Getting depressed...mortgage=no home, cash only wins (San Jose, Fresno: how much, live in)

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by tempest411

IYou can save 100K or more just by living in Livermore, and Livermore is 10X cleaner than San Jose to boot!

Sure. Fresno's even cheaper. Barstow's even cheaper than that. For good reason.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Sure. Fresno's even cheaper. Barstow's even cheaper than that. For good reason.

Livermore's a pretty nice place, from what I've seen.

Barstow .... not so much

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Sure. Fresno's even cheaper. Barstow's even cheaper than that. For good reason.

Personally, I'd rather live in Livermore than San Jose. Its got more of a community feel than SJ (more similar to one of the west valley cities), not to mention its more affordable. The one thing that SJ has going for it is location.....Livermore would be a terrible commute to most Silicon Valley jobs.

[rimmerama]

Originally Posted by oldtrader

Things have changed over time in the San Jose area. We raised our children there and lived in 3 different homes paying $13,750 for the first on a $0 down V.A. loan, and the last one $22,500. Today those same homes almost 60 years old are selling for $650,000 to $1,000,000 plus.

It will get harder, not easier to buy a home there you can afford in the future. Someday the people there will be looking back at today as the good old days for real estate when homes were affordable the same as we are.

Yep, crazy how prices change. My parents bought four homes in the area back in the 60s... They were going to get a fifth, but decided to put in a swimming pool instead(!).

The home they live in was bought for 7,000 dollars, now it's worth 700,000 - not for tax purposes though, mind you, I think they pay like 600 a year on it.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

Personally, I'd rather live in Livermore than San Jose. Its got more of a community feel than SJ .

In the old, Pleasantville, 1950's sense, yes. It's also way out in the middle of nowhere.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by rimmerama

Yep, crazy how prices change. My parents bought four homes in the area back in the 60s... They were going to get a fifth, but decided to put in a swimming pool instead(!).

The home they live in was bought for 7,000 dollars, now it's worth 700,000 - not for tax purposes though, mind you, I think they pay like 600 a year on it.

That's an amazing price... about half of what the late 50's Santa Clara ranch style tracts were selling for.

My Godfather bought his in 1959 for $19,000 and he and his wife almost didn't qualify... he was an engineer at Lockheed and she was a Registered Nurse working at O'Connor Hospital...

19k was a fortune at the time that many could not afford...

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by rimmerama

Yep, crazy how prices change. My parents bought four homes in the area back in the 60s... They were going to get a fifth, but decided to put in a swimming pool instead(!).

The home they live in was bought for 7,000 dollars, now it's worth 700,000 - not for tax purposes though, mind you, I think they pay like 600 a year on it.

That's an amazing price... about half of what the late 50's Santa Clara ranch style tracts were selling for.

My Godfather bought his in 1957 for $19,000 and he and his wife almost didn't qualify... he was an engineer at Lockheed and she was a Registered Nurse working at O'Connor Hospital...

19k was a fortune at the time that many could not afford... remember, minimum wage in California was 75 cents an hour... or about $1500 a year.

[rimmerama]

My grandfather developed subdivisions back in the day. In fact there are some streets named after my dad and his siblings...

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

In the old, Pleasantville, 1950's sense, yes. It's also way out in the middle of nowhere.

Some would argue that anything outside of SF is in the middle of nowhere.

[vrhunski]

Some would argue that anything outside Manhattan is middle of nowhere.