Job offer in SF....yes? no? hell no? (San Diego, San Jose: rent, condo)

[simboticus]

Agreed some of the advice on here doesn't make sense to me. We know very little about the OP, you guys are handing out advice like he is your little brother or good friend and you can say with confidence what is best for the OP. You can't.

Given that you are a minimalist, and also sounds like you aren't going to be out partying, taking lots of girls on dates etc, you can do pretty well on $90k as a starting point. San Ramon is a very nice town, upscale, family oriented, very low crime. Not super exciting for a young person who wants urban excitement, but I don't get the sense that's what you are looking for. I lived there for 10 years, raised my kids there, it's a really nice town. My daughter just rented a nice apartment, just down the road a few miles in Pleasanton for $1650/month. Its not a new building but its fairly roomy and nice enough. You can easily find a 1 br in the $1800 range, near SR. The nearby towns of Pleasanton, Danville and Livermore all have downtowns with a cluster of bars, restaurants. SR doesn't really have that.

If you work in SR, and live nearby, you won't have to deal with the awful traffic much, all the bay area is awful. That area isn't any different. You are close enough to go to SF on the weekends, 30-40 min drive w/o heavy traffic. You can catch BART there from either Walnut Creek or Dublin/Pleasanton. You will def need a car. The only place you don't need a car is SF. It would be very inconvenient to live just about anywhere else without one.

You will get your foot in the door to the CA job market, which sounds like a good thing for your career. Only you can decide if this is what you want.

[SageCats]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

Well if your monthly salary is about 6k then you can afford 2k for housing. If you can't, you're doing something wrong. It sounds like you guys aren't going 50/50 on the house.



It is definitely hyperbole. I make $11.25/hr and I live here in the Bay Area. I can't buy my own house or even rent my own apartment, but I do live here. I share a one bedroom apartment; my part of the rent is $300/month. I make about $1300/month. How much do you think the people make who clean the toilets in your office? They don't make 100k. But they do live here. They don't drive from Kansas. Think about it.



And that's complete and total nonsense. Again, I live here, and I make about $15k.

100k is more than comfortable here. You just have to realize that by definition, you're not going to be able to buy the most expensive housing in the area on the median income. That's true anywhere. That's true in Smallville, Kansas.

I am referring to buying a house, now in 2016. Paying a $5K or $6K mortgage a month is not affordable for us. We really don't live above our means. Buying a $1M home (or even $950K) is completely out of our range of affordability - even with 20% down.
Also, making $80K elsewhere where housing is more affordable gives you a far different quality of life than making $100K here for the same job. We do our calculations using net pay... the salary difference ends up NOT being $20K per year.. factoring in income tax and other taxes, $80K somewhere like Austin TX where you pay no income tax will get you a similar net salary as $100K here in CA where in that bracket, you pay 9.something% to start.
Both rent and housing prices are much, much lower in Austin TX than here in this area of CA.

[Majami]

Originally Posted by SkySofiaLila

I am referring to buying a house, now in 2016. Paying a $5K or $6K mortgage a month is not affordable for us. We really don't live above our means. Buying a $1M home (or even $950K) is completely out of our range of affordability - even with 20% down.
Also, making $80K elsewhere where housing is more affordable gives you a far different quality of life than making $100K here for the same job. We do our calculations using net pay... the salary difference ends up NOT being $20K per year.. factoring in income tax and other taxes, $80K somewhere like Austin TX where you pay no income tax will get you a similar net salary as $100K here in CA where in that bracket, you pay 9.something% to start.
Both rent and housing prices are much, much lower in Austin TX than here in this area of CA.

Austin won't have an income tax but they will have a higher property tax which you will pay annually. On homes in the neighborhood of 1Million, this hike in property tax can be very significant.

[SageCats]

No, you can't find a nice 1 bedroom apartment for $1800 / month in a neighborhood like San Ramon unless you live in a tiny studio apartment with no amenities.
Zillow.com isn't exactly accurate. Some of you have been home owners for a long time and don't realize what it costs to rent a place with no central AC, laminate countertops, linoleum floor (i.e. nothing fancy), with a basic washer dryer in unit. It's around $2400 during the summer and $2100 during the winter right now this season. Prices always increase every year. Just go to the actual apartment web sites and look at their prices there. They're up to date, unlike Zillow. Zillow says my apartment in my complex is going for $2K. Wrong..! We pay $2400 / month.

