First we have the PA commissioner leaving PA for Santa Cruz and now this CEO leaving for Portland (which is not a bad place I hear) due to the high housing cost here.
Come on, this guy probably easily makes a few 100k I would think and that PA couple combined probably makes close or even more than this guy and yet they left because their respective ideal city for residence was too expensive. What the heck is going on? We have obviously seen flight to the Northwest before and will continue to see it but not generally folks of this caliber (or maybe no one ever reported on them before or asked) They obviously could have just chosen cities nearby that are just as nice but nope, off they went. Well, I like it here and I ain’t leavin’ for nuthin’…
I think a lot of people will leave…but many more keep coming…I have pretty much left myself…Unless you make $300k combined income in tech, or own your house free and clear and have a $100k pension, a lot will leave. …arbitrage to a cheaper area…Few places as nice, though…of course Tahoe is the exception, but only if you are retired with a healthy income stream…Hawaii, San Diego, Napa, Carmel, Aspen, Palm Beach, and a few other places are more desirable for many, but have few high paying jobs compared to the tech miracle BA goldmine…
I don’t get why the PA couple didn’t move to the east bay and commute across the bridge. Santa Cruz isn’t cheap. Plus, what career options are there?
I don’t get why the CEO is just now trying to buy. Why didn’t he buy in 2009-2013?
I have some friends in that boat. They were content to rent, because rents were cheap. They told me I was dumb to buy. Now their rents have gone up a lot, and they can’t afford to buy anymore. Correction, they can’t afford to buy what they could have bought a few years ago. Now those same people tell me I’m lucky I bought. I’m mad I didn’t buy something more expensive.
I remmber everyone buying the cheapest they could find…entry level…Always buy the most you can afford…But the fear mongers like Lexa were pervasive and persuasive. …Probably, secretly buying…Took lots of guts to buy in 2009…I was at the court house auctions watching guys buy $100k houses in EPA at the courthouse steps…I didnt have the guts or the stomach for being a slum landord…now those houses are worth $500k plus…
I lost big money in the 2008 crash…Plus I couldn’t get credit like before. .It was tough being sidelined during the biggest price appreciation jump since 1987-1991…Have since recovered. …still opportunities out there…buying houses in Stockton for 90k that sold for 40k 3 years ago…flipping them at $150…
Yes, opportunities are still out there. But by definition those are houses or areas that many people don’t want. Yet. Deals are only deals in hindsight. At that moment it takes guts and vision to see thru the crap. Most lack either guts or vision.
I am getting excited by the slowdown already. Planning my next buy. People say we are at the top and poised to crash? Bwahahahaha. Stay on the sideline kiddos. It’s a game for grownups.
Who, me @hanera? Well, yes, but if something interesting comes along I will consider it. Singapore sounds great later when we retire but I think Malaysia would be cheaper and that is where my inlaws are technically anyways. Besides, I have bigger plans down the road like redeveloping the family building in lower Nob Hill and that will be an expensive proposition for us kids to do but I am saving up my pennies as we speak. It will be worthwhile as it will pay us back in spades since Chinatown and that whole general area is about to blow up once the underground bus station is done me thinks. That part of SF gets the best weather, I don’t care what anyone says. I want to make the Old Lady where I grew up shine like no other building on the block. Modernized with elevator, multi space parking, roof deck, etc will be awesome. That will be the defining remodeling project for my life (unless I go full prefab at my Fremont home). It should be so nice that I should be able to convince my wife to move there even though she loves our Sunset home. If anyone wants my prime Sunset home at that point, let me know. I’ll give you the Realestateforums.net fellow member discount…
I thought prices would stay flat for awhile. My plan was buy cheap enough, so I could afford to save up another down payment. Then I’d rent this place and buy another place to live. Prices shot up so fast. Now I’d need to sell to buy another. So I’m ok with a dip that lets me buy another.
The rate of RE appreciation and rent increases from 2011 surprise many people. Not many expect the software industry to boom. This is where experience is a drag. Those who are around for a long time thought is just another dotcom bubble not realizing the software companies have solid business model. Also, the big influx of Asian tech professionals have changed the nature of the demand, many come from countries of high property prices and a buying not rent mentality. Me, after one year of renting, bought a town home, me, not a green card holder then and not sure whether will stay for long, buy anyway.
This is why I think it is dangerous to expect the peninsula/SF market to be replicated in other parts of the Bay Area (like east bay). The peninsula/SF is a perfect storm. Many of the type A couples trying to “make it” in the peninsula view east bay as a defeat. Rather than “lose” and settle for east bay, they prefer to just play a different game somewhere else and just move. Most of the bay area tech companies have offices all over the US (and the world). There is no mechanism to force these folks to stay in the bay area.
Oakland is paradise compared to Seattle…In fact Seattle with its rundown older neighborhoods looks like Oakland with bad weather…Having grown up in the East Bay, I know that is naturally a more desirable place to live than the Peninsula. …in the 50s and early 60’s Stanford was a backwater. .The Farm…the east bay will make a huge comeback…Berkeley Piedmont,Orinda, Lafayette Danville Alamo,are all prettier more interesting places to live than anywhere in the west bay…
Really? I thought that was the consensus software will continue to boom. Andreessen’s famous article “software eats the world” came out almost exactly 5 years ago: August 11th 2011. I remember nodding my head in complete agreement.
Not that many people are type A in tech. Many toil namelessly in their cubicles and bring lunch from home. The type A people are most likely in the sales department not engineering. I am sure there are some, like that PA commissioner, who would rather decamp to Santa Cruz than move across the Dumbarton bridge, but I don’t think that’s the majority.
