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One thing I don't understand though - how can the people in Atherton afford their houses with "only" $200k income? (yea $200k is a lot, but those houses cost a

One thing I don't understand though - how can the people in Atherton afford their houses with "only" $200k income? (yea $200k is a lot, but those houses cost a freakin' lot more!)

fyi80 13y ago
200K income, you can easily afford to allocate 25% of that to a mortgage interest (plus 10% for principal, taxes, etc), $50K/year 3.5% mortgage -> 50K/yr * 100% / 3.5%/yr = $1.5M house price interest rates are so low these days, you can spend 50% more on principal for the same interest, compared to 2006 when rates were ~6.25%.
- BillSaysThis 13y ago
  $1.5M doesn't really buy a lot of house in Atherton, at least more than a block or two from El Camino Real.
- auctiontheory 13y ago
  In going from $200K*0.25 = $50K, you forgot about personal income tax. And houses here cost more than $1.5M. (Side note: I was surprised to learn that private schools around here are $30K+/year!)
mjn 13y ago
I wonder if it would look different if you excluded long-time residents who bought in decades ago, when real-estate prices were much lower. E.g. what's the median income of a household that moved to Atherton in the past 20 years?
JimboOmega 13y ago
I have never understood how people with median household incomes afford anything in the city. For instance, the image someone else already linked shows even the lowest rents at almost $2k: http://sfist.com/attachments/SFist_Brock/SF-Infographic.png http://sfist.com/attachments/SFist_Brock/SF-Infographic.png Yet the OP shows several downtown stops, like Powell St. and Civic Center as having less than $24k of income. That is, the average income is less than the average annual rent. I have no idea how that possibly works.
- saraid216 13y ago
  It possibly doesn't: those people may move in, stay a while, start failing to pay the rent, and then move out/get evicted. Alternately, they might be getting unmarked income from relatives.

One thing I don't understand though - how can the people in Atherton afford their houses with "only" $200k income? (yea $200k is a lot, but those houses cost a freakin' lot more!)

fyi80 13y ago

200K income, you can easily afford to allocate 25% of that to a mortgage interest (plus 10% for principal, taxes, etc), $50K/year 3.5% mortgage -> 50K/yr * 100% / 3.5%/yr = $1.5M house price interest rates are so low these days, you can spend 50% more on principal for the same interest, compared to 2006 when rates were ~6.25%.

BillSaysThis 13y ago
$1.5M doesn't really buy a lot of house in Atherton, at least more than a block or two from El Camino Real.
auctiontheory 13y ago
In going from $200K*0.25 = $50K, you forgot about personal income tax. And houses here cost more than $1.5M. (Side note: I was surprised to learn that private schools around here are $30K+/year!)

mjn 13y ago

I wonder if it would look different if you excluded long-time residents who bought in decades ago, when real-estate prices were much lower. E.g. what's the median income of a household that moved to Atherton in the past 20 years?

JimboOmega 13y ago

I have never understood how people with median household incomes afford anything in the city. For instance, the image someone else already linked shows even the lowest rents at almost $2k: http://sfist.com/attachments/SFist_Brock/SF-Infographic.png http://sfist.com/attachments/SFist_Brock/SF-Infographic.png Yet the OP shows several downtown stops, like Powell St. and Civic Center as having less than $24k of income. That is, the average income is less than the average annual rent. I have no idea how that possibly works.

saraid216 13y ago
It possibly doesn't: those people may move in, stay a while, start failing to pay the rent, and then move out/get evicted. Alternately, they might be getting unmarked income from relatives.