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Tom StoneThe competition for mid price homes ( $500k-$700K, roughly) in decent parts of the bay area is fierce and most first time buyers find themselves unable to compete. If this is describes you, will you continue to look and make offers or will you give up and sit on the sidelines for as long as it takes for homes to become genuinely available in your price range?
CyrusI’m a potential first time buyer. If the market was like it was a year ago we would be in a good position. Now I’m doubtful we can afford to enter this market and may not even try. I grew up in the Bay Area and love it here. My wife and I both have Masters degrees (in practical things even). I work in Biotech with a background in Computer Science and make a low six figures but we just can’t compete anymore and are seriously thinking of leaving the area. We have finally scraped together an OK down payment (could put 10% down on a mid tier house) but because of student loans, our debt to income ratio is killing us and basically drops our home buying power out of the Bay Area market. Our borrowing power drops from over $500k without the loans to less than $300k with them. Maybe I could get an OK condo or a crap 2/1 house in ghetto Hayward with that. Certainly nothing I would want my wife and infant daughter to live in. I don’t know what the solution is. We can’t keep living in a 1bd mother-in-law forever with a growing family but this is where all the jobs are in my industry. Frustrated.
“Maybe I could get an OK condo or a crap 2/1 house in ghetto Hayward with that. Certainly nothing I would want my wife and infant daughter to live in. I don’t know what the solution is. We can’t keep living in a 1bd mother-in-law forever with a growing family but this is where all the jobs are in my industry. Frustrated.”
I hear ya. It’s amazing how much income it takes to actually live decently and raise a family in the Bay Area.
Keep positive. There are far worse things than renting. At some point you’ll have your opportunities so keep your powder dry.
LillianaI have read so many posts concerning the blogger
lovers however this article is genuinely a nice
post, keep it up.Cyrus, why aren’t you renting a house instead of the tiny unit you’re in? Too often I see people thinking their choice is either rent an apartment or buy a house.
The student loan problem is a huge one. Both Greg Fielding and I have written about how many buyers this keeps out of the market. Like our current private insurance system of health care, this is another case of US “exceptionalism” that may be unique but certainly hurts most of its citizenry.
CyrusWell, our “apartment” is actually a pretty nice Mother-In-Law unit that we rent in the hills above Redwood City in a neighborhood of multimillion dollar homes. Has a big deck, access to a pool, and is walking distance to an open space so don’t feel too sorry for me. We won’t be able to stay there much after the baby learns to walk though and certainly not if we want a 2nd kid (plus it has no bathtub). I was mostly frustrated that we made a decision to actively save for a down payment when we graduated in 2009 then got priced out of the market in the last 9 months. At any rate we just took half of our savings and paid off half of my student loans so it’s going to be a few more years before the house comes but at least our debt just went down a bunch.
