<p>I remember how my aunt sold a town house in san francisco for around $775,000. But I was thinking, you could get the same thing here in St. Louis for about $100,000. After all a $700,000 home out here means your quite well off. So how do you guys afford it? I’m guessing pay is higher?</p>
<p>rent is higher</p>
<p>getting in the market early here is a good idea too</p>
<p>the thing to remember about living in st louis is…</p>
<p>every morning</p>
<p>when you wake up</p>
<p>you’ll be in st. louis</p>
<p>Taffy
i don’t get it? So in cali, when you wake up, you wouldn’t be in cali?.. (sorry i really dont get it)</p>
<p>$100k for a house… wouldn’t it have like 1 bedroom or something? In newzealand, (well i guess just where I live…not speaking for the whole country), houses price from 600k-1.5mil. I have not heard of a 100,000 house in my life… until now</p>
<p>It’d be nice to live in california! I would live there when I have a family but I’m quite worried about the hot hot weather. hot is ok. But too hot every single day of the year would kill me…</p>
<p>i want to live in cali… but then we would be considered homeless people.</p>
<p>i heard owning just a condo there is around half a million. thats insane.</p>
<p>haha in cali? no… </p>
<p>it depends where you live… SF housing is expensive. dont expect to live in your suburbia house here.</p>
<p>NoFX, it actually comes from “yeah houses in nebraska cost like nothing” and followed by “yeah definitely, but the thing about living in nebraska is… every morning when you wake up… you’re going to be in nebraska”</p>
<p>and it isnt hot hot every day here… im in northern california and i looove the weather. i dont really like so cal as much. i havnt worn sunscreen here since i was like 8 years old, but when i go to so cal its like mandatory. it is about 70 degrees here year round. it hasnt snowed here in like 20 years, but you can drive to shasta for that. today it was like 80. i dont know how to compare it to new zealand, because that place is supposed to be the most beautiful place on earth, with VERY high housing prices.</p>
<p>for the record, my friend’s dad bought a brand new, 2 bedroom 1 bath 1 living room and kitchen condo for 89 grand… he says its worth 300k now, but in some contract he cant sell it to make a profit… he says he can only sell for 30% market value, but in 2030 its full ownership. hmm</p>
<p>this is in san mateo, about 30 mins from SF</p>
<p>NoFX, it’s a townhouse. A townhouse is like an apartment, not quite like a house. But it is expensive, our 5 bedroom house cost us 300k when we first bought it, it’s raised in value since then, but like taffy said, i’m still going to be in Virginia. </p>
<p>By the way NoFX, do you have that New Zealand accent?
A girl I know who lived in New Zealand all her life has that accent, and when I first heard it when she came to the states, I thought it was really cute :)</p>
<p>I live in the Bay Area, and when we moved here 12 years ago, our house cost $300 or $350K. (We moved from a townhome in Mountain View). Now, even though our house has nothing new in it except the roof and windows since it was built in the 1960s, it would still sell for about $900K. And no, salaries are not better here. In fact, I believe our teachers are paid less then in almost every other state, though I’m not positive on that fact. It seems more to me that if you want to buy in to CA, you have to either buy at the very bootom of the market, get a big loan, and/or be very rich to begin with. Otherwise, preices really are ridiculous. Our neighbors, who have had a bit more of their house redone, or at least the kitchen, sold their house last year for I believe $1.3 million. Granted, I live in a nicer neighborhood, but really anywhere you go is still going to be expensive. </p>
<p>Oh, and Taffy, where on earth are you in norcal? Yesterday and today were both over 100 degrees. Yesterday, my mom and I even drove the hour and a half to Carmel to escape the heat. While it does not often reach these temperatures, it can sometimes, and it is absolutely awful.</p>
<p>its not always hot, even down here in socal. and its really expensive, even in suburbia. </p>
<p>it sucks though, that the houses have practically no backyard. when i was little i tried to convince my parents to move to the middle of nowhere so i could have a big backyard and a bigger house.</p>
<p>belmont</p>
<p>30 mins south of SF</p>
<p>northern northern california is hitting 100 a lot… ahah</p>
<p>and adding to what be<em>a</em>star said…not only do the houses cost more, the general cost of living is really high. gas, etc…everything costs a ton. oh well</p>
<p>I’d like a bigger house too, though our backyard isn’t bad. The house is 2500 square feet, but my uncle (who lives in Beverly Hills!) sends us these dream home magazines all the time, and I’ve seen manors and castle-like homes in New England, PA, and CO that are fabulously huge homes for about the cost of my house. That’s where I’m moving when I buy a house!</p>
<p>“I believe our teachers are paid less then in almost every other state, though I’m not positive on that fact.”</p>
<p>Starting salaries for teachers in Cali can be quite low ($35k-$40k) but the union pay scale can reach $80k+. It just takes many, many years to get up there.</p>
<p>Housing prices here are so high, but property values seem to appreciate quickly, and people keep moving to Cali. San Jose (Silicon Valley) is the 3rd largest city in California and 10th largest in the nation with 904k+ people! It recently surpassed Detroit.
