Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring • Hacker News Board

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

#691

Post by philgoetz » Sat, Oct 28, 2017, 7:14 PM UTC

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…

You don't RENT in that area. You have to buy. Then you can sell it later, and get back all that extra money you were paid for living in a place with high housing costs.

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

#692

Post by findjashua » Sat, Oct 28, 2017, 10:09 PM UTC

city41 wrote: post #133

xtacy wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The flip side to that is without prop 13, families like this would quickly find they can no longer afford to pay the taxes on their house and are forced to leave. Which is also not a great situation.

Prop 13 should be allowed only for the primary residence, not for secondary residence or rental properties.

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

#693

Post by pjmorris » Sun, Oct 29, 2017, 10:58 PM UTC

nerfhammer wrote: post #665

pjmorris wrote: post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, shortages can be caused by a number of circumstances, including housing supply vs. demand. That said, approximately 2 Trillion of the 3 Trillion increase in the Fed's balance sheet over the last decade went to purchases of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). This had multiple effects, including: 1) boosting real estate prices by putting the Fed's fresh capital in competition with wage earners for real estate, and…

A shortage is supply vs. demand by definition. Shouldn't real estate developers be able to make even more money on top of this by increasing the housing supply? Wouldn't the "banks" have cheap loans for real estate developers? This can't explain a shortage.

> A shortage is supply vs. demand by definition.

Capital dollars (from VC's) are easier to come by in SV than wage dollars. You prefer to think of the shortage as one of houses. I ask you to consider the idea that it is a shortage of wage dollars.

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

#694

Post by breitling » Tue, Oct 31, 2017, 8:58 PM UTC

jraby3 wrote: post #96

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…

Wow that is a crazy rent. I also live with a wife and two kids in about a 1000 sq. ft. apartment and make a similar income (but pay $2k rent). I've been squirreling away $50k per year and buying cheap homes to help with passive income. Up to about $7k per month which helps a lot both in terms of future saving and investing and also with peace of mind if I ever lose my job.

Hey - what area do you invest in? Mind if I ask you a couple questions? please email me at trackoid at gmail dot com

I'm also interested in REI, but not sure where the returns are in this market.