Does anyone want to move out of the Bay Area (San Francisco: appointed, condominiums) - San Francisco - Oakland - California (CA) - Page 10 - City-Data Forum

Ultrarunner · 06-28-2007, 11:42 PM

Lori1961... Are you moving only because the cost of living or do you also want to leave Pleasant Hill?

The reason I ask, is Pleasant Hill is one of the places I would consider living.

My Brother has been there a few years and couldn't be happier. He bought a real dump of a 1950 3BR 1 BA rancher that had been a rental for years. He has since added on and the home as very nice and more important... he has the best neighbors. Almost all are late 30's or 40's and every weekend someone is having a BBQ or get together. All of them have also added or remodeled so that is often a topic of conversation.

muimi07 · 06-29-2007, 03:13 PM

I'm just answering the OP's original post.

My husband and I are planning to move to Atlanta, GA. We're a two person, professional household that make relatively good money and even with a huuuuuuuge downpayment, there's no CHANCE of us owning a home here in the Bay Area. We wouldn't consider moving if we did. The housing prices are ridiculous! I rent in Union City right now and our POS apartment is costing us nearly $1,500 for a 2BR/2BA. The apartment complex that isn't new, has had numerous break-ins, car thefts and about half of the apartment population is on Section 8 while the other renters pay through the nose. It's not fair and is no way to start a family. We're not too keen on renting for the rest of our lives, even if we could find a better apartment, and I just don't envision myself raising a family in an apartment. So it's off to relocation land for us!

Robert123 · 06-30-2007, 01:11 AM

Not to be too depressing, Silverbox, but actually, by the time one of today's thirty-somethings retires, he/she will need at least two million due to inflation. My retired parents, who are currently renting in CA, are living off of the interest of their ONE MILLION dollar cash and bond retirement IN ADDITION TO collecting social security. WIth their increased medical expenses and continually decreased insurance coverage (thanks to the current administration's policies), they are living very very modestly, some would say scraping by, even. I can't imagine what hell is going to break loose when our negative savings generation, coupled with no social security, and no corporate pension culture comes of age. Not pretty. I say bail on the house, and SAVE for your lives, literally...

Robert123 · 06-30-2007, 02:00 PM

Correction, sorry: My parents are stretching it more now because their principal has gone from one million down to 750 grand. That means less interest to live on. Thanks.

NDA · 07-01-2007, 03:45 PM

Lori, the reason Ca. is so expensive is because folks like you are selling their tiny little homes for $500k. If you really want to make a stand and help bring the cost of living down, you will sell it for $250k and you will still be able to pay cash for your out of state house.

The other way is for buyers to stop buying this overpriced realty. That will bring the prices down. People charge what the market will bear. If you do happen to sell you house for $500k, I hope you consider that the state/city/region you are so fed up, enabled you to own 100% elsewhere.

Tallysmom · 07-01-2007, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NDA

Lori, the reason Ca. is so expensive is because folks like you are selling their tiny little homes for $500k. If you really want to make a stand and help bring the cost of living down, you will sell it for $250k and you will still be able to pay cash for your out of state house.

The other way is for buyers to stop buying this overpriced realty. That will bring the prices down. People charge what the market will bear. If you do happen to sell you house for $500k, I hope you consider that the state/city/region you are so fed up, enabled you to own 100% elsewhere.

You want her to make a stand with her money, and her kid's futures? How magnanimous of you.

If she can sell her place for 500K, she should sell her place for 500K... that's what the market will bear. Otherwise, a good flipper will get her property cheap, do some great yet inexpensive fix ups, and sell it for... SURPRISE!! 500K and THEY will make the profit.

I'd rather see a single mother of 2 walking around with some cash to put away...

NDA · 07-02-2007, 08:12 AM

Tallysmom- I guess sarcasm is hard to read.

sliverbox · 07-02-2007, 09:49 AM

Lori, the reason Ca. is so expensive is because folks like you are selling their tiny little homes for $500k. If you really want to make a stand and help bring the cost of living down, you will sell it for $250k and you will still be able to pay cash for your out of state house.

