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Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

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Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#261

Post by groupthink-- »

jerf wrote: post #234
5706906c06c wrote: post #49

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…

"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." Contrary to apparently-popular belief (based on some other comments in this thread), the Bay Area is not the only place in the United States with ethnic-minority communities/enclaves, or the only region in the entire United States where "brown people" are not, app…

if by "brown people" you mean hispanic, that doesn't do much good for OP, who is most likely asian or indian. hispanic kids are even worse than white kids when it comes to making life hell for asian kids.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#262

Post by amyjess »

Yank33Doodle wrote: post #175
0x445442 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I wish more would come to Phoenix and drive up our real estate prices more. I left California right before the last housing bubble burst to take advantage of the real estate arbitrage. I'd love to do it again.

There are no hard rules, but very few of my non-white friends are OK with Phoenix or most other red states. AZ especially given the papers-please laws employed 'randomly' on brown people. Besides jobs, California offers open minds and much a much friendlier atmosphere for brown people.

LGBT people, too.

I'm a trans lesbian, born and still live in Texas. When I move out of state, it's going to be a state with trans-inclusive protections at the state level.

Spending this entire year worrying about Dan Patrick shoving transphobic legislation down our throats was emotionally harrowing, and I don't want to go through it again. I hope to be out of the state by the time the 2019 session begins. And Patrick promised to do this long before the legislative session ended, so I spent all of 2016 worrying too.

Finding a place to move to has been like solving a puzzle. A red state is out of the question. I don't want to risk another bathroom bill. And statewide LGBT protections are needed even if a local government has its own protections because a) being protected in one city is worthless when none of its suburbs have protections, and b) the state can revoke local government's ability to protect minorities at any time (look at Arkansas or North Carolina).

I also love southwestern-style suburbs and I'm fairly conservative in a lot of areas that don't involve LGBT rights (namely that I love suburbs, I utterly despise hipsters, I'm a very proud neoliberal globalist Jew, and I'm an establishment Democrat that despises the Bernie wing), so that's making it hard to find a place that's exactly like what I want. I'm looking for a conservative, sprawling suburb that isn't riddled with hipsters and is located in a blue state. I also insist on a place where AC is universal, and for food-related reasons, I want to live somewhere there's a lot of Asian people.

I've basically narrowed it down to parts of the LA and Vegas areas (OC and Torrance in LA, Spring Valley in Vegas).

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#263

Post by morgante »

jorblumesea wrote: post #142
cobookman wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Jesus, 2k / person a month is insane. This is what people are talking about. This is not acceptable or normal. I pay $900 / person a month for a large house in Seattle that's a 15 minute commute from downtown. Even with the bay's high salaries you're not doing very well. Throw in bills and other expenses and you're looking at ~40% of your monthly income, assuming a salary of 130k. That's ~50k per person, per year, in…

> Throw in bills and other expenses and you're looking at ~40% of your monthly income, assuming a salary of 130k.

That's not a very good assumption. $130k is on the low end for anyone with enough experience to be looking at a home purchase.

I don't know why an absolute value is ever considered "insane." If salaries support it, it's not insane.

Even with the high housing prices (caused mostly by regressive zoning policies), senior engineers at a big tech company or late-stage startups should be able to afford a home.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#264

Post by haalia »

0xbear wrote: post #238
latencyloser wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle is quickly becoming 'bay area'-ish from what I can tell. Housing is certainly becoming difficult at incredible rates. Here in Bellevue, a colleague of mine bought a house for ~400k, it's now worth well over ~500k only a year later. Many houses in that area also sell for at least 700k+ assuming you can even get an offer in before a cash buyer grabs it. Don't even get me started on the traffic. I run as many of…

400k in Bellevue buys you a dilapidated shack at the outskirts. For anything decent you’re talking $1m and up.

At this point I'd be perfectly happy with a dilapidated shack in Bellevue. Anything to cut down on the soul-crushing commute.

Now if only employers embraced remote-work fully, I'd move to Gold Bar or somewhere else in the Cascades and dispense with the city altogether.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#265

Post by s_kilk »

jerf wrote: post #234
5706906c06c wrote: post #49

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…

"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." Contrary to apparently-popular belief (based on some other comments in this thread), the Bay Area is not the only place in the United States with ethnic-minority communities/enclaves, or the only region in the entire United States where "brown people" are not, app…

> Otherwise, how could there be articles about how "white" is on the verge of becoming a minority?

