I also live in Silicon Valley. The housing prices in my neighborhood have become very scary - 1-2 bedroom houses listed at $1.5 -$1.6 million with 900- 1100 square feet with lot size of 3200 square feet ! I’m considered one of the lucky ones, since we purchased our house in 1991 and paid $319k( at that time that was a lot of money). Our house is considerably larger at 1750 square feet on a 7500 square foot lot. These smaller homes are listed and are barely on the market for 24-36 hours and are sold with all cash offers and have had 75-100 bidders !!!
Big Four accounting firms seem to always have positions in the Bay area & Silicon Valley starting at $105,000 per year that remain unfilled. Probably due to the high cost of housing.
Many West Coast cities have homeless people who hold full time jobs.
Palo Alto has a bit of a housing crisis too. So, some people are living in RV’s parked along El Camino Real in front of the Stanford campus.
Should be a good market for new & used RVs.
Housing is ridiculous. I have a house in SF in a not so great area that was bought for $275k back in 1992 and yep it’s $1.5 mil, probably more since it’s a relatively big house. I’m so stupid in that I haven’t raised the rent for the past 8 years until this year and now I’m stuck with the way-below-market rates because of rent control unless I decide to move back there.
I guess I’m lucky with housing since I bought many years ago but I can’t fathom any family being able to afford anything decent unless they’re making minimum $250K.
The county my mom lives in (in NY) has a median house cost of 77K.
The problem is jobs are scarce 5.3% unemployment and median income of 44.5K. There’s not much in selection for dining, shopping, or things like movies. Then too, winter lasts forever. The couple months of summer are gorgeous though.
Too big of a tradeoff, IMO. I’d look for a job elsewhere. If I owned in SF/Silicon Valley, I’d sell and cash out.
5.3% unemployment is still pretty low. A lot of states with relatively lower costs of living have much lower employment rates. If there isn’t a lot of shopping (could personally care less) or dining, I bet there is a lot of outdoor pursuits available.
I really don’t get the allure of living in a high cost area if your high income is eroded to the point you are considering yourself “low income”.
SF is experiencing a shortage of waiters. (Duh) Instead of charging $20 for a burger, restaurants are “asking” diners to do a little bit of the work themselves.
I have to post this. Lol.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/19/burned-shell-of-a-home-sells-for-more-than-900000-in-san-jose/amp/
My D is a health care consultant who flew from Nashville & later from Chicago to San Francisco every Monday/back every Thursday for 3 years. People asked her why she didn’t just move to SF. Those of you posting here certainly know the answer to that question!
I have a friend who works at Google. His family lives in Reno. He owns a tiny plane and an RV. So he lives on the streets in his RV 4 nights a week and then commutes by plane to Reno for the weekends. Crazy lifestyle but cheaper than actually having the whole family live in Mountain View.
On the flip slde, my oldest decided to stay in Salem, OR this summer (Willamette student). The upside - her portion of rent is $325/month, and that includes her own bedroom. The downside - it took her over a month just to find part-time retail work. Yes, you can live on full-time minimum wage there… if you can find a full-time minimum wage job.
Well, it’s selling at lot value.
In certain neighborhoods in Dallas, a 100’ x 150’ lot would go for that or more. If there is a house on it, it will be torn down to make room for a new build.
A teardown on 5-7000 square feet in Honolulu goes for about that price in many neighborhoods around here–sometimes more! There are many multi-generational families who are living together rather than living on the streets.
Ditto Seattle. $900k for a 6,000 sft lot is not unheard of. If one is looking at Medina or even some parts of Bellevue or Kirkland, one can expect pony up a million or more for a buildable lot with no topo or other issues. A house just south of us sold for $1.8M (yuck, what a split level dump!) and is already gone. A Chinese buyer looking to park their cash will buy whatever is built on that cleared land. Don’t forget that SF is attracting a lot of foreign RE investment money. Sadly, we are next.
The house in a relative’s neighborhood sold for 2.5mm, iirc as a tear down. I think it was 10,000 square feet. The place was torn down entirely.
Some of our cities should consider following Vancouver’s lead in taxing overseas investor owners who are non-residents. I think even conservatives would know it’s not in our best interest to have …
OK, not going there. Sorry to digress. I’m just sad because my daughters will probably never be able to afford a place large enough for a family.
One recent Pew survey found that 32% of adults live in a shared household – with at least one extra adult who is not a traditional family member. It’s quite common for younger adults to live with parents, or family/friends to assist others who are struggling financially.
I live in another area of CA with high a high cost of living, probably higher than SF as a whole, but less than places like Palo Alto. In addition to the categories above, it’s also common for younger persons to have shared housing, such as getting 1 bedroom of a suburban house for several hundred a month. Some also get basic studio apartments and/or move in to less expensive neighboring towns, often leading to a larger commute. Looking on CL, I see basic rooms in the SF area start around $500/month.
It’s been several years, but when my son lived in MV, he paid $1200 for small room, with shared bath, and $1500 for the master bedroom with own bath. There were always 2-3 others living there. Everything seemed so overpriced
Our D rents a room in a house in LA. She’s thrilled to have parking and washer/dryer. Other places she lived had neither. She lives with unrelated adults. They are all ok with the arrangement and none can afford to live alone, though it’s not their 1st choice.
“I’m just sad because my daughters will probably never be able to afford a place large enough for a family.”
Sure they can if they are willing to relocate to other parts of the country - something I’d encourage my own kids to do for finding quality of life. It’s not just decent housing but having the ability to save and invest which is necessary for wealth creation and financial stability and independence at some point. In the most expensive areas of the country, so much goes to just surviving that disposable income for fun stuff, travel, and savings often goes out the window.