that are not in the hood are $350-450k and limited to only a few cities which generally involve at least a 35-45 minute morning commute to major job centers. Most of the more desirable middle class areas start in the high 500's to buy an aging small sfr.

I agree that it's relatively affordable to rent. I think people view renting as "throwing money away" when it's actually simply a life cost for everyone. So someone of that mind set sees $1500-2000 a month as a house payment, where there's actually few areas in LA where that is a house payment on a currently purchased house. To mortgage a house in most of LA, even with 20% down and current minimal Interest rates is almost always going to be $2500/mo and up.

Also, there's a floor on rents in LA which is around $850-1000/mo for a small studio or 1 bed in a decent area and you have to have a income of about $40-45k/yr to support that.

So basically middle class is shut out of mortgaging homes in LA Metro and the working class are confined to living in hood areas. And that's why people are complaining. I personally think people are kinda short sighted.