If this poll on Blind is in any way representative, landlords don’t have to worry finding tenants.
FYI I voted for they are being dumb. 
Didn’t read the article. Few questions.
First, same locality? In the same locality and rent ~ mortgage, condo looks nicer but smaller. Quite often condos are nearer to work or amenities. SFHs probably in bad neighborhoods/ streets.
Rent for a year? Common to rent for one year for the first year.
Got kids? No kids or very young kids, condos are more convenient and less chores e.g. no yard work.
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umm…it was between 96 and a 100 in a lot of places in the south bay today. 
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There are quite a bit of folks who rent. We know neighbors with family. And we also know some family thru our kid’s school. Some actually spend quite a bit renting nice SFH. And there are also those who rent apartment.
My wife and I talk about this quite a bit. How come they don’t buy?
In these cases, they rent here for the schools. They will rent for 10-12 years, until their kids graduate from high school.
I suspect these folks are quite money-wise. Many work at Google and Facebook. And some are at startup.
Maybe they are smart in a way I don’t understand. Yeah, I don’t understand at all, but I’m in the camp that believes real estate over stocks. I definitely don’t think they are dumb with money.
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Time to move to SF. Perfect whether.
I suspect they are over confident. It’s not really smart vs dumb. Most of it comes down to psychology. Do people have the discipline and can they resist the temptation to be fearful and greedy at the wrong times? Any analysis that neglects one’s own psychology is deeply flawed.
Real estate is good precisely because it’s difficult to get in and out on a smartphone screen. It forces discipline.
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“They can easily pay the downpayment and buy a ~1M sfh in the bay”
It takes time to amass a $200K-$400K down payment–how do they know people really have that banked? Took us 10 years, and we still got help from family. Also, a lot of people can pay the rent, but extra income is locked up in pre-ipo stock.
And why would they want only an ~1M house? If you’re going to buy, they’ll want to buy a more expensive one to expand the family.
103 today in RWC. I almost passed out on my run to pick up the kid from preschool. 
