How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016) • Hacker News Board

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#71

Post by closeparen » Wed, Jan 31, 2018, 10:37 AM UTC

dagw wrote: post #70

closeparen wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A $180k income with a maxed 401k in California is around $8500/mo in take home. Servicing the mortgage alone would be $4728. With maintenance, insurance, etc. you're pushing 70% of your take-home dedicated to housing. That's not "comfortably."

you're pushing 70% of your take-home dedicated to housing. That's not "comfortably." 30% of $8500 is $2500. You can live very comfortably on $2500 a month if all your housing costs are taken care of.

At that income, $2500/mo would be an unambitious savings target. $2500 minus living expenses, travel, savings for children's educations, etc. would be a pitiful savings rate.

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#72

Post by dagw » Wed, Jan 31, 2018, 11:35 AM UTC

kqr2 wrote: post #15

maratd wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Square foot costs are only given by a GC, so that's already included. > I know people who GC the projects themselves to save a great deal of money. Do not do this unless you know what you're doing. One bad contractor (and you will be hiring many) can trash the whole project. The value of the GC is that he brings a stable of quality contractors that he knows and works with. I've gone both ways, it really depends on th…

Any advice on how to find a good GC? All the people I know who remodeled their home seem to have horror stories. A couple of them ended in law suits with the GC.

Have you or your friends worked with any contractor that you like and trust? If so start there and work backwards. I happened upon a really good plumber, for example, so now any time I hire any other contractor I call that plumber and ask him whom I should call. So far it's worked out great.

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#73

Post by Y7ZCQtNo39 » Wed, Jan 31, 2018, 6:02 PM UTC

cdibona wrote: post #8

svp55 wrote: post #3

these numbers seem wildly inaccurate

They're a little off, but not much. The problem is that most people can't build a 5k sq ft place on a 7500 sq ft lot without going down as well as up. Basements in the Palo Alto flood zones are crazy expensive to build and permit so most don't do it, opting to stick to the sq ft requirements, which on a 7500 sq ft lot would be ... 3200? 5k would need a 10k lot in palo alto. A 10k lot in palo alto goes for 3m to 5m de…

In my opinion, 3200 sq ft is more than plenty for a single family (2-4 people).

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#74

Post by fbdjskajxb » Fri, Feb 02, 2018, 4:35 AM UTC

visarga wrote: post #58

xenadu02 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Senior should make 175-200k base plus 100-200k in RSUs per year rolling - that is if you get a good initial grant and keep getting good reviews by year 4 you have staggered vesting that nets that amount. At 300-400k per year you should be able to live a good lifestyle while saving for a house. Really senior engineers can certainly make more; 500k for a top 10% performer. For reference I just got my tax statement for…

Is it even worth it? It's like buying a car in a city where average commute time is two hours. Diminishing returns, not worth it to have a car under those conditions. Maybe a different region would have better balance, even at lower pay. I know people who own a newly constructed, large house with a garden, two cars, and raise kids in Romania on a meagre salary compared to yours. In the Bay area most of the profit and…

If you buy, you have expenses but any principal payments you make are wealth that you keep. So you can retire to Romania later if you feel like it. Getting paid Bay Area salaries and owning a home is a great way to build wealth even if you ignore the massive price appreciation.

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#75

Post by seanp2k2 » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 3:10 AM UTC

ikeyany wrote: post #35

linkregister wrote: post #28

This is an interesting article that describes building a $2-6 million dollar house in a matter-of-fact manner. I wonder what the prospective audience size for this article is in the Bay Area –maybe less than 5000 local people are capable of affording these properties.

Don't underestimate the number of people out there who are far wealthier than us 9-5 coders—people come from all over the world to buy property on the west coast.

https://macropolo.org/chinese-real-estate-money-transforming... there's a lot of foreign investment and money parking happening in the Bay Area as well.