Because the people writing those articles are full of shit.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#266

Post by maxxxxx »

irrational wrote: post #194
latencyloser wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle is quickly becoming 'bay area'-ish from what I can tell. Housing is certainly becoming difficult at incredible rates. Here in Bellevue, a colleague of mine bought a house for ~400k, it's now worth well over ~500k only a year later. Many houses in that area also sell for at least 700k+ assuming you can even get an offer in before a cash buyer grabs it. Don't even get me started on the traffic. I run as many of…

Same in Portland. A house down the street was purchased for 180k 2 years ago and recently sold for 520k. And that isn't some outlier. It seems all anyone wants to talk about is how quickly home prices have inflated.

It's funny that the Fed is still dreaming about having low inflation while the number one expense most people will have experiences rampant inflation.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#267

Post by jartelt »

cobookman wrote: post #109
robbrit wrote: post #31

Earlier 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.

Yes, many people in your position can indeed get that mortgage and buy your house. But, it's a really big mortgage and a lot of people don't want to take that big of a financial risk for what is likely a small, average looking home on a small lot in the Bay Area. If you really, really want that house, then sure you can make it work (and more power to you, I hope you love it)! If you value financial freedom and not being tied down by debt, then the deal is not so good.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#268

Post by adventured »

StreamBright wrote: post #152
cobookman wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You kidding right? 100k down? 2K mortgage? These are insane numbers that very few people can afford even in the tech community.

A $2,000 mortgage is not insane. A lot of people in the US can in fact afford a $2k mortgage.

The median full-time job in the US pays near $45,000. The median household income is near $60,000 today.

There are 127 million full-time employees in the US.

Or put another way, approximately 39% of all people in the labor force (~161 million) are earning at least $45,000 per year.

If you're in the top 1/3 of all full-time earners (40+ million people), you can afford a $2,000 mortgage by yourself. If 40+ million people in the US can afford something, it's not insane.

Two people with a full-time job, earning only the median, can very safely afford that $2,000 mortgage. The typical full-time median income person in the US will commonly not even have a four year degree, so this isn't a stretch premise in terms of requirements. If you want to hit $4k per month (the parent's scenario), the top 1/3 of households can manage that (tens of millions of people fall under that umbrella).

If you want to get into insane mortgage territory as it pertains to the median income, you're talking much higher. $8k-$10k+ style mortgages.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#269

Post by joebubna »

irrational wrote: post #194
latencyloser wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle is quickly becoming 'bay area'-ish from what I can tell. Housing is certainly becoming difficult at incredible rates. Here in Bellevue, a colleague of mine bought a house for ~400k, it's now worth well over ~500k only a year later. Many houses in that area also sell for at least 700k+ assuming you can even get an offer in before a cash buyer grabs it. Don't even get me started on the traffic. I run as many of…

Same in Portland. A house down the street was purchased for 180k 2 years ago and recently sold for 520k. And that isn't some outlier. It seems all anyone wants to talk about is how quickly home prices have inflated.

Can confirm. I both recently sold my home, and used to be a licensed real estate appraiser before switching to Software Dev.

Our house in the not-super-desirable area of NE Portland was worth ~$265k when we looked at the data in late February/March of this year (strong data supporting that number). When we finally put it on the market in the beginning of May, it sold in 1 day, with multiple offers, for a sales price of $312k.

Yes, that's a $47k increase in value in just over 2 months. When spring hit, real estate prices went bonkers in Portland this year. Also, we bought the house for $160k ~five years ago.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#270

Post by arambhashura »

xtacy wrote: post #104
polskibus wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain that bit more? How is that at the expense of everyone else, did they achieve their wealth illegally?

Expanding on the comment below, it's an unfortunate combination of many prevailing issues. 1. One of the things Prop 13 does is to cap the maximum rate at which a property tax grows per annum to 2%. However, due to housing demand, the property values grow at a much faster rate (7% is not unheard of). The property tax can change when there is a sale. 2. Bay area prices have skyrocketed. 3. The peninsula topography and…

Not disagreeing with the basic gist, but see this:

https://sccassessor.org/index.php/tax-savings/transferring-y...

http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/networth/article/Bill-wo...

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