Help me figure out if I can make this work... (San Bruno: real estate, apartment)

[Spannerhead]

So there's an attractive job possibility that's opened up in San Bruno. Pays $115K/year.

We (me, my wife and our two kids, 10 and 7) live in the Chattanooga, TN area and I make $75K/year. Wife stays home.

I've lived in the South all my life (other than a couple of stints in France when I was a kid) and I've never had experience in a high-COL, high-income area.

We currently live in a 3-bed, 3-bath, 2000-sq.ft. house on a 1/3 acre lot that we paid $193K for. Built in 2009. Our monthly mortgage payment is $1163. I know that's ridiculously low by CA standards, but would we be able to, say, rent a 3-bedroom townhome in a safe part of one of the suburbs for, like $3K/mo?

My other question concerns taxes. How much can I expect the state and federal gov't put together to take? 20%? 30%? That would help me greatly in trying to figure a budget.

Thanks all. My wife is currently against the move but I'm trying to weigh everything out just to get better educated about these things.

[jade408]

To get an equivalent life to what you have in Chattanooga you probably need to make about $200-250k a year.

3 bedroom town homes are in short supply. You would need to up your budget. One of my friends pays about $4500 for a luxury 3-bedroom town home. She found there was a lot of competition at the lower budgets. And even though her and her hubby have good incomes at god companies, there were 8 identical couples competing for the same place. She found that at every place she looked.

I know 115k sounds like a lot, but it doesn't go far here at all.

[comingbacktocali]

i hear more complaints regarding rental or home purchases *competition* over price, believe it or not. just finding a place (and being chosen) is really tough.

[Spannerhead]

Originally Posted by jade408

To get an equivalent life to what you have in Chattanooga you probably need to make about $200-250k a year.

3 bedroom town homes are in short supply. You would need to up your budget. One of my friends pays about $4500 for a luxury 3-bedroom town home. She found there was a lot of competition at the lower budgets. And even though her and her hubby have good incomes at god companies, there were 8 identical couples competing for the same place. She found that at every place she looked.

I know 115k sounds like a lot, but it doesn't go far here at all.

Thanks for the input. That's what I suspected.

I plugged our income into here:

Cost of Living comparison calculator

and said to maintain our standard of living in the SF bay area, we'd have to be making $130K. But then it listed the home price for Chattanooga at $258K, which is much more than we paid, so I was hoping it might be off.

We obviously wouldn't have to live in San Bruno, where the job is, but somewhere within a 30 or so minute commute would be nice.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by Spannerhead

Thanks for the input. That's what I suspected.

I plugged our income into here:

Cost of Living comparison calculator

and said to maintain our standard of living in the SF bay area, we'd have to be making $130K. But then it listed the home price for Chattanooga at $258K, which is much more than we paid, so I was hoping it might be off.

We obviously wouldn't have to live in San Bruno, where the job is, but somewhere within a 30 or so minute commute would be nice.

Any of the places that have a 30 minute commute to San Bruno, would be more expensive than San Bruno.. which has always had somewhat depressed valuations, even before the PG&E pipeline explosion, due mainly to being in the SFO airport flightpath and just generally not having much of anything there.

[capoeira]

Originally Posted by Spannerhead

We currently live in a 3-bed, 3-bath, 2000-sq.ft. house on a 1/3 acre lot that we paid $193K for. Built in 2009. Our monthly mortgage payment is $1163. I know that's ridiculously low by CA standards, but would we be able to, say, rent a 3-bedroom townhome in a safe part of one of the suburbs for, like $3K/mo?

$3K/mo is more like the price for a 2 bedroom apartment. Notice that there are only 20 listings(at time of posting) on Craigslsit in the peninsula area for a 3 bedroom.

SF bay area apts/housing for rent - craigslist

If you change it to 2 bedrooms many more listings appear.

SF bay area apts/housing for rent - craigslist

Here are some sample listings for townhomes in areas with good schools.

Want Great Schools? - Menlo Park 3 bed/2 bath/2 car garage town-home

Townhouse, Pristine, Remodeled, Whisman Community, Park/Pool/Clubhouse

3 BR/ 2.5 Ba Large Quiet Townhome beautiful front porch, 2 balconies

Mediterranean Style Town Home in Desirable Complex

Originally Posted by Spannerhead

My other question concerns taxes. How much can I expect the state and federal gov't put together to take? 20%? 30%? That would help me greatly in trying to figure a budget.

Look at line 61 of your Federal form 1040. Multiple it by .30 to get a very rough estimate of how much additional CA income tax you would pay.

[shooting4life]

Originally Posted by Spannerhead

Thanks for the input. That's what I suspected.

I plugged our income into here:

Cost of Living comparison calculator

and said to maintain our standard of living in the SF bay area, we'd have to be making $130K. But then it listed the home price for Chattanooga at $258K, which is much more than we paid, so I was hoping it might be off.

We obviously wouldn't have to live in San Bruno, where the job is, but somewhere within a 30 or so minute commute would be nice.

Stay where you are. Especially since you would go from owning a home to renting here. You would need to make a considerable amount more (like your wife working) for you to be able to afford to buy here.

[jade408]

One more thing to note, for a family of 4 in CA, in many cities, the income that can be used to purchase or rent a subsidized (below market rate home) is roughly $100k, give or take.

At $115k for a family of four, it would be borderline lower middle class, particularly anywhere near San Bruno.

[Spannerhead]

Thanks. Yeah, assuming 25% off the gross of $115K/year, that's $6,700/month net, so $5,000/month for housing is right out, even though those places are really nice.

TN doesn't have a state income tax, BTW.

How do people afford to live out there? Does everyone make $250K/year?

[capoeira]

Originally Posted by Spannerhead

How do people afford to live out there? Does everyone make $250K/year?

Many people bought before the big price runups. Some people in SF are under rent control so their rent has not gone up over the years. Also people have dramatically different expectations of what is expected. I have seen 1500 sq. ft. houses here described as "huge". When I was looking for houses in the Atlanta suburbs a real estate agent described a 2400 sq. ft. house as "tiny". Personal living space here is very small compared to the rest of the USA but not nearly as bad as places like Tokyo or Hong Kong.

If you were to move out to the Bay area you would most probably be looking for a 2 bedroom condo in your price range.