4 ms·

> big leagues and land that $300k FAANG job that allows you to buy a home and raise a family in the bay is infinitesimal. $300k/yr is nowhere near big leagues

by meritt 7y ago

> big leagues and land that $300k FAANG job that allows you to buy a home and raise a family in the bay is infinitesimal. $300k/yr is nowhere near big leagues to buy a home and raise a family in the Bay area, just fyi. It's more like a comfortable single income where you aren't worried about paying rent or going out to dinner. You try and raise a family on a mere $300k in SF/SV, you're one layoff or recession away from being completely screwed.

xenihn 7y ago
The trick is to also marry another engineer making that much :) The majority of housing stock listed for sale in SV is being pulled off the market in a panic. I'm not sure what exactly it means, but if I had to guess, I think it's due to a huge reduction in demand. No one is buying, so sellers don't want their homes to be listed as unsold for a lengthy period of time. Eventually, people will need to sell, and then we'll see a race to the new bottom for the market, which might still be incredibly unaffordable for most. $300k will take you further then, but the issue will be whether companies will keep paying engineers that much when housing prices no longer warrant it.
sjg007 7y ago
Well it might be enough in 6 months!
- meritt 7y ago
  For sure. I'd just hate to be someone who thought signing a 30-yr note on a modest $1.5M 3-bed/2-ba home was a sustainable decision, and is now faced with the almost certain deep recession we're heading into.
derekdahmer 7y ago
You can absolutely raise a family in the SFBA on less than $300k of household income. (Source: me). You think everyone with kids in this region of 3.6m people is pulling down that kind of money? There’s plenty of 3BR houses in the east bay for less than a million, which puts your mortgage+property taxes at around $60k, which is totally doable at even half the salary you’re talking about.
- meritt 7y ago
  > which is totally doable at even half the salary you’re talking about. Half that salary? That's $150k, or after taxes, about ~$8k/mo. or $3k/mo for everything else after your alloted $5k/mo. Yes, people can survive on a lot less, but why in the world would you want to live in the Bay area just to eek by on such a paltry net outcome without nearly enough to set aside for the rainy day that's coming soon. And more importantly, that I think the vast majority of SF/SV kids seem to forget is, what happens when your cushy job disappears? How long can you survive dropping $5k/mo for a house that you could be paying $700/mo in a small town.
  - murderfs 7y ago
    Mortgage interest and property tax are tax-deductible, so if you're subtracting from after-tax income, it's more like $3-4k/month.
    - sagarm 7y ago
      Because of the SALT cap in the 2017 tax bill, property tax is effectively no longer deductible. The MID is also worth much less because of the higher standard deduction and the SALT cap.

by meritt 7y ago

xenihn 7y ago

The trick is to also marry another engineer making that much :) The majority of housing stock listed for sale in SV is being pulled off the market in a panic. I'm not sure what exactly it means, but if I had to guess, I think it's due to a huge reduction in demand. No one is buying, so sellers don't want their homes to be listed as unsold for a lengthy period of time. Eventually, people will need to sell, and then we'll see a race to the new bottom for the market, which might still be incredibly unaffordable for most. $300k will take you further then, but the issue will be whether companies will keep paying engineers that much when housing prices no longer warrant it.

sjg007 7y ago

Well it might be enough in 6 months!

meritt 7y ago
For sure. I'd just hate to be someone who thought signing a 30-yr note on a modest $1.5M 3-bed/2-ba home was a sustainable decision, and is now faced with the almost certain deep recession we're heading into.

derekdahmer 7y ago

You can absolutely raise a family in the SFBA on less than $300k of household income. (Source: me). You think everyone with kids in this region of 3.6m people is pulling down that kind of money? There’s plenty of 3BR houses in the east bay for less than a million, which puts your mortgage+property taxes at around $60k, which is totally doable at even half the salary you’re talking about.

meritt 7y ago
> which is totally doable at even half the salary you’re talking about. Half that salary? That's $150k, or after taxes, about ~$8k/mo. or $3k/mo for everything else after your alloted $5k/mo. Yes, people can survive on a lot less, but why in the world would you want to live in the Bay area just to eek by on such a paltry net outcome without nearly enough to set aside for the rainy day that's coming soon. And more importantly, that I think the vast majority of SF/SV kids seem to forget is, what happens when your cushy job disappears? How long can you survive dropping $5k/mo for a house that you could be paying $700/mo in a small town.
- murderfs 7y ago
  Mortgage interest and property tax are tax-deductible, so if you're subtracting from after-tax income, it's more like $3-4k/month.
  - sagarm 7y ago
    Because of the SALT cap in the 2017 tax bill, property tax is effectively no longer deductible. The MID is also worth much less because of the higher standard deduction and the SALT cap.