Some Silicon Valley Tech Workers Get Home Loans with No Money Down • Hacker News Board

Re: Some Silicon Valley Tech Workers Get Home Loans with No Money Down

#191

Post by charlesdm » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 12:56 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #161

encoderer wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody thinks it's Chinese money, and sure there is some. But there are just a lot of very highly paid ppl in the bay area. Facebook, Google, &c are moving a lot more money into this region than any Chinese outflows. In all my experience here, SF is not a city of the empty pied-à-terre.

They just released some data on foreign purchases in another crazy market, Vancouver. In the last month (June?) 10% of purchasers were foreign (all countries) and the average house price was the same as domestic purchasers. Foreign investment has an impact in Vancouver, but by and large, it's Canadians who are over-extending themselves to get into a market they think they will be priced out of forever.

And after a few years, prices will crash. Oh how we've seen this story again and again.

Re: Some Silicon Valley Tech Workers Get Home Loans with No Money Down

#192

Post by GeneralMayhem » Fri, Jul 29, 2016, 2:02 AM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #122

GeneralMayhem wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new elites are in tech, but they're not the rank and file. Making even $250k/yr may be top-5% for income and give you breathing room to make a few investments, but it will never make you wealthy . That's lifetime earnings of about $10m before taxes, so you likely wouldn't get to fuck-you money ever, let alone with time to use it. There's a very serious discontinuity somewhere around the $1m/year mark where you ge…

> it will never make you wealthy. That's lifetime earnings of about $10m before taxes This thread has taught me that people in the valley or the HN echo chamber really sort of have no idea how most people live in this country, let alone around the world.

I don't see the contradiction between what I said and what you said. Most people in this country, let alone around the world, aren't wealthy. Most of the "middle class", as used in contemporary American political rhetoric, are poor. Just because tech employees aren't generally wondering where their next meal (or even next few rent checks) will come from doesn't mean they're wealthy.

The levels of income we're talking about for tech employees, especially in the SF area but also in most places in the US, will still force you to continue working for a salary for your entire adult life (until retirement age) or else eventually starve. You never get to the point where you can just quit. That's the distinction between us and Zuckerberg that comparing us to somebody making $50k doesn't expose: like them, we have to work and will probably never be anything more than comfortable with some luxuries. We're all proletariat - maybe bordering on petit bourgeoisie at the upper end, but still working for our money rather than having our money work for us.

Re: Some Silicon Valley Tech Workers Get Home Loans with No Money Down

#193

Post by GeneralMayhem » Fri, Jul 29, 2016, 2:10 AM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #187

refurb wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average American household (no individual) income is $52,000 (2014). You've got people on HN claiming that making 5x that makes them solidly middle class because they can't afford a home in one of the most expensive places in the world.

Exactly. The parent comment ignores the fact that in their scenario of "only" making $10MM in an entire career, they could spend as much as the average family for 20 years and have $9MM lying around in cash, plus interest. But, supposedly, not be wealthy.

Well, if you make $10MM at $250k/yr over 40 years in California, you're only taking home maybe 65% of that. And you're presumably paying rent. Let's be generous and call it $24,000/yr, and say that you do incredibly well at saving and manage to put together a down payment after 5 years, so after that only $5000/yr (wild ballparking, I haven't done the math since I'm so far from being a homeowner) goes to interest/taxes rather than your own equity.

At the end of 40 years, that puts you at $6.2M - a further 20% of which is tied up in housing equity - before any other expenses. That's a decent retirement, yes, but it's not rich in the way that the elites are rich. Not even close.