5 ms·

The last thing I would want to do is buy a home in SF if I made a few million suddenly. It's still not cheap, you'll get killed on property taxes, the house wil

The last thing I would want to do is buy a home in SF if I made a few million suddenly. It's still not cheap, you'll get killed on property taxes, the house will need work, it will also likely need an earthquake retrofit. If you're already on rent control you could invest it, travel for a long time, and do whatever you wanted. Unless you have a burning desire to buy immediately or hope to make money off SF real estate (Investment, Airbnb, etc) I don't think it really makes sense. It sounds ridiculous but a few million dollars doesn't actually go that far in SF if you're wanting to be a home owner _and_ retired. If you want to continue working I guess it would be fine but why would anyone want to keep working if they worked like crazy pre IPO? I suppose if you have a multi unit you could rent the space and live off of that income but now you've just decreased the value of your home significantly and you've taken on responsibility of being a landlord.

thorwasdfasdf 8y ago
This. You'd think this is the perfect ticket out of here, they'd been waiting for. So many great cities in the US with much lower housing costs and no feces lining the streets.
- kelnos 8y ago
  For me, what's keeping me in the bay area is my social circle. The thought of starting over (late 30s) socially in a new city where I only know 0 or 1 or 2 people... it sounds exhausting and lonely. Then again, with the money I'd be saving living in a more reasonable city, I could probably fly back here every weekend and still break even.
  - pertymcpert 8y ago
    Or go to London (assuming Brexit has some resolution) or Paris. Way better culture and interesting to live in.
refurb 8y ago
This is really true. I keep an eye on the SF market and $1M will buy you a tiny home (1100 sq ft) that has had little to no upgrades in the last 30 years in a neighborhood that is still "up and coming". If you want what most middle class would regard as a nice home (1500 sq ft+, upgraded in the last 20 years, in a nice neighborhood), you're looking at $1.5M-$1.75M. Or with 20% down, a monthly payment (mortgage, taxes, insurance) of over $9,000+ per month or nearly 100% of the take home pay for a $200,000 a year job. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but houses can't keep going up like that. Take a look at the historical Case-Shiller data for SF[1] and tell me it's not "bubble-like". SF will always be expensive (always has), but this seems ridiculous. [1]https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SFXRSA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SFXRSA
- novok 8y ago
  Your mostly paying for land, not the building on the land. You can get away with crappy quality in the bay a lot longer than other places because of the climate, which is partly why everything is in such bad shape.
gumby 8y ago
The property taxes aren't especially high and prop 13 means they can't go up more than 2%/year (but can go down if the market drops). I wouldn't live in SF if I had kids (before and after OK, from my experience) but Silicon Valley is OK if you have kids. edit: 2% rise, my incorrect number was corrected by dragonwriter.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > The property taxes aren't especially high Capped at 1% of assessed value, California property taxes under Prop 13 are notably low. You-might in theory in SF, or some parts, have high Mello-Roos fees (which are parcel taxes not tied to value), though I don't think that's he case. > prop 13 means they can't go up more than 1%/year Assessed value for tax purposes is limited to 2% annual increase under Prop 13, not 1%.

thorwasdfasdf 8y ago

This. You'd think this is the perfect ticket out of here, they'd been waiting for. So many great cities in the US with much lower housing costs and no feces lining the streets.

kelnos 8y ago
For me, what's keeping me in the bay area is my social circle. The thought of starting over (late 30s) socially in a new city where I only know 0 or 1 or 2 people... it sounds exhausting and lonely. Then again, with the money I'd be saving living in a more reasonable city, I could probably fly back here every weekend and still break even.
- pertymcpert 8y ago
  Or go to London (assuming Brexit has some resolution) or Paris. Way better culture and interesting to live in.

refurb 8y ago

This is really true. I keep an eye on the SF market and $1M will buy you a tiny home (1100 sq ft) that has had little to no upgrades in the last 30 years in a neighborhood that is still "up and coming". If you want what most middle class would regard as a nice home (1500 sq ft+, upgraded in the last 20 years, in a nice neighborhood), you're looking at $1.5M-$1.75M. Or with 20% down, a monthly payment (mortgage, taxes, insurance) of over $9,000+ per month or nearly 100% of the take home pay for a $200,000 a year job. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but houses can't keep going up like that. Take a look at the historical Case-Shiller data for SF[1] and tell me it's not "bubble-like". SF will always be expensive (always has), but this seems ridiculous. [1]https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SFXRSA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SFXRSA

novok 8y ago
Your mostly paying for land, not the building on the land. You can get away with crappy quality in the bay a lot longer than other places because of the climate, which is partly why everything is in such bad shape.

gumby 8y ago

The property taxes aren't especially high and prop 13 means they can't go up more than 2%/year (but can go down if the market drops). I wouldn't live in SF if I had kids (before and after OK, from my experience) but Silicon Valley is OK if you have kids. edit: 2% rise, my incorrect number was corrected by dragonwriter.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> The property taxes aren't especially high Capped at 1% of assessed value, California property taxes under Prop 13 are notably low. You-might in theory in SF, or some parts, have high Mello-Roos fees (which are parcel taxes not tied to value), though I don't think that's he case. > prop 13 means they can't go up more than 1%/year Assessed value for tax purposes is limited to 2% annual increase under Prop 13, not 1%.