Moved to the Bay for 1 year from out of state, moved back. My review of it. (San Jose: homes, general contractor)

[likealady]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

Silicon Valley is like that. Companies are fairly close together, in general. Like I said, 15+ tech companies right along the light rail on the seven mile stretch from Santa Clara Station to Tasman Station on light rail. Yet you still have people not using transit because they think it is beneath them, or whatever.

Santa Clara is not dense, especially near Caltrain. My husband travels around the area for work and specifically mentioned how inconvenient Santa Clara is compared to say, Redwood City. There are far more companies in 2-3 street blocks in San Francisco or DT Oakland than within that 7 mile stretch in SV. But yes, SV definitely needs to pick up on its building slack.

When we build 20 story residential condo buildings, I support each of them having three bedrooms. They would be market rate, 400k.

A 3-bd condo for 400k in the Bay Area? HAHA. You, sir, are off your rocker. What a dream that would be.

Originally Posted by jade408

15 companies over 7 miles is not dense or close together. 7 miles in transit time is 2 hours.

My thoughts exactly.

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by likealady

Santa Clara is not dense, especially near Caltrain. My husband travels around the area for work and specifically mentioned how inconvenient Santa Clara is compared to say, Redwood City. There are far more companies in 2-3 street blocks in San Francisco or DT Oakland than within that 7 mile stretch in SV. But yes, SV definitely needs to pick up on its building slack.

Not the city of Santa Clara. I'm talking about north first street in San Jose. From the corner of 1st and Santa Clara to the corner of 1st and Tasman. It's fairly dense in terms of tech companies along that roughly seven mile stretch which takes 23 minutes to traverse on light rail (public transit). Companies generally would be a much higher number.

I don't know that the city of Santa Clara is especially inconvenient, though. I'm not sure what your husband is referring to there. I've worked at various places in Santa Clara and was able to get to them on transit without any particular issues.

Yes, Silicon Valley needs to build more condos, but not more single family homes. Single family homes should be banned. They are a waste of resources.

A 3-bd condo for 400k in the Bay Area? HAHA. You, sir, are off your rocker. What a dream that would be.

It can be done. What's nearly impossible is trying to do that with single family homes. But three bedroom condos in 20 story buildings can be done. I'm talking about VERY DENSE development. Two bedroom condos, of course, are family sized. That implies two parents and one child.

But San Jose already has 15+ high rise buildings planned for downtown in the near term. Just not nearly as large as what I'm proposing. You can't put those downtown because of the height restriction due to the airport. But you could put them, say, in the Blossom Hill area, near the light rail.

In another thread, people were talking about a condo development near Cottle light rail. That's exactly what we need to be doing: dense, multifamily development near public transit. Only we need to build it denser than that. 20 story buildings, 30 story buildings.

[TheGreatCurve]

Originally Posted by AZJD

How many 30-35 year olds have $100,000 liquid cash laying around and also no debt at all? I'm fortunate that if I sold my houses I could put 20% down on a place in the Bay Area.

But I won't. Its like paying $60k for a 1986 Honda Accord.

Yeah, but if the only cars available for sale in the market are 1986 Honda Accords and you absolutely have to have a car in order to survive, what else can you do but to pay the market rate of $60K for a 1986 Honda Accord?

[bodyforlife99]

Originally Posted by TheGreatCurve

Yeah, but if the only cars available for sale in the market are 1986 Honda Accords and you absolutely have to have a car in order to survive, what else can you do but to pay the market rate of $60K for a 1986 Honda Accord?

And the great thing about it is you can find that Accord somewhere else for $10K. Which is exactly what AZJD did. Smart move if you ask me. Everyone always has a choice. He prioritized what was most important for his family and is now in Arizona. Nothing wrong at all about that. I think a lot of posters on this forum could learn from what he did. But they'd rather sit around doing their unproductive whining. You can live with a pipe dream that things will be affordable in the Bay Area one day, or you can deal with the reality that they won't. But no one likes people telling them that Santa Claus isn't real or that you can't always get what you want. It's more fun to talk about pretend solutions to placate a group that could have bought a home just 6 years ago at 60% of the price. At some point, there will be another recession and home prices will take a little haircut. Do I expect they will be as low as 2010? Doubtful. But it will be a buying opportunity, nonetheless. Of course, I don't think there's ever a bad time to buy real estate in the Bay Area if you plan on hanging onto it for 20 years (IMHO, you'll come out ahead every time). Figure it out people.

[AZJD]

Originally Posted by bodyforlife99

And the great thing about it is you can find that Accord somewhere else for $10K. Which is exactly what AZJD did. Smart move if you ask me. Everyone always has a choice. He prioritized what was most important for his family and is now in Arizona. Nothing wrong at all about that. I think a lot of posters on this forum could learn from what he did. But they'd rather sit around doing their unproductive whining. You can live with a pipe dream that things will be affordable in the Bay Area one day, or you can deal with the reality that they won't. But no one likes people telling them that Santa Claus isn't real or that you can't always get what you want. It's more fun to talk about pretend solutions to placate a group that could have bought a home just 6 years ago at 60% of the price. At some point, there will be another recession and home prices will take a little haircut. Do I expect they will be as low as 2010? Doubtful. But it will be a buying opportunity, nonetheless. Of course, I don't think there's ever a bad time to buy real estate in the Bay Area if you plan on hanging onto it for 20 years (IMHO, you'll come out ahead every time). Figure it out people.

This. I first saw his post asking what to do, I was about to chime in and say get a new one in a other state for 1/4 the cost haha.

I would LOVE to be back in the Bay. But I want to do it the right way. And the right way takes a LOT of money, or one must make an enormous sacrifice to quality/size/safety of housing. I am able to save a ton of $$$$ living in AZ. I spent nearly all my money in CA. Can always move back one day.

[Perma Bear]

Originally Posted by AZJD

This. I first saw his post asking what to do, I was about to chime in and say get a new one in a other state for 1/4 the cost haha.

I would LOVE to be back in the Bay. But I want to do it the right way. And the right way takes a LOT of money, or one must make an enormous sacrifice to quality/size/safety of housing. I am able to save a ton of $$$$ living in AZ. I spent nearly all my money in CA. Can always move back one day.

How do you survive the heat though?

[Perma Bear]

Originally Posted by likealady

Santa Clara is not dense, especially near Caltrain. My husband travels around the area for work and specifically mentioned how inconvenient Santa Clara is compared to say, Redwood City. There are far more companies in 2-3 street blocks in San Francisco or DT Oakland than within that 7 mile stretch in SV. But yes, SV definitely needs to pick up on its building slack.



A 3-bd condo for 400k in the Bay Area? HAHA. You, sir, are off your rocker. What a dream that would be.



My thoughts exactly.

To be fair lick mill and rivermark are all dense areas (those ugly rivermark town homes are too close together for my taste and have no yard)

[AZJD]

Originally Posted by Perma Bear

How do you survive the heat though?

A lot of people asked that.

100 degrees in Phoenix feels no different than 85 in the Bay.

Gosh I remember going hiking on Angel Island and thinking "Wow, it is hot!!". Looking at my phone and it said like 79 degrees.

Humidity makes a world of difference. No humidity in AZ.

And we have swimming pools, resorts for summer staycations, the mountains/forests (8k feet elevation) are 2 hrs north.

[Perma Bear]

Originally Posted by AZJD

A lot of people asked that.

100 degrees in Phoenix feels no different than 85 in the Bay.

Gosh I remember going hiking on Angel Island and thinking "Wow, it is hot!!". Looking at my phone and it said like 79 degrees.

Humidity makes a world of difference. No humidity in AZ.

And we have swimming pools, resorts for summer staycations, the mountains/forests (8k feet elevation) are 2 hrs north.

I also presume you don't have an outdoors job

[bodyforlife99]

Originally Posted by AZJD

I would LOVE to be back in the Bay. But I want to do it the right way. And the right way takes a LOT of money, or one must make an enormous sacrifice to quality/size/safety of housing. I am able to save a ton of $$$$ living in AZ. I spent nearly all my money in CA. Can always move back one day.

Originally Posted by AZJD

A lot of people asked that.

100 degrees in Phoenix feels no different than 85 in the Bay.

Gosh I remember going hiking on Angel Island and thinking "Wow, it is hot!!". Looking at my phone and it said like 79 degrees.

Humidity makes a world of difference. No humidity in AZ.

And we have swimming pools, resorts for summer staycations, the mountains/forests (8k feet elevation) are 2 hrs north.

Ditto on this also. I've experienced this first hand in Arizona. Dry heat is much more comfortable and this is a perfect comparison.

Originally Posted by Perma Bear

I also presume you don't have an outdoors job

Well gee. Considering that probably 90% of jobs are indoors, that's a pretty easy assumption.