<a href=“http://sev.prnewswire.com/publishing-information-services/20050701/SFTH07030062005-1.html[/url]”>http://sev.prnewswire.com/publishing-information-services/20050701/SFTH07030062005-1.html</a></p>
<p>The problem with California housing is that you don’t get much property for your money.</p>
<p>Teacher pay scale info (national, not California)
<a href=“http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_salaryrangenarrowjob_20_ED01.html[/url]”>http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_salaryrangenarrowjob_20_ED01.html</a></p>
<p>wow 80 degrees!! Auckland has really crappy weather… like, in winter, there’s no snow, but rain. The coldest day I remember in auckland was -1 degrees celcius. And the hottest day of the summer last year was 28 degrees. </p>
<p>Sarorah, yeah I guess I have the accent but… yeah… it sounds normal to me…? lol cute? As long as it doesnt sound Australian, it’s fine by me hahaha</p>
<p>Oh and those marketing houses things thing are really good. My parents bought a house on the waterfront, (a couple of streets away from our house), for $700,000 a couple of years ago (for people to rent) and now, it’s worth $1.4 mil!!
Thumbs up to all that marketing thinggee</p>
<p>NoFX,</p>
<p>haha. dont mean to laugh but i thought it was funny (in a cute way) you didnt get taffy’s joke. basically “the thing to remember about living in st louis is…every morning when you wake up you’ll be in st. louis” is sayin it sucks to live in st louis.</p>
<p>Cost of living in the Bay Area is ridiculously high compared to anywhere else int eh country excepting other major metropolitan areas like New York and fast growth areas like Florida. </p>
<p>The key to understand about housing in the bay area is that EVERYTHING is expensive. Even if you sell your house for 3 times what you bought it for, you won’t be able to buy anything better if you want to stay in the neighborhood because everything else has appreciated as well. So while people make more money and houses are worth more, it’s all monopoly money as far as day-to-day life goes. </p>
<p>Side Note: I read that there is a huge housing bubble going on in Australia right now, is the same happenening in New Zealand?</p>
<p>A town house for 775,000??? That’s a good price…</p>
<p>some places just have very expensive real estate because the land is valued so high. I would expect San Francisco to be that expensive, in fact I’m shocked that it wasn’t more expensive. There’s a big difference between a plot of land in Manhattan and one in Wisconsin. Even renovated Harlem townhouses sell for at least $1 mil.</p>
<p>CA is, in general, very expensive.
i live in So Cal, more specifically san diego, and i tell u that the prices of homes and condos have been skyrocketing since late 1990’s. its kinda insane. but this kind of insanity only applies to the coastal area where whether is nice all year around. if you go in to the desert area, the prices of homes/condos are still cheap and affordable, but frankly what would you do in the desert where theres no entertainment, no beach, no sports teams and etc.
so i guess u gotta pay haughty amounts to live in great areas.</p>
<p>hoho, i went to borego a few years ago… what a hell hole! they have a golf course and the weather is supposed to be like 120 all summer.</p>