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California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

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Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#141

Post by ringwalt »

iamjdg wrote: post #72

These people who sold their Bay Area homes and moved somewhere else to pay cash for a house seem to gloss over the fact that they were able to do this because they struggled in the Bay Area for so many years and became real estate wealthy. They won't see this kind of real estate wealth growth in their new communities.

Huh? There is a lot more room for growth in small cities with functional tech industries, and these people can now afford to speculate on multiple properties for the price of their small Bay Area house.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#142

Post by cylinder »

mr_tristan wrote: post #65

Heh, funny to read this on the day my moving van arrives to get my things outta here! It's a little sad, but we simply got fed up with the standard of living here. And, the Bay Area just feels mismanaged. Getting around is a royal pain. After living in Vienna, I was amazed at people who thought Bart was great. Really? I found it dirty, slow, and crazy expensive. Of course everything is just crazy expensive. A beer ga…

Median income in Vienna is around half of the Bay Area, so prices will always be higher, even if the very valid issues you mentioned were solved.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#143

Post by chrisseaton »

eweise wrote: post #90
chrisseaton wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing away with pensions? Huh? How would that work? What would everyone do when they got too old to work? Do you think people should just build up a savings account? Without an annuity what would they do if they live longer than they planned and run out of savings?

You mean what would all the government workers do when they get too old to work? I don't know but I don't get a pension so why should I pay for theirs?

I don't understand (and I'm being down voted so I must be saying something stupid) but why do you care if government workers get a salary and a pension bought for them, or a bit more salary and buy their own pension?

And don't most most jobs still include a pension as a standard benefit? I'd say you were in the minority if you're a full time tech worker and have no pension at all.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#144

Post by paavokoya »

oldmanjay wrote: post #135
sideband wrote: post #33

There's some sort of Stockholm syndrome prevalent among too many Bay Area residents that compels them to accept the lower quality of life. I lived there for several years until recently, and it was a surreal experience to hear others discuss the sacrifices they were making just to have a roof over their family's head, to provide a half-decent education for their children. And these were well-payed folks at the brand-…

It's extremely unlikely that you are the keeper of the emotional state of millions of people who aren't you. There is tremendous arrogance in asserting that people who don't outwardly share your opinion are pathological, when your source is at best a few 10s of acquaintances.

>some sort of ... among too many

I don't see him asserting that millions of people are that way.. Simply that he witnessed several instances of this or that it may have been common for him to see this.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#145

Post by dmode »

So, "exodus" is used to define a mere outflow of 60K residents ? That is less than 0.05%. Also, this article makes no sense. If California was losing people for the last 22 years, how come it's population went from 29 million in 1990 to 40 million in 2016 ? I hate how none of these "exodus" articles are data centric and explain these two discrepancies. Is the population growth then due to birth rate ? or due to immigration ? Also, interestingly the same article notes that job growth in Bay Area has been at it's highest point ever

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#146

Post by jonathankoren »

FussyZeus wrote: post #5

No interest to move to the Bay area. You could work literally anywhere else and live like a millionaire on their salaries but by the time you've paid for a house and car there you might as well live in a VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER.

There's no river, but I found this. http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/sbw/5642724453.html

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#147

Post by dmode »

zeveb wrote: post #125

California today is the United States in a decade or two: its dysfunctions are the product of decades of poor policy decisions (often, the poor decision was to have a policy in the first place) by voters and their elected officials alike. A huge problem is that people move from California to other states in order to escape Californian problems, but once they get to their new state they miss a few things about Califor…

This makes no sense. Because people who move to California also move from other states.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#148

Post by rconti »

sideband wrote: post #33

There's some sort of Stockholm syndrome prevalent among too many Bay Area residents that compels them to accept the lower quality of life. I lived there for several years until recently, and it was a surreal experience to hear others discuss the sacrifices they were making just to have a roof over their family's head, to provide a half-decent education for their children. And these were well-payed folks at the brand-…

Sounds like you did the right thing by moving somewhere that suits what you were looking for.

Similarly, I did the right thing by moving out of the Northwest to the Bay Area where my quality of life is vastly better.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#149

Post by owyn »

lubujackson wrote: post #74
nfriedly wrote: post #47

My wife and I spent a year in the Bay Area (San Mateo), and there was a lot to love. Great weather, awesome farmers markets, plenty of work, etc. But holly cow was it expensive! My rent was around $2000/month. I had a co-worker living in SF proper who's apartment was $4500/month. And that was 4-5 years ago, it's probably gone up by now. After a year, we moved back to Ohio - I now have a good-sized house on nearly an…

Yup, rents have gone up approx. 50% in the last few years. A 1 BR in SF is now averaging $3200/mo. I believe. AVERAGING. The secret killer behind these prices is that only newcomers pay them. Most renters who have been in SF for more than 5 years are in a rent-controlled building, which means their rent is basically locked in, which is good on one hand but on the other, you can never move out. Black mold? Leaking roo…

Yep, rents have doubled since I moved here.

I moved to the bay area about 8 years ago. In that time, the house in Seattle that I lived in doubled in value, the equivalent of about 50k/year. Since I have lived here, the rents have also doubled, the equivalent of about 25k/year. I'm actually paying about the same (mortgage there vs rent here). I could have parked everything in AAPL and made about 5x. There are opportunity costs everywhere.

Money is only part of the equation but I'm making more than that difference in salary and I'm a LOT happier in SF. Being closer to friends and family and having a better work/life balance, being able to ride my bike to work, makes a big difference for me in overall happiness score. YMMV of course.

The building I live in used to be a terrible slum situation, and the new owners have renovated it (of course, living here during the renovation wasn't fun). I feel lucky there. Friends of mine have also been evicted and moved to other cities or other countries as a result of not being able to afford anything.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#150

Post by kartD »

spking wrote: post #112
kartD wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious about this, what do they hate about Californians? I mean California is very diverse. The main cites (Bay and LA) are very liberal but the restof CA is pretty right leaning. So I imagine you get pretty much every kind of person from California and it would be hard to hate all of them.

When I moved from San Francisco to the Denver area about 10 years ago, the attitude I picked up on wasn't so much personal hatred as it was, "Oh great, another Californian moving here to make our freeways more crowded and drive up the cost of everything". Sure, there are significant cultural and political deltas, but I think a lot of the disgust for Californians moving to other states is just the simple fact that peo…

Good old NIMBYism
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