How on earth do people afford to buy in SF? (rant) (Oakland: rent, mortgage)

[checkup]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

Pretty much.

Also rents are in the stratosphere. One of my units in South Beach 1br/1bath, I was able to rent it out for over $4,000/month and had 30+ applications. S.F needs to build upward basically, like Manhattan.

Lol. 4k/month is hefty even now in SF. Most postings in that range are these corporate furnished short-term rentals. So were you amused by all the applicants? What were most of them like? Were they mostly couples?

[AngusHsu]

Three common reasons to move up the housing market and go from an apartment to a shack to something decent:

1. Meet the demands of the modern labor market- cloud computing, mobile apps, patent lawyer, etc. This takes a lot of education, hard work, and some luck. Managers at Fortune 500 companies make a lot- easily over 150,000 in some departments.

2. Buy at the bottom. Many single family homes in SF were going for under 500,000 in 2009. It is fairly obvious that we are in a bubble right now.

3. Save a lot- you don't need all the latest smartphones and tablets

[EdJS]

I know a few people who own homes in nice areas of San Francisco. Every single one of them got rich through stock options during the tech boom of the late 90s. Without exception.

[eastbayhopeful]

Originally Posted by irishman_irl

One issue with anything in my price range is that it looks like I can only afford apartments with very high HOA fees.....seems like you either pay a higher purchase price initially or pay more over the long term via crazy HOA dues.

I still would like to figure out how people are buying houses in the 900k+ range (which gets nothing too fancy in SF), it would seem that a household would need an income of roughly $250k a year to be able to buy at this price point, which is at the lower end of the house price scale in the city....do you think is somewhat accurate? Does $200 - $250k a year seem normal / achievable / crazy to you - in terms of household income?

You would be surprised. I work in the mortgage industry and the majority of our clients make over 100k, and a lot are in the 200k - 300k range. I have a purchase going right now on an 850k property and the borrowers make under six figures but they received a hefty down payment gift from the wife's parents. I've only dealt with one client in SF proper and he actually bought a 4-plex and fixed his unit up to his liking while renting the other three. I wouldn't recommend this though, the financing was a complete nightmare and he made over 100k a year.

I am much more familiar with the Marin real estate market which is insane as is, I can't imagine how tough it must be in SF. Good luck and don't give up - and start working on getting pre-approved for a mortgage sooner rather than later!

[ssmaster]

make $200,000+/year
don't travel or buy nice cars.
don't have children.
inherit or have family gift you a down payment.

piece of cake.

[California Vagabond]

Everything in San Francisco is pricey, but most of the attention seems to go to the ritziest parts of the city. There are still neighborhoods here where SFRs are relatively affordable. (With a big emphasis on 'relatively')

I gather that the only real estate site I'm permitted to link to here is realtor.com I think there are better online resources, but try 'advanced search' on realtor.com, and see what's available.

The Sunset district, Crocker Amazon, Excelsior, Portola, Visitacion Valley (at least several blocks away from Sunnydale) are unglamorous but perfectly livable neighborhoods. The "OMI" -- Oceanside, Merced Heights and Ingleside -- also includes some nice blocks, although I'm leery of some stretches right next to the M line.

The homes in the 400K range are mostly in the Bay View. I've done some walking around there and didn't think the vibe was objectionable, but will have to defer to forum regulars here who think the Bay View should be avoided. They know it better than I do.

Outside of the Bay View, SFR prices in the other neighborhoods named above can be had between 450K - 700K, with houses in the Sunset district at the top of that range. Many of them will be fixers, and many of the houses recently have been selling for tens of thousands -- in some cases, more than $100,000 -- over list price. That's a bleak picture ... but still not as bleak as you might imagine by reading only the articles on SF Gate about the most sought after zip codes here.

[alliance]

It's all supply and demand. Simple as that. I'm single, make over 200k and can easily afford a nice place. But the supply just isn't there, so I can't buy anything. And once something comes up, there's a bidding war with 10 others in the same position, pushing things 100-150k over listing. It's insane, and somewhat depressing. But alas, you're not the only one who wants to live in San Francisco, so be prepared to outspend others for that privilege.

[checkup]

Originally Posted by alliance

It's all supply and demand. Simple as that. I'm single, make over 200k and can easily afford a nice place. But the supply just isn't there, so I can't buy anything. And once something comes up, there's a bidding war with 10 others in the same position, pushing things 100-150k over listing. It's insane, and somewhat depressing. But alas, you're not the only one who wants to live in San Francisco, so be prepared to outspend others for that privilege.

the main thing is that supply has been artificially constrained by restrictive zoning, regulations, and approval/permit process

[Ruth4Truth]

SF is like NYC: people don't buy houses, they buy apartments. Unless they buy a house that's already divided into apartments, and they can rent out the other units and have renters pay the mortgage.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by irishman_irl

Just reading this article about the new-rich choosing to live in the mission district: Valentine’s Day miracle? Mission District poised to be SF’s most desired neighborhood | On The Block | an SFGate.com blog

I have no idea how people buy houses in SF, I am a software engineer & married....doubt I could afford anything over 300k...maybe 350k at a push. In other-words my maximum budget is no more than a deposit on these properties.....seems like no matter how hard or long I work, I will never be able to afford a modern / kind-of-cool house like the ones featured in the article....or much else for that matter.

I would love to live here long term, but at some point I need to start building equity / stop wasting cash on rent.

These home prices are pushing a million $.....it might as well be a billion as far as I'm concerned, it feels like a hopeless situation as far as owning a house is concerned.

Has anyone else been in this situation / managed to get onto the property ladder in SF with a "budget"?

There is only one way... By spending family money. My real estate agent told me that vast majority of buyers here are young who get money from their parents to buy property here. This is trust fund capital USA and not a place for hard working people..