The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California
1–10 of 81 posts
Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California
#2Non-paywall version: https://archive.is/zVnpy
Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California
#3[dead]
Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California
#4As a resident who was born here and left and then came back, I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head of “California is a luxury product”.
If you look at the entire US, and assume you have the ability to move and live in any state, there are lots of options for everyone at every income level. (Disclaimer that this doesn’t address poverty, DEI, and other limitations to a good chunk of citizens).
From the Gold Rush, to Hollywood, to East Coasters moving to health spas like Carlsbad or Calistoga, some moved here for necessity but many out of choice and luxury.
A lot more to unpack here but I think it’s interesting.
Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California
#5As a resident who was born here and left and then came back, I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head of “California is a luxury product”. If you look at the entire US, and assume you have the ability to move and live in any state, there are lots of options for everyone at every income level. (Disclaimer that this doesn’t address poverty, DEI, and other limitations to a good chunk of citizens). From the Gold Rush…
As I kid who lived outside the US a couple of times and would boomerang back, I feel that way about the whole country. We have something like 8.8% of our population as millionaires so like 22M people. And I never have to hire guards for routine travel trips.
Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California
#6I loved living in the Bay Area, but I always thought it would be funny if a new company that was on track to reach FANG-level status required investors to move elsewhere to a mid-size or smaller city (as their primary residence) as a condition to invest in them. This is mandated all the time for employees, particularly with the RTO effort, and I would be quite interested to see which wins out among the psychology of the ultra-wealthy: remain in the Bay Area or move elsewhere to gain even more wealth.
Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California
#7I grew in upper middle class southern California. I work in tech for the last 7 years.
My parents house went from $500K when they bought in 1995 to +$3M today. If my math is right, that would mean the all-in payment (principal, interest, taxes) would be around $20,000/month at today's rate. Assume you do not want to spend more than 1/3 of your income on housing, your household would need to make $720,000/year.
Nominally, I make a lot more than my parents did at their peak, but in real terms, I can't afford a home in the neighborhood I grew up in.
Anecdotally, the only people I know that can afford to live in my old neighborhood are young people who get help from their parents or people who bought way before covid and rolled up their existing equity into their new home purchases. Among the upper middle class people I know, no one can afford that area or they are not interested bc they think the cost is not worth it.
What's going to happen to the firefighters, cops, and teachers in that area?
Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California
#8As a resident who was born here and left and then came back, I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head of “California is a luxury product”. If you look at the entire US, and assume you have the ability to move and live in any state, there are lots of options for everyone at every income level. (Disclaimer that this doesn’t address poverty, DEI, and other limitations to a good chunk of citizens). From the Gold Rush…
It's a terrible luxury product though because 1) Prop 13 means that people from 50 years ago are still in the luxury neighborhoods 2) Crime is not sufficiently eradicated even from expensive areas
Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California
#9When I visited Cali, I was hoping I'd be surrounded by ambitious people who wanted to work hard and make a lot of money.
I was disappointed, everyone seemed normal. Maybe a bit Epicurean hedonist. Since my local friends are this work hard and make a lot of money type, and it took a half decade to meet and cultivate those friends, I decided to stay local.
Me and the wife have the resume for Cali, but we decided that profiting 300k/yr + our ambitious friends made it obvious to stay. Maybe if she sells her local company, we'd reconsider it for that nice weather.
Re: The Ultra-Rich Are Flourishing and Sticking Around in California
#10I have always been convinced that the general numbers on how many rich people (> 10M networth and > 50M networth) there are is a total lie. Maybe its the bubble that I live in, but there are ALOT of very wealthy people on the coasts. The government numbers dont match my anecdata, I think they are missing a ton of income/capital gains, and thus our wealth distribution charts dont match reality