Posted on 02/27/2006 7:35:12 AM PST by SmithL
Two out of five residents of the nine-county region have given serious thought to moving away -- mostly because of high housing costs, according to a survey released today by a business and public policy group.
The Bay Area Council's annual poll found that concerns about housing ranked as the region's second-most-vexing problem, behind transportation woes.
Even with some recent cooling in the local housing market, the price for a middle-of-the-road single-family home hovers around $628,000, or about triple the national average. That means many families with two income-earners are having a hard time managing.
"In some cases they're cashing out, and in some cases they just can't afford to stay," said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council, which conducted the survey of 600 randomly selected people from Jan. 16 to 23.
Although 35 percent of respondents ranked transportation as their highest concern, 19 percent said housing was the biggest problem. Forty percent said they have considered moving out of the region, and 70 percent of those cited high housing costs as a major factor.
In 1996, as the real estate market began to recover from the early 1990s recession, only 1 percent of respondents cited housing as a big concern.
The annual survey, which takes the public's temperature on a range of issues, echoes similar findings by the Public Policy Institute of California, which in 2004 found that exorbitant home prices were forcing 31 percent of those ages 18 to 31 to ponder moving away from the region or out of...state.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It's still brutal here! I live near Berkeley and everything on the market was built in the 30's or 40's and while it is taking longer to sell everything is still selling. My girlfriend and I make over 100 K and we are not even in the game at this point. It makes better business sense for us to rent right now. We have a 3 bedroom all utilities included for $1600 per month which for the Bay area isn't half bad.
That *isn't* bad for this area.
Cost of Housing? Yeah, that and utter disgust.
The utter stupidity and perversion of the local, state and federal politicians is enough to make any one gag and move away.
I'm not trying to outdo the central coast ... but SD is an absolutely wonderful place to live.
That's retarded. Who would pay that much for a shack like that?
It's great - if you don't need to work. Jobs are hard to come by between San Jose and Burbank.
1) The kind that thinks they will be able to turn around and sell it for $900K in a couple of years.
2) The kind that has let a mortgage lender fool them into thinking that this is "their last chance to ever own a home in the Bay Area!!!"
3) The kind that thinks they absolutely have to pay that kind of money to avoid being "gay-bashed" by rabid red state Bush supporters if they move to Stockton. ;)
It's overpriced even for Silicon Valley and everybody knows it, even the listing agent -- the flyer suggests that you tear the place down and build a 5-unit multiplex in its place.
It's been sitting there For Sale since like July, which was our peak.
Us locals know that at that "bargain" price, there are probably major structural problems, and likely a bad neighborhood and schools as well.
About 1 million is the going rate for anything worth living in anywhere in the metro Bay Area.
I live in NYC metro area so you don't have to tell me.
Its utterly absurd what is going on. Us young people really have a great 30 years to look forward to!
I made that decision back in 1994! I left the Bay Area and never looked back! One of the best decisions of my life!
A house like that would go for less than $60K - not $600K - in my region.
You won't find a 2 bdr condo for 380k in SF. The junior one bedroom condos with (with parking) across the street from my apartment complex go for around 425,000....for a glorified studio apartment!!
NYC has already gone as far as it's going to go unless they institute 100 year mortgages, which is a possibility. Look for prices to drop 20- 30% over the next couple of years.
During the mid-90's a web designer I knew moved from NM to the Bay area. I asked him how it was going. He said in NM me made $15K and lived in a s#ithole, and in SF he made $80K and lived in a s#ithole.
I can't imagine anyone in their right mind paying these prices right now. It seems way more probably that the cost will go down than up. Who can afford anything at these prices without totally F^&^&%ing the next 30 years of their life?
During the mid-90's a web designer I knew moved from NM to the Bay area. I asked him how it was going. He said in NM me made $15K and lived in a s#ithole, and in SF he made $80K and lived in a s#ithole.
Moral of the story: web designers like to live in s#itholes?
You can't even buy anything in Brooklyn anymore the prices are so freaking high.
The Bronx is crazy too.
Depends on how far out into Brooklyn and the Bronx you want to go?
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