I have to admit that if I was sitting on a 500k townhouse, I'd be selling it tomorrow. Who could blame her? I guess you were being kind of sarcastic anyway. But in all seriousness, I am from one of those states that EVERYONE who's under 40 is moving to. The Southeast is getting swamped with people from FL, CA, NY, MA, MI, OH, and anywhere else that either has hurricanes, crappy economies, or overpriced real estate. To make it worse, almost all the baby-boomers who are retiring are moving there as well.They all do the same thing too: sell their horse-**** stucco house for 5-600k, and buy a house in NC without even batting an eye, because frankly a 250k home to them is dirt cheap. 250k is NOT cheap for the area. When you fill an area with people who aren't bringing anything to the table other than cash from their cash-out house in CA, then you bring problems from one area to another. In essence it starts the whole cycle all over again where yet one more area of the country gets priced way out of line with real economics, and even more people are displaced as a result. I absolutely hate the idea that there exists a possibility that I could very well get priced out of my very own state by the same people who priced me out of CA.

Luckily, this weekend was yet another Bay Area weekend with a massive sea of open homes that are sitting week after week. The tide is turning and those prices will be falling. That will stave off the exodus hopefully for a bit longer.

Tallysmom · 07-02-2007, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NDA

Tallysmom- I guess sarcasm is hard to read.

Yep -- that's why I use emoticons...

GreenGirl · 07-05-2007, 02:38 AM

As a 40 year old bay area native with a master's degree, a good job...and **RENT** to pay each month...I remember fondly the days when a comfortable home in a safe neighborhood could be had for well under 200k. It's easy to remember because it wasn't more than 10 short years ago. What happened? People suddenly migrated to the Bay Area from other parts of the country, many from SoCal, by the thousands, every month, for YEARS! And, truthfully, I'm glad there isn't enough housing for everyone. I don't want the growth (sprawl) needed to create enough affordable housing for everyone who wants to live here, even if that means I'm never able to buy my own home...in my own hometown.

I grew up in the East Bay, but have lived my whole adult life in Sonoma Co. Just seven years ago my mother bought a nice 3 Bdr, 2.5 bath house in Santa Rosa, w/a granny unit over the garage to help pay the bills, for 299k. I was scared to death for her, it seemed like a bloody fortune. Seven years later it's valued at 800k, but who can afford to buy it?

In '01 my sister bought a much smaller, 3 bdrm, 1200sqft home, also in Santa Rosa, for 169k (Yes...that's ONE hundred sixty-nine thousand). She got tired of the commute into the city and sold it three years later for over 500k to move to SF - where she now lives in an adorable little shoebox she calls "the womb" because of its rather snug fit. I think it's about 350 ft^2.

My point is, until fairly recently there was plenty of affordable housing in the greater bay area, less in the bay area proper, but it did exist there as well. What happened here is very likely to happen in the places the people who feel squeezed out of the BA are heading, and good luck to those areas in "managing" what's coming at them. Seattle, the first outpost to feel the affect, is already almost as expensive as the BA, and the natives are none too happy about it either.

Frankly, I hope the great exodus continues...it's my only shot at ever becoming a homeowner and still live close enough to meet my mom for lunch and see my family regularly. Sure, those who bought before the boom will lose some of the inflated, insane, equity that came with it, but nobody in my family is looking to "flip" houses or "cashout" or whatever. They bought homes - to live in - not just investments or stepping stones to bigger and bigger houses. The house nextdoor to my mother's has sold three times in the last seven years. All to people who came from somewhere else, and who sold as soon as they made enough out of it to get somewhere "better".

Me? I'm not going anywhere. If I end up renting a room from my mother, I'm staying put. I have to travel a lot, and I need to come home. This is my home.