Things that made you frown today (Political Version)

Why is it Dallas can figure all this out but San Francisco can't? Hell, the city of Dallas is far larger than San Francisco, the Metro area is larger too... But the housing prices aren't that bad at all.

Hmmm...

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Originally Posted by time4fun

So this isn't going to be a super popular opinion, and I want to disclaim here that we don't have kids. And kids are a massive drain on finances in a way that can't be overstated, and about which I can genuinely only surmise. And I really can't imagine how hard it is to raise a kid in the Bay Area on "only" (gag) a low six figure salary. We have friends making 3x that who are struggling to pay their bills.

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https://media.tenor.com/images/a3189...37e8/tenor.gif

Heck, Dallas and Houston have a better housing market and are not only currently larger, but growing at a quicker pace than San Francisco.

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Originally Posted by time4fun

Yeah, Newark is a 90 minute to 2 hour commute if you work in the city.

Each way.

This is a heavily populated urban area. 15 miles is a big deal for quality of life. And that house is not going to sell for $800k. It's going to sell for at least $1m.

And if you work in tech, for example, you probably work in the city. There aren't that many large tech companies (the ones that can pay what you need to make to buy a million dollar home) in Silicon Valley proper. And the ones that are there are mostly FANG. And they're not easy to get jobs at.

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I live in NoVA, though on the outskirts because thats what I can afford. I bought my townhouse for 170k in Gainesville but if I went 15 miles closer to Centreville a condo goes for 300k+. Both of those are 1.5-2 hr solid to get to DC during rush hour. You have a choice if you work in the city, buy for a crazy price near the city, rent, or buy out of the city but have a long commute. The city can only support a certain number of people actually owning land in it. When you have companies with employees that have huge salaries this is exactly what happens.

If it really takes people in Newark 2 hrs to cross the bridge though and literally go 15 miles to work (I'm assuming facebook employees) then you have a separate issues.

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Originally Posted by cwolff

Do all Jumbos require a 20% down payment? Is it possible to use a HELOC to cover the down pmnt or part of the down payment? I'd think there is some opportunity here. Stretch into a house and rent out rooms, or rent a home and jam as many people as possible in it to keep rents down. With the high salaries, bonuses and stock options there has to be a way to take advantage of the situation. Sacrifice comfort for some years and retire young in Montana, Colorado or another country. The advantage the tech employees in CA have is a big income and an analytical brain. Exploit that.

Check out this guy for inspiration. He's in Fort Collins and has turned his frugality into big business.

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

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So apparently it's getting easier to put 10-15% down again and still avoid PMI, but it's still dicey after the housing crash.

The problem is, though, that you're often up against people who are ready to pay cash for for the house. So if you're walking in ready to offer 10% down...good luck.

A lot of folks do exactly what you're suggesting, btw. They Airbnb a room (though they're cracking down on this hugely). And a lot more are just leaving, and companies that can't afford to keep up with the rate of inflation here are increasingly okay with remote work. You're also seeing a lot of Austin and Seattle satellite offices being built for this reason. (Though it's destroying the housing markets in those places too)

But on the whole- if you want to work in tech or big law or finance there just aren't that many places you can go. And what's going on at this point is that those who are fortunate enough to work in big law or tech are just getting paid more and more. So yeah, you can't necessarily afford to buy a house (Even if you DO work at a FANG company), but your life is still charmed. And you get amazing benefits and free food. And there's a medical center on campus, and they'll do your dry cleaning, etc etc.

The ones who are getting trampled on are the ones who aren't working in the few select fields that pay enough to live comfortably here. There are signs up on every fast food restaurant offering $15-18 an hour to start. And the signs are up because they can't find anyone to take the jobs. Regular people are starting to move 30 or 40 miles away and just commuting because there's no other way to afford it. Either that or they're living in a house with 6 other people in SF and barely getting by.

I wasn't kidding about people making $50k living in cars.

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Originally Posted by cwolff

It's not the cost of materials that makes home ownership in Silicon Valley problematic.

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Like nobody else fucking cares, I think anybody that lives in these places are retarded to begin with. I was more thinking about a path to land ownership for the poor, but you're stupid.

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Originally Posted by drauz

I live in NoVA, though on the outskirts because thats what I can afford. I bought my townhouse for 170k in Gainesville but if I went 15 miles closer to Centreville a condo goes for 300k+. Both of those are 1.5-2 hr solid to get to DC during rush hour. You have a choice if you work in the city, buy for a crazy price near the city, rent, or buy out of the city but have a long commute. The city can only support a certain number of people actually owning land in it. When you have companies with employees that have huge salaries this is exactly what happens.

If it really takes people in Newark 2 hrs to cross the bridge though and literally go 15 miles to work (I'm assuming facebook employees) then you have a separate issues.

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One more reason why the US desperately needs to invest in high speed public transportation infrastructure.

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Originally Posted by Neveragain

Like nobody else fucking cares, I think anybody that lives in these places are retarded to begin with. I was more thinking about a path to land ownership for the poor, but you're stupid.

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No one's talking about a path to land ownership for the poor here but I can see that your feelings got hurt and you're lashing out. If you want to discuss getting poor people to homestead I'd start a new thread about it.

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Originally Posted by Androidpk

One more reason why the US desperately needs to invest in high speed public transportation infrastructure.

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I'd actually love that. I wouldn't own a car if I could travel around cheaply. Save me shit tons.

Actually, no, I'd still have a car, but I might get something a lot smaller than my SUV.

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Originally Posted by cwolff

No one's talking about a path to land ownership for the poor here but I can see that your feelings got hurt and you're lashing out. If you want to discuss getting poor people to homestead I'd start a new thread about it.

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Oh, I didn't know I posted in the "I'm a whiny little bitch" thread. My bad. :buttkick: