3 ms·

I completely agree with both points. I think that people are also terrified of spending that much money on a house after 2008 and having student debt.

mikeyouse 7y ago
I've been trying to buy a house for a few years now in the Bay Area as a non-developer (read: Not seeing $100k bonuses or RSU grants) and the prices just keep running away from me. I've saved up enough now to buy a house 3 years ago, but prices have increased by $300k-$400k since then which means I need another ~$75k for a down payment. At what point to I just give up and move somewhere else? It's honestly just exhausting.
- Konnstann 7y ago
  What do you do, if you don't mind me asking? The Bay Area doesn't seem like a great place to be if you aren't a dev making SV money.
  - mikeyouse 7y ago
    I work in finance for a nonprofit but have spent a few years at startups doing ops/finance work and might go back to that some day, my wife is a medical professional (but not a physician). We're in a similar position to one of the other posters below in that we both have great jobs with plenty of opportunity here, but it's just brutal to keep up with the tech money or really feel like it's "home" when we have to keep renting and need a fortune set aside in case we have children and one of us wants to stay home for a year or two to raise the kids.
- helen___keller 7y ago
  > At what point to I just give up and move somewhere else? It's honestly just exhausting. I feel a lot of the same exhaustion (despite not being in the bay area), but it comes down to what you want in life and what your options are. If my wife and I both want to continue our careers, there are scant few metros available in her specialized field. We can afford the rent, and we're happy in the Boston area, so we're not planning to move right now. But I also want to raise kids in a city where they could one day return from college and make a living without being forced into software or investment banking or medicine. This is the biggest thing on my mind personally. The kind of city you get when cost of living is absurdly high, is not the kind of city I want to live in. Right now I've put off that decision, but it's something I plan to revisit within the next 5 years.
  - mikeyouse 7y ago
    Yep - that feels very similar to our thought process. Unfortunately, we're in our mid-30s now so that kid discussion / location decision can't be deferred for too much longer. We were really hoping for another real estate reset, we could afford a million dollar house if it was in the right place (e.g. that we wouldn't also need to pay for day care / private schools for the next two decades) but it's just hard to stomach how much everything here costs.
- wahern 7y ago
  Maybe it's too late, but in the Bay Area banks sometimes make jumbo loans with as little as 5% or less down. (At least, that was my understanding circa 2014 when discussing these things with a loan officer.) Mortgage insurance sucks, but if you had bought 3 years ago you might have been able to achieve 20% equity (appreciation and savings) and refinanced by now.

mikeyouse 7y ago

I've been trying to buy a house for a few years now in the Bay Area as a non-developer (read: Not seeing $100k bonuses or RSU grants) and the prices just keep running away from me. I've saved up enough now to buy a house 3 years ago, but prices have increased by $300k-$400k since then which means I need another ~$75k for a down payment. At what point to I just give up and move somewhere else? It's honestly just exhausting.

Konnstann 7y ago
What do you do, if you don't mind me asking? The Bay Area doesn't seem like a great place to be if you aren't a dev making SV money.
- mikeyouse 7y ago
  I work in finance for a nonprofit but have spent a few years at startups doing ops/finance work and might go back to that some day, my wife is a medical professional (but not a physician). We're in a similar position to one of the other posters below in that we both have great jobs with plenty of opportunity here, but it's just brutal to keep up with the tech money or really feel like it's "home" when we have to keep renting and need a fortune set aside in case we have children and one of us wants to stay home for a year or two to raise the kids.
helen___keller 7y ago
> At what point to I just give up and move somewhere else? It's honestly just exhausting. I feel a lot of the same exhaustion (despite not being in the bay area), but it comes down to what you want in life and what your options are. If my wife and I both want to continue our careers, there are scant few metros available in her specialized field. We can afford the rent, and we're happy in the Boston area, so we're not planning to move right now. But I also want to raise kids in a city where they could one day return from college and make a living without being forced into software or investment banking or medicine. This is the biggest thing on my mind personally. The kind of city you get when cost of living is absurdly high, is not the kind of city I want to live in. Right now I've put off that decision, but it's something I plan to revisit within the next 5 years.
- mikeyouse 7y ago
  Yep - that feels very similar to our thought process. Unfortunately, we're in our mid-30s now so that kid discussion / location decision can't be deferred for too much longer. We were really hoping for another real estate reset, we could afford a million dollar house if it was in the right place (e.g. that we wouldn't also need to pay for day care / private schools for the next two decades) but it's just hard to stomach how much everything here costs.
wahern 7y ago
Maybe it's too late, but in the Bay Area banks sometimes make jumbo loans with as little as 5% or less down. (At least, that was my understanding circa 2014 when discussing these things with a loan officer.) Mortgage insurance sucks, but if you had bought 3 years ago you might have been able to achieve 20% equity (appreciation and savings) and refinanced by now.