Am I gonna renting the rest of my life on 85-90k a year ? (San Diego: quality of life, to live)

[bloom]

Originally Posted by Trekker99

Don't worry - Todd Gloria is going to wave his magic wand and housing will be affordable to all in San Diego.

He said so - he just has to be elected mayor and it'll be good!

I think two of the ballot proposals centered on Rent Control and Affordable Housing. I suggest to vote YES on them.
I'm preferring Gloria over BabsBry, the latter seems a la jolla NIMBY type but I could be wrong, and Gloria though an insider has shown commitment to SD over his career. And never-bob-filner.

[skeddy]

Originally Posted by C2BP

We are in the middle of pandemic with highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. Don’t you think rents and real estate prices should be crashing, DJI value should be cut in half? After initial drop back in March once again our FED came to rescue and reinflated the markets, cuting interest rates to ZERO. Back in 2008 they told us ZIRP would be a temporary policy, now for the rest of our existence we can never normalize interest rates without the crash or total economic collapse.

Without cheap money it’s all over for fake and phony real estate market and those overinflated prices. Remove cheap money, raise rates and real estate prices would correct 70% and more really quickly. You can’t have speculation in real estate with higher interest rates and strong US Dollar. You need cheep money and insane ZIRP policy for that.

lol......the bolded part is not true. It's 7.9% this month, it was 10.2% during Obama's first year in office. When the premise is wrong, I quit reading....

[bloom]

Originally Posted by stablegenius

St Petersburg Florida
Oklahoma City, OK
Tulsa, OK
Flagstaff, AZ
Boise, Idaho
Indianapolis, Indiana
Asheville, NC
Savannah, GA
to name a few.

There are other metros that have less traffic and just generally have a calmer feel to them. Most places in California do not have this feel. For example. St Petersburg, FL has beautiful new buildings and it's very clean, but you're not on top of people. Florida is busy in general, just like California, but it's easier to get away from people. In California it is very hard to get away from people unless you are in central or remote areas.

Decent list.
There is a place outside of Las Vegas, maybe in Utah that is popular, St George or something
I'd like to check out Boise one day, and Montana.
I have a bud in Asheville and seems good there - prob like SD as mixed politically.
St. Pete's (visited briefly in the late 1980s!) seems newish and unbearably humid hot during summer, like Savannah (never been), which has an old south feel (hopefully minus the racism).
I still think SD is quite reasonable and I have been in Boston, Seattle, NYC.
I like the PNW.

[stablegenius]

Originally Posted by bloom

Decent list.
There is a place outside of Las Vegas, maybe in Utah that is popular, St George or something
I'd like to check out Boise one day, and Montana.
I have a bud in Asheville and seems good there - prob like SD as mixed politically.
St. Pete's (visited briefly in the late 1980s!) seems newish and unbearably humid hot during summer, like Savannah (never been), which has an old south feel (hopefully minus the racism).
I still think SD is quite reasonable and I have been in Boston, Seattle, NYC.
I like the PNW.

I forgot to mention Utah, seems pretty quiet as well. My buddy and I once took a drive from Washington through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and down to Utah. I can't remember all the names of the places we saw, but some decent places along the way for sure.

[Racer46]

Originally Posted by C2BP

We are in the middle of pandemic with highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. Don’t you think rents and real estate prices should be crashing, DJI value should be cut in half? After initial drop back in March once again our FED came to rescue and reinflated the markets, cuting interest rates to ZERO. Back in 2008 they told us ZIRP would be a temporary policy, now for the rest of our existence we can never normalize interest rates without the crash or total economic collapse.

Without cheap money it’s all over for fake and phony real estate market and those overinflated prices. Remove cheap money, raise rates and real estate prices would correct 70% and more really quickly. You can’t have speculation in real estate with higher interest rates and strong US Dollar. You need cheep money and insane ZIRP policy for that.

The interest rate will not cause prices to drop. I bought a home in CA that had an interest rate of almost 8% and over the next few years it did not drop but home prices kept going up, then the interest rates dropped and they kept going up. Made no difference. The main issue is more people with money to buy than houses available. Then many Americans do not make enough and think price drop will help them. Nope, as it will help all the buyers and inventory will still be low. I just looked at a home for my brother in law and after just over 5 hours on the market the home had 3 offers and all over asking and .. all cash. It isn't interest rates, it is how many people have or make very good money and how salaries do not keep up with inflation, except of course for the upper management.

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by dg628

I’ve been working for a bigger electrical company that isn’t a big name yet. We do a lot of biotech and pharmaceutical/lab stuff. So we constantly have work and everyone says it’s a pretty good merit shop to work for. Plenty of OT but once you reach journeyman level after they send you to ABC (trade school) for your apprenticeship , your looking at low 40s/hr , you could move up to 45/hr ish as a journeyman but the real money won’t be until you make foreman.

If I stick with this company and stay in San Diego for the foreseeable future , will I ever be able to afford anything other than a $&@?hole studio ?

We’re working 56 hour weeks and the money adds up quick with OT but you can’t always depend on OT.

Yes.... save save save. You need to get real about your finances if you haven’t already. Make a monthly savings goal, that worked best for me. And you need to commit to aggressively cutting spending.

Get a side gig if you can, that will definitely help.

I honestly wouldn’t buy right now anyway even if I wanted to.. I would focus on building up sufficient savings for a down payment. Realize that it may take several years. Do the math, figure out how much you need to save, cut superfluous costs, figure how much you can realistically put away each month and figure out how long it will take. And commit to it. And get a high interest savings account. Make your money work for you.

Or you just move to a lower cost area... where all of the above advice equally applies but it may not take quite as long to get to where you need to be.

This year was a little weird but I make only a bit more than you and was able to put away nearly $20k in savings just by cutting costs and getting a side hustle. Yeah it sucks and you don’t have a life but if owning a house is what you want it’s going to be somewhat of a sacrifice.

[SDSurfer3]

The answer to the OP's question is yes. Unless you have DINK with each pulling down that salary, you'll be renting in the City of San Diego. You could buy in the county of SD, but you'll be far away from the coast. Best option is to buy something that will appreciate, build up equity and increase your salary. In 4 or 5 years, sell and move up the ladder.

[JohnAlt]

Originally Posted by Trekker99

Don't worry - Todd Gloria is going to wave his magic wand and housing will be affordable to all in San Diego.

He said so - he just has to be elected mayor and it'll be good!

I voted for a Democrat for the first time. Not him, but his opponent.

[JohnAlt]

Originally Posted by stablegenius

Boise, Idaho

I passed through Boise a couple years ago and it didn't seem more peaceful than here. It seemed a lot like here, minus the beach.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by dg628

I’ve been working for a bigger electrical company that isn’t a big name yet. We do a lot of biotech and pharmaceutical/lab stuff. So we constantly have work and everyone says it’s a pretty good merit shop to work for. Plenty of OT but once you reach journeyman level after they send you to ABC (trade school) for your apprenticeship , your looking at low 40s/hr , you could move up to 45/hr ish as a journeyman but the real money won’t be until you make foreman.

If I stick with this company and stay in San Diego for the foreseeable future , will I ever be able to afford anything other than a $&@?hole studio ?

We’re working 56 hour weeks and the money adds up quick with OT but you can’t always depend on OT.

Probably not. You'll either have to earn more or live like a college student and save like a demon for 2-3 years for good down payment.

Or you can marry someone who makes as much as you do.

Or you can move out of the area.

I know. You didn't want to hear any of that. But it's better to face reality than to live in denial or complain all the time.