Ok. So what if rents WEREN'T sky high?

[jade408]

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

The thing is, you have to look at the whole picture. What were the salaries 11 years ago?

I remember when gas went up to the outrageous price of 33 cents per gallon, around 1972 or so, during the gas shortage crisis. I had a job at the time at minimum wage, (high school) which was $1.65/hour.

You can't just say, wow, rents were so cheap 11 years ago, and now they're terrible.

What's the average salary for a tech worker in SF now? You see, it's all relative.

Nope, housing prices in the Bay Area are far more ridiculous than they were a decade ago. There are very few moderately priced areas, and most are pretty inconvenient to lots of job centers.

People with household incomes of $160k-250k can't afford 3 bedroom homes (condo or otherwise) in decent to good school districts near work. (I have plenty of friends in this boat).

[Bisaro TMF]

Originally Posted by jade408

Nope, housing prices in the Bay Area are far more ridiculous than they were a decade ago. There are very few moderately priced areas, and most are pretty inconvenient to lots of job centers.

People with household incomes of $160k-250k can't afford 3 bedroom homes (condo or otherwise) in decent to good school districts near work. (I have plenty of friends in this boat).

I told people on here that and was accused of "Living above my means" and trying to keep up with the Jones's.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Bisaro TMF

I told people on here that and was accused of "Living above my means" and trying to keep up with the Jones's.

Well, have you made necessary adjustments since receiving sage advice from CD's expert panel? Or still living above your means?

[Bisaro TMF]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Well, have you made necessary adjustments since receiving sage advice from CD's expert panel? Or still living above your means?

I took everybody who said that's advice and we defaulted on my wife's Medical School Loans, Took our kids out of Day Care, got rid of our car, stopped paying all bills like rent, electric, garbage, Insurance etc. Now we are doing great!

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Bisaro TMF

I took everybody who said that's advice and we defaulted on my wife's Medical School Loans, Took our kids out of Day Care, got rid of our car, stopped paying all bills like rent, electric, garbage, Insurance etc. Now we are doing great!

Perfect! Good to hear

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by jade408

People with household incomes of $160k-250k can't afford 3 bedroom homes (condo or otherwise) in decent to good school districts near work. (I have plenty of friends in this boat).

Well, your friends are restricting themselves with the "good school district" aspect. There are lots of locations that are great places to live and very safe but aren't necessarily in a good school district. The penthouse at The 88s in downtown San Jose costs over 1 million dollars. But it isn't in a "good school district". What about saving money on the location, and if it is so important, drive their kids to a private school? Einstein didn't go to a good elementary school. He had to take more math because he couldn't make it into college the first time. He seemed to turn out okay in the end, though. I'm sure a lot of people working at Google, Facebook etc didn't go to a good school district.

Trulia only lists 17 houses under $800,000 in Almaden, but they list 256 in south San Jose.

Regardless, I do agree with the general point; there is demand for more housing in the Bay Area. We should build it.

It wouldn't be single family homes, though. You can only put so many of those in a given land area. Eventually you have to build high density.

[Ultrarunner]

Good Schools can be elusive... know folks that have gone full circle in search of them.

Sold their beautiful Oakland Hills home and moved to Orinda only to be unhappy with Orinda schools and now have their kids attend a private school in Oakland...

Same for people that sent their kids to Jensen Ranch in Castro Valley... they now send their kids to Private in Oakland... both to secular private schools.

Then their are kids the live in San Francisco, Dublin, Pleasanton, etc that send their kids to Bishop O'Dowd Catholic High School in Oakland.

My friends live in Lafayette and are thinking about it...

Or... simply do what other friends did... they rented out their very nice older home in the Oakland hills and rented a small place in the Piedmont School District just so their daughter could go to Piedmont public schools...

If a parent works in a location with better schools they could always try the out of district transfer... may or may not work.