38, two kids and a wife. Have been living in a 900SQ/FT apt, I don't know how much longer I can take this before rage quitting and relocating somewhere else (don't know where). The sad part, as a ethnic-minority, I have just found our community for my kids, etc. It would be really tragic if I have to tear my kids away from that. Don't get me wrong, my daily 30 minute commute on BART isn't the worst. The worst part is…
I am curious where you are looking to buy. I bought 2 years back, 3000 sqft in Easy Bay close to a million. Have you looked at places like Hayward Hills, Union City, Dublin, San Ramon etc. ?
Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring
221–230 of 694 posts
Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
A fourth category: people who have lived here for a long time, and were able to buy property back before it became unaffordable. These are typically the managers or senior employees. It makes me wonder that as the young rockstars and H1B recipients age, where will they go? They certainly can't afford to buy a house. I imagine as time goes on, companies in the Bay Area will be awash with young junior talent but will s…
I'm fairly early in my career at a company ( 80-10-10 mortgage on a 1mil home is only 100k down. And the monthly payments split by 2 people (aka a couple) is ~2k / person / month. That's 4k/month all in once you include the tax rebates.
Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have spent few years there but when it was time to have family just left. It is simple not feasible for multiple reasons to raise a child there.
what were the multiple reasons?
- traffic
- airport traffic is flying above residential areas, so even when you find something affordable you have to check
- affordable creche for my kid
- SFO is one of the worst airports to arrive from abroad
Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring
#22438, two kids and a wife. Have been living in a 900SQ/FT apt, I don't know how much longer I can take this before rage quitting and relocating somewhere else (don't know where). The sad part, as a ethnic-minority, I have just found our community for my kids, etc. It would be really tragic if I have to tear my kids away from that. Don't get me wrong, my daily 30 minute commute on BART isn't the worst. The worst part is…
being harassed and ridiculed endlessly for being non-white (i'm guessing asian or indian) somewhere inexpensive and 90% homogenous (white or hispanic or black) will produce extremely negative results, to put it mildly. dealing with racism on TV and in movies is one thing, dealing with it in real life is an entirely different proposition.
Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
In 1999 I bailed out of the valley and moved to Livingston, MT. I had to build my own ISP to get connectivity to my house but otherwise it's been a success. Interesting to watch how the tech "scene" has changed over that time. I used to know all the developers in this half of the state personally!
Still live in Livingston? I'll buy you a beer at Katabatic just to say hello.
Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring
#226Montana, a land of National parks, natural beauty, fast internet, and a low cost of living has a number of high tech jobs open. Full disclosure, I own an internet company here and want more tech savvy people in the area ;) Social Finanace (SoFi) | Helena, MT Oracle | Bozeman, MT OnXMaps | Missoula, MT Zaneray Group | Whitefish, MT Submittable | Missoula, MT Applied Materials | Kalispell, MT
As someone that took a tech job in a (relatively) rural area, I can say there are some amazing perks, but also huge risks. Tech jobs pay roughly the same in rural areas as they do in larger cities, but housing costs are low enough that you can get a really nice house and still afford to put money in savings. The biggest downside is a lack of employment options. When the company had a huge layoff I started looking aro…
Regarding job movement, MT actually has a number of high tech companies per city, but it's a much smaller handful. Using Helena as an example (valley population ~80k), we have: Northrup Grumman, the State Agencies, SoFi, TSI&T, Boeing, Tempest (they work on KOA.com), Blue Cross Blue Shield, etc. Layoffs are not as usual here as we have a significant talent shortage. For instance I believe SoFi has ~200 devs in Helena when they would like 400 devs -- hiring being the biggest barrier.
Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring
#227Montana, a land of National parks, natural beauty, fast internet, and a low cost of living has a number of high tech jobs open. Full disclosure, I own an internet company here and want more tech savvy people in the area ;) Social Finanace (SoFi) | Helena, MT Oracle | Bozeman, MT OnXMaps | Missoula, MT Zaneray Group | Whitefish, MT Submittable | Missoula, MT Applied Materials | Kalispell, MT
Counterpoint: it is a very conservative state, and one of their elected representatives choke-slammed a Guardian journalist who was trying to ask him questions, and he still got elected.
Gallatin GOP Women official says she 'would have shot' reporter Gianforte assaulted
http://helenair.com/news/politics/state/gallatin-gop-women-o...
Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring
#228Most of the bay area employees are divided into 3 categories from anecdotal experience: young rockstars that are willing to live in relative squalor for a chance to prove themselves, vested and moneyed elites (CEO's, presidents, VC funded overlords) who are so out of touch with the average employee its best they not show up to the office that frequently, and H1B visa recipients that endure the soul-crushing San Jose…
A fourth category: people who have lived here for a long time, and were able to buy property back before it became unaffordable. These are typically the managers or senior employees. It makes me wonder that as the young rockstars and H1B recipients age, where will they go? They certainly can't afford to buy a house. I imagine as time goes on, companies in the Bay Area will be awash with young junior talent but will s…
Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring
#229Most of the bay area employees are divided into 3 categories from anecdotal experience: young rockstars that are willing to live in relative squalor for a chance to prove themselves, vested and moneyed elites (CEO's, presidents, VC funded overlords) who are so out of touch with the average employee its best they not show up to the office that frequently, and H1B visa recipients that endure the soul-crushing San Jose…
What about the low-paid hourly employees who make food, mop floors, and stand behind cash registers?
Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
A fourth category: people who have lived here for a long time, and were able to buy property back before it became unaffordable. These are typically the managers or senior employees. It makes me wonder that as the young rockstars and H1B recipients age, where will they go? They certainly can't afford to buy a house. I imagine as time goes on, companies in the Bay Area will be awash with young junior talent but will s…
I'm fairly early in my career at a company ( 80-10-10 mortgage on a 1mil home is only 100k down. And the monthly payments split by 2 people (aka a couple) is ~2k / person / month. That's 4k/month all in once you include the tax rebates.
I just 'did the math' in Redfin's mortgage calculator on a $990,000 home. The total monthly cost came out to $6,495 or $3,247 per person (in a couple). That's almost exactly 1/2 of the take-home (after tax) pay of someone making $120,000 a year in California.
-- Monthly expenses on a $990k house in SF --
Principal and Interest: $4,185
Property Taxes: $1,015
HOA Dues: $551
Homeowners' Insurance: $183
Mortgage Insurance: $561
1) That's far more than your $2,000 per person number
2) I'm no expert but, throwing 50% of your income at a mortgage seems foolish. So whether or not you can afford it, depends on your definition of "afford"