patrick.net

You all sound like $100k is a good pay.

I thought a simple police officer or bus driver makes $100k + pension in SF.

Where I moved & growing up in the country ...

Yeah I know that country thing - we moved into the sticks when I was about 11. Yes you have people with those fixed attitudes, in a way you can't blame them - they live there because they DONT want things to change, and then city people move in and want to 'fix' all the things they think are wrong. I want to live in the country to be left alone - not to change anyone else - and I grew up poor so I think I should be ok, barring any run-ins with meth-heads.

I looked at a lot of places, I was in the BA for about 10 years in the 90's - I had a startup (that imploded) before they were cool - once I figured the price was too high for me (and I'm not talking just about money) I traveled all over the world for a while - not as a tourist - 6 months in Russia, a couple of months in Switzerland, a couple of years in China.

In buying a country place I also narrowed down to Washington and Oregon - I would also like northern CA but all the laws and regulations make the state much too intrusive for me. BTW - I crossed WA state off my list as well when I found out about the Critical Areas Ordinance which is statewide - the county gets to come in an do a survey (at your expense BTW), determine which areas of your land are 'critical' (a bureaucrat decides this and can change their mind at any time now or in the future) - and if they are, then you cannot touch or change that land in any way - even clearing brush is illegal. I had a series of emails with a county bureacrap who could not understand why I did not think it was a good idea to let him have dictatorial powers over how I could or could not use my own property.

So that pretty much leaves OR - which south of Eugene is kind of like Appalachia in a lot of ways - right down to the drugs, poverty and southern accents. Young poor people taking care of (relatively) well-off old retired people.

I'm of the opinion that the collapse is going to be Tony Manero level catastrophic and we probably have about 6 years or so to get ready

read your Fourth Turning book -
1780 Rev War
1860 Civ War
1940 WWII

they all come 80 years apart like clockwork - and clearly, clearly we are on the verge of deep trouble now, sliding into 2020.

I wake up every day wishing I had more money, more time and more friends to share the load - but you work with what you have ...

xenogear3 says

You all sound like $100k is a good pay.

I thought a simple police officer or bus driver makes $100k + pension in SF.

Absolutely, and totally schweet benefits too!

Little update:

The house we were thinking of bidding on was in west sunnyvale, 5 bed, 2.5bath about 2700sqft, on 9500 sqft lot. It was on an intersection and bordered a school, so that dropped the price a bit. It was offered at $1.199M (which we though was about right), and apparently got a dozen bids and went for over $1.4M. We chose not to bid due partially to the price, and partially due to potential problems that might be expensive to fix.

So, this is just one sample, but I stand by my assertion that there's a bidding frenzy out there, and it's not my real estate agent feeding me BS.

[edit]: Also, the entire house went from listed to sold in 6 days

myob says

The ones who don't plan for the future are more numerous, and so, have more political clout :)

Good point. I should cash in my 401k and buy a Canyonero. Responsibility is for suckers.

REpro says

The sad part is that proudly high salaries in S. Valley, actually do not buy you a luxury, but a very basic live standard where in over places uneducated people can enjoy. $500K house here is like $120K somewhere else. Living costs cheaper too. Silly Valley…

IBM, Texas Instruments, Motorola, ATT, Dell, EMC and many others dont seem to be in high priced areas, but they do have the same educated workforce. Frankly we (SV) employ the same workfoce in more lower costing places than in SV.

myob says

since renting something comparable is maybe only 20% cheaper per month.

Don't pay more per month to get a depreciating asset. Silly.

This is not happening only in Sunnyvale. We've been looking at houses in the Willow Glen area for the past 2 months and have experienced the same thing.
Seller's agents have told us (during open houses) that there have been multiple bids (up to 15K over asking price) even before the open house was posted.

We've been outbid twice (on $520K offers) by cash buyers!

What boggles my mind is that these houses are not worth 600K+! The schools aren't that great in that area either. Why would someone pay more than $525K for any of those houses?

I have made several offers in Contra Costa County in 2012.

I'll admit that I am being selective, but each one had multiple offers and going above asking price.

Part of the reason is that these have been REOs that are originally being priced too low by the bank to create frenzy, but the big reason is discussed in the link below (lack of supply):

http://realestate.patrick.net/?p=1211201

The Bay Area is down 35% in invetory compared to this same time last year, the number of homes sold is up 9%. Although this is creating multiple offer situations and homes aren't sitting on MLS as long as they did last year, the selling prices are remaining flat.

Let's take it a step further regarding Bay Area RE:

Inventory down 35% compared to 1yr ago.
Sales are up 9%
Prices are flat

With supply down and demand up, anything other than prices being up would be an indication that the real estate market in the Bay Area is still sinking (at least relative to a year ago)

BayArea says

With supply down and demand up, anything other than prices being up would be an indication that the real estate market in the Bay Area is still sinking (at least relative to a year ago)

Its more that as of now, homes can only be bought using "real" financials. In other words, buyers not only need good credit, but they also need numerous forms of proof of their financial well-being. You need cash. You need savings. You need good jobs. And so on. Prices are either flat or slightly sinking because what people can really afford is reflected in the prices and the prices from the boom were not reflecting reality. What people in the BA can 'really' afford is far less than what many might have assumed.

edvard2 says

In other words, buyers not only need good credit, but they also need numerous forms of proof of their financial well-being. You need cash. You need savings. You need good jobs.

Great! It's about time.