Bay Area One Of The Worst Places for The Poor (San Francisco: low income, section 8)

[jade408]

Originally Posted by lmk1707

900 Second Ave, Pinole, CA 94564 | MLS# 40419420

75 TAYLOR Blvd, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 | MLS# 40484174

5811 ROBINHOOD Dr, El Sobrante, CA 94803 | MLS# 40499068

2345 Saxon St, Martinez, CA 94553 | MLS# 40492319

1122 E 5th St, Benicia, CA 94510 | MLS# 21031875

2 Hill Ct, Hercules, CA 94547 | MLS# 40488014

How about one of these places?

All of those are short sales or REOs. I agree those are probably around the right prices for those homes, who knows if the banks will approve.
Keep in mind if you had $250K to spend in Austin, Chicago, Denver, Portland, Atlanta or even Salt Lake City, you would get something much nicer.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by Parti Rhinocéros

Don't forget that although taxes are higher (save for property taxes), real estate costs more, etc, that the same jobs that people are paid for in many other states tend to get paid a lot more here. I'm not able to say that it evens out, but in many cases, it does.

Nah! That's generally a myth except for govt. jobs like police, fire, public transit etc. In private businesses particularly in high tech industries and biotech salaries in the bay area is at best marginally higher and does not even compensate for the high taxes.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by jade408

Keep in mind if you had $250K to spend in Austin, Chicago, Denver, Portland, Atlanta or even Salt Lake City, you would get something much nicer.

People here are so used to ghetto living conditions that they don't really know what an average nice house in rest of US looks like. People who live in SF also don't know what smooth pavement and sunny, warm day is like

[Mr. Fantastic]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

Nah! That's generally a myth except for govt. jobs like police, fire, public transit etc. In private businesses particularly in high tech industries and biotech salaries in the bay area is at best marginally higher and does not even compensate for the high taxes.

Plus Parti is simply wrong and uneducated about the COL Rating for the Bay Area. Tracking inflation since 1990, the Bay Area is on average six times more expensive to live in than the average U.S Metro.

You can't tell me a Lawyer, or a Doctor makes 6 times more on average in S.F than one does in Austin, Texas (because they don't).

[andyadhi01]

Here is a nice article about bay area..the most soulless, materialistic place on planet..
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/te...l?pagewanted=1

[lmk1707]

Originally Posted by jade408

All of those are short sales or REOs. I agree those are probably around the right prices for those homes, who knows if the banks will approve.
Keep in mind if you had $250K to spend in Austin, Chicago, Denver, Portland, Atlanta or even Salt Lake City, you would get something much nicer.

I just did a quick pull - I think it would be easy to negotiate down on on something worth more, as well, as a lot of places are selling for less than they're listing. Anyway, the idea was that certain salaries make 2x more here, so the equivalency in other places would be $125k.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

Here is a nice article about bay area..the most soulless, materialistic place on planet..
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/te...l?pagewanted=1

Interesting article...although I would hardly agree with you that the Bay Area is the most soulless, materialistic place on the planet. That's quite an exaggeration. The people in the article may be the norm in Palo Alto, Atherton, etc. but are not the norm for most of the Bay Area.

While there are sickeningly rich people living throughout the region, they by far don't represent the majority of residents here. It is pretty ridiculous how some of these "rich" people don't realize how well off they are. As much as I love many things about the Bay Area, even if I did strike it rich, I'd probably move somewhere else. It's amazing how far your money can go in other places. I live in a very basic, but well-kept neighborhood where houses start over $600k for the smallest ones and go up to about $800k...and this is relatively cheap for a safe neighborhood in the Bay Area with decent schools.
I can afford to rent here but could never afford to buy.
My father-in-law lives in Granite Bay (which is basically like the Los Gatos or Saratoga of the Sacramento area) and his home is currently only worth about $500k! It's in a very upscale, woodsy area next to numerous high-end gated communities, has great schools and is just minutes from Folsom Lake. Even in today's market, the Bay Area real estate prices are completely out of whack. My grandparents purchased their 1800 sq. ft. average ranch-style home in Almaden Valley brand new for $27k back in 1964 and it's now worth about $900k. Something is wrong here.

Unfortunately, I think that the gap between the rich and the poor in the Bay Area is only going to continue to grow as time progresses.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

Unfortunately, I think that the gap between the rich and the poor in the Bay Area is only going to continue to grow as time progresses.

Although wealth gap is a huge problem in the bay area the bigger problem is the general hopelessness and economic stagnancy/decline. There is very little upward mobility in this place. An immigrant from say Ethiopia can come to a big city in TX and with a few years of hard work in small jobs can actually afford to buy a house and live a decent life. This happens because of robust economy and low cost of living; things that make the 'American dream' a reality. This is simply not going to happen in bay area even if you are well educated high paid knowledge worker. So there is a general sense of unhappiness and hopelessness all over the place but if you go to say TX you can easily see how happy people are living there.

[llowllevellowll]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

Nah! That's generally a myth except for govt. jobs like police, fire, public transit etc. In private businesses particularly in high tech industries and biotech salaries in the bay area is at best marginally higher and does not even compensate for the high taxes.

I believe I quite clearly said that it doesn't in all cases even out. But it isn't a myth. I gave you 3-4 examples of occupations that I'm familiar with. Let's take for instance additional rent. I paid $600 per month for a very nice apartment complex in Ohio and $1100 per month for a comparable apartment in the Bay Area. That's $6k more per year in California than Ohio. In the examples I gave you, with the exception of my wife's modest $10k salary increase, each other example more than made up for additional rents and taxes.

Hey, I can't comment on everyone's situation - just my own. For us, we're making far more money than was possible in Ohio where if you think jobs are hard to come by in California, try Ohio.

Your experience can be different, but that's mine.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by Parti Rhinocéros

I believe I quite clearly said that it doesn't in all cases even out. But it isn't a myth. I gave you 3-4 examples of occupations that I'm familiar with. Let's take for instance additional rent. I paid $600 per month for a very nice apartment complex in Ohio and $1100 per month for a comparable apartment in the Bay Area. That's $6k more per year in California than Ohio. In the examples I gave you, with the exception of my wife's modest $10k salary increase, each other example more than made up for additional rents and taxes.

Your comments are probably true on the lower end of the income spectrum. Its not true for high end jobs. If a software engineer/biotech professional makes 80K say in TX they will make about say 90K here and maybe even not that much given how bad the job market is in CA. The only reason people come here is because there is a higher number of technology jobs in the bay area. And rent in the bay area is at least 3 times that of say DFW or Houston for a similar apartment.

In terms of quality of life DFW, Houston, Austin, DC, Boston metro areas are way ahead of bay area. Nice outdoors is a small part in quality of life. If you are working 60 hrs silicon valley work week having the wine country, hiking trails and beach in short distances is for all practical purposes useless!