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How Long Will You Need to Save to Buy a Home In Your City?

theatlanticcities.com

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Re: How Long Will You Need to Save to Buy a Home In Your City?

#21

Post by mycodebreaks »

wherewhenwhy wrote: post #10
colmvp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well on the plus side, with the Bay Area, there's plenty of other relatively affordable areas to purchase if one has a car.

Or rides BART. Of course, you then have to live near BART (or drive to BART) and then contend with the ZOMG GERMS!!1Eleven!

Or you can ride Caltrain. The downside is the accidents on Caltrain tracks. It will literally take 2 hours to get to Mountain View from SF when there is an accident.

Re: How Long Will You Need to Save to Buy a Home In Your City?

#22

Post by heretohelp »

colmvp wrote: post #12
wherewhenwhy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or rides BART. Of course, you then have to live near BART (or drive to BART) and then contend with the ZOMG GERMS!!1Eleven!

Well that and the fact that BART doesn't run 24/7 like New York's MTA. I have despised situations where I had to sprint to the BART station near closing time, lest I spend a ridiculous amount for a cab.

Tbqh, this kills the bay area for me, socially speaking.

NYC was way...way better in this respect.

Re: How Long Will You Need to Save to Buy a Home In Your City?

#23

Post by colmvp »

ethank wrote: post #13

Los Angeles. You buy a house and its a trade off between commute and cost per square foot. I HATE LIVING HERE. Often. I spend 90 minutes in a car every day, and while I love my house, my commute, gas cost, lack of public transportation, etc sucks. It also forces everyone to be so insular. No one socializes outside of work because we have to drive forever to get home. I had a glorious three years where I lived .75 mil…

Some of my friends ended up joining community groups in their respective neighbourhood because driving outside of a certain area is a pain in the ass, putting greater emphasis on what's nearby. Granted, I know most people probably don't do that.

Re: How Long Will You Need to Save to Buy a Home In Your City?

#24

Post by usaar333 »

> As the table below shows, in San Francisco you’ll need to work 20.6 years at the local average wage of $1,478 per week in order to save enough for a 20 percent down payment on a typical 2,000 square-foot home.

Well, it's a good thing that most homes are much smaller than 2,000 sq feet in SF. It's also a good thing that if you are buying a house you probably have a 2nd income.

Those two factors alone should reduce time to save to 7 years or less.

Re: How Long Will You Need to Save to Buy a Home In Your City?

#25

Post by colmvp »

heretohelp wrote: post #22
colmvp wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that and the fact that BART doesn't run 24/7 like New York's MTA. I have despised situations where I had to sprint to the BART station near closing time, lest I spend a ridiculous amount for a cab.

Tbqh, this kills the bay area for me, socially speaking. NYC was way...way better in this respect.

Absolutely. It's actually a terrible situation compared to the flexibility of NY, which had great livable areas in Queens and Brooklyn that still had fantastic access to public transit.

Re: How Long Will You Need to Save to Buy a Home In Your City?

#27

Post by shuzchen »

bostonvaulter2 wrote: post #5
kzahel wrote: post #2

It's extremely depressing how expensive property is in San Francisco!

At least it is significantly more affordable than in Honolulu even though the prices are more expensive. This is because pay is low in Honolulu, one of the costs of paradise I guess.

Also, if you work in San Fran, you can take your high wage and go spend it on a cheaper house out outside the city. You've got BART and caltrain and lots of roads to take you to work. Here in Hawaii there's no such escape.

Re: How Long Will You Need to Save to Buy a Home In Your City?

#29

Post by prodigal_erik »

wherewhenwhy wrote: post #10
colmvp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well on the plus side, with the Bay Area, there's plenty of other relatively affordable areas to purchase if one has a car.

Or rides BART. Of course, you then have to live near BART (or drive to BART) and then contend with the ZOMG GERMS!!1Eleven!

Don't laugh, the old porous BART seats are objectively filthy and I'm glad they're being replaced (albeit slowly): http://www.baycitizen.org/transportation/interactive/intimat...

Me, I live near SOMA so I can stumble home when essentially everything but taxis is shut down.

Re: How Long Will You Need to Save to Buy a Home In Your City?

#30

Post by greghinch »

I really don't understand the obsession with owning a home. So many people I know expend their entire savings on buying a town home or a condo or some other place where you might as well rent an apartment. But the dream of "being a homeowner" is somehow worth it. It's always struck me as something of a con. Any tax benefits you might see are offset by the much higher monthly mortgage payment.

* note my experience is based on living primarily in SF and LA, so if you are willing to put up with Middle America I'm sure you can find much better value

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