[SageCats]

Originally Posted by Majami

Austin won't have an income tax but they will have a higher property tax which you will pay annually. On homes in the neighborhood of 1Million, this hike in property tax can be very significant.

The difference doesn't equal out to what you'd pay for housing here. There's a 1% cap on property taxes here. So, for a $1M home, you'd pay $10K / year in property taxes. In Austin, it's double that. You pay almost $20K for a $1M home. However, that same 3 bedroom 2 bathroom million dollar home here in CA probably costs less than $350K in Austin. So, taxes plus mortgage would be much less than that same house in CA. That's a lot. It's no secret that this area has the highest COL index in the entire country.

[plot]

Originally Posted by SkySofiaLila

No, you can't find a nice 1 bedroom apartment for $1800 / month in a neighborhood like San Ramon unless you live in a tiny studio apartment with no amenities.
Zillow.com isn't exactly accurate. Some of you have been home owners for a long time and don't realize what it costs to rent a place with no central AC, laminate countertops, linoleum floor (i.e. nothing fancy), with a basic washer dryer in unit. It's around $2400 during the summer and $2100 during the winter right now this season. Prices always increase every year. Just go to the actual apartment web sites and look at their prices there. They're up to date, unlike Zillow. Zillow says my apartment in my complex is going for $2K. Wrong..! We pay $2400 / month.

I am paying about $2200 for my apartment in San Jose. I found the property using zillow and the zillow posting was very similar to the complex rates.

My apartment has AC, wood floors (apparently it is "luxurious"), granite countertop, we have amenities like gym and swimming pool, build in washer and dryer in my apartment.

i do not understand your struggle at all, what city are you living in?

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by SkySofiaLila

I am referring to buying a house, now in 2016. Paying a $5K or $6K mortgage a month is not affordable for us. We really don't live above our means.

You're supposed to be able to buy 5x what your income is, so if your combined income is 100k, you can get a 500k dwelling, and if you have at least 200k combined after taxes you should be able to buy a 1M home. Not that you need one, I mean you could buy a condo inside of a building containing other condos. That's middle class in the Bay Area.

Both rent and housing prices are much, much lower in Austin TX than here in this area of CA.

Yes, but in Austin, you still can't buy the most expensive form of housing using the median income. Logically, you would have to have the highest income to buy the most expensive housing.

All the CoL difference means is that middle class in Austin might be an actual SFH, as opposed to the Bay Area, where middle class is a condo inside of a building containing other condos.

[Electrician4you]

Originally Posted by tonym9428

Got a statistician offer at a small startup in the San Francisco area (san ramon) and wanted your thoughts on cost of living and other factors. For those who moved there from the midwest, was it worth it. I'm 30 and am single with no debt or financial responsibilities. Salary is $90,000

Unless that 90,000 really means $120,000 you'll be starving. I have a buddy up there as a PM of a general construction company making 145k and he said after all expenses he really isn't making it. Wife two boys two cars etc He said his rent is $3900 a month. That's rent only. Nothing else. He said COL is crazy up there. He thinks unless he gets another 25-30k a year he's gonna move back to San Diego.

[SageCats]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

You're supposed to be able to buy 5x what your income is, so if your combined income is 100k, you can get a 500k dwelling, and if you have at least 200k combined after taxes you should be able to buy a 1M home. Not that you need one, I mean you could buy a condo inside of a building containing other condos. That's middle class in the Bay Area.



Yes, but in Austin, you still can't buy the most expensive form of housing using the median income. Logically, you would have to have the highest income to buy the most expensive housing.

All the CoL difference means is that middle class in Austin might be an actual SFH, as opposed to the Bay Area, where middle class is a condo inside of a building containing other condos.

Yes, I've heard that you can buy 5 xs your salary but that's a huge stretch for us. We'd be living paycheck to paycheck just to be able to pay the mortgage on a $1M home. I think we'd rather wait for the so called "real estate correction" when it comes time to buy. You can't buy the most expensive home here with your median income, either.

And yes, a condo would be middle class here (and that's probably what we'd end up buying here.) But what I'm trying to get at is that with a slightly gross less salary, you could afford a SFH elsewhere. More 'bang for your buck'.

[neutrino78x]

Craigslist doesn't have a "San Ramon" neighborhood option, but I see $2200/month for "Dublin/Pleasenton/Livermore".

SF bay area apartments / housing rentals "san ramon" - craigslist