patrick.net

Bellingham Bill says

We can both agree that "the System" has been running as a con-job since the 1990s and earlier.

Real estate is just one part of the machine, perhaps the biggest, perhaps not. Health care profits, deficit spending (deferred tax increases), and our persistent trade deficit are the other horsemen of course.

Agreed.

Agreed

BadIdeaCA?

Yeah there's a website for that!

Probably has a whole team working around the clock to update it in real time.

dodgerfanjohn says

I'm visiting the peninsula for the first time ever in a couple weeks. I'll let you all know if I think its worth it or not.

I can tell you I was enamored with New York City(helps that my job pays nearly double there) and I would have zero issue living in New York on Manhattan....

I suspect SF will not seem worth it based on what I know and what my assumptions are.

LA isn't even in the same league. Theres still ok houses in the $350-500K price range in multiple LA communities that are nice enough(Lakewood, Gardena, Whittier, Covina, West Covina), and one bedrooms in nice areas as low as $900/mo.

Let me give you a primer then: the Peninsula is boring as hell. In fact quite a bit of the area is built on top of fill right next to a series of shallow marshes. The entire area is exceptionally hoity-toity and fake feeling. All of the "cute" little cities within are overly gentrified and probably more Southern Californian than Southern Californian. BTW, I've worked in the valley for almost 10 years.

The rest of the Bay Area is great. I don't live anywhere near the valley.

As far as LA, I've never understood why the tech biz didn't take off there. Its got better weather and plenty of young people too.

edvard2 says

The rest of the Bay Area is great.

Is it? I've lived here all my life and have never felt it to be astronomically more expensive than it is now.

One more company from Palo Alto shines

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-goldman-group-set-buy-050419532.html

Rent continue relentless rise? Says who? My AAPL tenant is moving out soon after 2.5 years. I'm going to jack up the rent 12% to 15% this time to bring it closer to the fair market. Gotta love renting to an "A" class tenant. They keep the place practically brand new.

E-man says

Rent continue relentless rise? Says who? My AAPL tenant is moving out soon after 2.5 years. I'm going to jack up the rent 12% to 15% this time to bring it closer to the fair market. Gotta love renting to an "A" class tenant. They keep the place practically brand new.

Tell us after you've a tenant. Fair market rent is lower than 2 months ago. Why is he moving out?

E-man says

Why sale...ever?

It would only make sense to sell when you can make bigger profit in bonds which for bay area is not going to happen for a while. For Arizona, last fall summer was a good opportunity to switch out of real estate into bond funds. Now the bond yields are too low.

Wishful thinking by NewRenter.

Bay area has a history of creating millionaires as evident from the house prices. And it has history of creating new products or disrupting existing business models , so what makes you think that it won't continue to do so. We here in SV are in the business of stealing everyone else's lunch and like honey bees we are all hanging out here. This place is going to be like Manhattan , where lucky few will rent to others

cloud15 says

This place is going to be like Manhattan

Manhattan is just 23 square miles and has an efficient public transportation system. Only SF and maybe Oakland is anywhere near that.

The rest of the SFBA is to be take your pick of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Harlem.

cloud15 says

Bay area has a history of creating millionaires as evident from the house prices

My family has been in the Bay Area for over 100 years, this is a fairly new phenomenon.
In a discussion with a Home Inspection Company owner also from the Bay Area about 13-14 years ago, we covered the "since when can so many people afford a million dollar home" topic.

Diva24 says

cloud15 says

Bay area has a history of creating millionaires as evident from the house prices

My family has been in the Bay Area for over 100 years, this is a fairly new phenomenon.

In a discussion with a Home Inspection Company owner also from the Bay Area about 13-14 years ago, we covered the "since when can so many people afford a million dollar home" topic.

One of my ex-colleague just bought a 2M dollar house in Cupertino and they haven't even sold their first home in San Jose ( they are keeping it ). It was astonishing to see a normal software engineer couple ( just like us ) breaking the ceiling and buying a 2M house. They are obviously 5-7 elder than us and they have that work history and thus savings but still 2M is something remarkable . But you know Google's stock split and things happened for people

cloud15 says

One of my ex-colleague just bought a 2M dollar house in Cupertino and they haven't even sold their first home in San Jose ( they are keeping it ). It was astonishing to see a normal software engineer couple ( just like us ) breaking the ceiling and buying a 2M house. They are obviously 5-7 elder than us and they have that work history and thus savings but still 2M is something remarkable . But you know Google's stock split and things happened for people

So they paid all cash?

I asked and they only kept 1M in mortgage and rest was down so more than a million down

edvard2 says

Let me give you a primer then: the Peninsula is boring as hell.

The Peninsula is the most exciting place in the world. We get more venture capital than anywhere else even compared to places like New York City, all of New England, and all of Asia. It offers non-founding technology startup employees the best odds for creating dynastic wealth after which they can retire young and pursue their own ventures wherever they choose. Win or loose such experience will not be boring.

Culturally speaking it's giant stretch of strip mall and office park stretching from San Jose to San Francisco with a few oases of decent dining. While it doesn't compare well to an actual large city (like San Francisco, CA) or livable small city (like Boulder, CO) it beats fly-over country (try Missouri, Kansas, or Wyoming some time) by a country mile.

hanera says

Why is he moving out?

If the Patneters are not buying houses, someone has to.

I had another tenant who was paying $2,400/month. After 18 months, they bought a house in Sunnyvale for $1.5M and moved. I got $4k referral fee. Put the house on the market for $2,750 and rented it immediately to another hi-tech couple. So it's not all bad when a tenant is moving. It can be a win win.

I already know this new hi-tech couple would likely move in a couple of years. Why would they keep on renting when their household income is over $400k? I might get another referral check. Ka-Ching.

cloud15 says

Wishful thinking by NewRenter.

Bay area has a history of creating millionaires as evident from the house prices. And it has history of creating new products or disrupting existing business models , so what makes you think that it won't continue to do so. We here in SV are in the business of stealing everyone else's lunch and like honey bees we are all hanging out here. This place is going to be like Manhattan , where lucky few will rent to others

Actually, it's not wishful thinking. Like anything in life, nothing is guaranteed. However, I like the odds of owning real estate in the Bay Area. I'd take it over putting the money in the stock market or bonds any day.

E-Man i, how did you make money on the referees

E-Man i, how did you make money on the referels ?

cloud15 says

E-Man i, how did you make money on the referels ?

I referred my tenant to a realtor. The realtor sold them a house and gave me a referral fee. Yes, that's how easy it is to make money in the Bay Area. :0)

Diva24 says

cloud15 says

Bay area has a history of creating millionaires as evident from the house prices

My family has been in the Bay Area for over 100 years, this is a fairly new phenomenon.

In a discussion with a Home Inspection Company owner also from the Bay Area about 13-14 years ago, we covered the "since when can so many people afford a million dollar home" topic.

True. A 100 million millionaire can afford 100 :). As cloud15 says, only a lucky few.

Long time ago I learnt

Don't hate ,

pArticilate

:)