Posted on 06/01/2014 8:57:37 AM PDT by artichokegrower
In one of the most agonizing disconnects of the Bay Area's surging economy, far more people want to buy a home than want to sell one, making this the tightest housing market in the nation.
Would-be homebuyers are crowding into scarce open houses and battling for the few available, leading to rising prices, rapid sales -- many homes sell within a week -- and frustrated house hunters.
"This is the most sustained period of low inventory I've seen in 20 to 24 years," said Chris Trapani, head of the Sereno Group in Silicon Valley.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Best schools? Don’t make me laugh
And the Central Valley is frickin roasting
IMO we are very much becoming a two tiered society here. Brazil comes to mind, although we're not quite there yet.
I see those signs occasionally also. A neighbor behind me sold his house a few months ago... and received a solid offer the day before it officially went on the market. According to several Realtors that live in my subdivision most everything in our area sells within a couple days, and they have buyers lined up for just about anything that goes on the market.
They are doing something right.
I thought ChiComs were scooping up a ton of properties over there for investment purposes.
There could be some of that but I cannot vouch for it personally.
money from PRC insiders is driving a lot of the Vancouver B.C. real estate craziness as well
the bay area has chinese money plus the tech economy
however, a lot of the rationales for the bay area bubble remind me of tokyo in the late 80’s or even manhattan real estate pre 1929 crash
there is an assumption that the economic driver can never turn down or move away
when protestors appeared at the house of a google engineer, that was an important warning to the wealthy in the bay area that they are potential targets if they live in the urban areas
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/01/22/activists-target-google-employee-berkeley-resident/
there is a reason that the wealthy generally do not live in urban areas with public transportation links
If you were 22 with an engineering degree your have many benefits ahead. But you wouldn’t be buying a house for a very very long time, if ever, on just your salary without maybe a half million cash dow in SillyCon Valley. The rich foreign buyers from you- know- where have bid those old tract houses up to the million and two million dollar level, way way beyond what those nice big computer company pay levels. Times have changed. You can buy a house in the San Joaquin valley 120 miles away and join a “ van- pool” for five hours a day commuting. Even the Calif Highway Patrol has been quoted as saying they understand the problem and they try ( not always successfully it must be said) to give the long- distance commute vans full of engineers and computer programmers “ some space “ as they race into the Bay Area at 90 mph . The vanpoolers have their own culture, too. If one of them gets a speeding ticket, that engineer is relieved of his driving duty for a year so as to not jeopardize his license with a second ( likely “ augmented charges” ticket). People do adapt. But in previous times, they were able to adapt without having to compete with thousands of ( largely all - cash) wealthy bidders from foreign lands. It’s a major change in several American markets (Bay Area, parts of LA, NYC, etc). The young American engineers or whatevers can still live comfortably in Texas and many other parts of the country, however.
Many of us have romantic notions of the "Laverne and Shirley" jobs that existed in decades past - you know, putting on a hard hat and stamping caps on beer bottles. Then going home at the 5PM whistle and spending the evening cavorting with Lenny and Squiggly.
However, those tended to be drab, dead-end jobs that were not really satisfying at all. In fact, the conditions and environment were miserable for the average working man. And we want to go back to that?
During the 1980s and 1990s, the working environment transformed from the factory floor to the cubicle farms. We complained about that too and the culture is parodied in films such as "Office Space" and sitcoms like "The Office." Yet this was a huge step up for the average working man (and woman) and was only a transition to where we are headed now.
Now as we move into the 21st century, the working environment is becoming a mobile one where most of us can work just as effectively from the home or sitting on the backyard patio (where I'm typing this right now) as in a cubicle. No need to be tethered to an office at all. In fact, cubicle farms are quickly being replaced by open "campus-style" workspaces where everything is wireless and people are encouraged to gather in "pods" and collaborate together on projects instead of walling themselves off in a cubicle for 8 hours a day.
Many of these jobs pay very well and top tech companies can't hire employees fast enough. However, to take these jobs, the workers need to change their old attitudes. Many older employees still see the workplace in terms of a "punch a time clock" 8-5 existence. They still try to cling to a "job description" and try avoiding working outside that narrow scope. This is outdated thinking that is keeping these employees from moving up or getting opportunities for the higher paying jobs they seek. I know because I've been a hiring manager for 15 years and I've had to pass over many otherwise good workers because of these attitudes.
Most of the Millennials I deal with get that but they are missing the work ethic of the Baby Boomers. Those employees who combine the virtues of both generations tend to do the best in the workplace these days - which admittedly is very demanding and requires that you dedicate a fair amount of your "off-time" to improving your skill set.
Back in the 1950s or 1960s, you could get a job, be trained for 2-6 weeks and then spend the rest of your career doing basically the same thing, at a decent wage, until the time came to get your gold watch. It's not like that anymore and those days are never coming back.
True, “Up or Out” isn’t just for the military anymore.
What are the rest of the working population supposed to do for a living?
IF I recall correctly, Mexico has very restrictive laws on foreign ownership of property. Americans can’t just go down there and buy a house. Yet, we allow foreigners to buy our real estate, no strings attached.
Would it make sense if we did restrict foreign ownership of our land and real estate? Just asking, it might make sense if we did have restrictions.
Is it in our best interest, to have Chinese in this case, bid up the price of our real estate, so that regular American citizens end up having to pay more?
I’m a free market person at heart, but think it’s worth asking questions and maybe having some regulations in this area.
“yuk why would anybody want to live there, it is filthy, it is cold in the summer, people let their houses go to hell, it is communist, and it is unbearably expensive”
I don’t know what you think you are describing, because it sure as hell isn’t here in California. The house across the road from me sold ten years ago for $1.6 million and is now on the market for $2.49 million. Drove from here to Salinas and back yesterday and didn’t see: 1) any Communists, 2) no filth, 3) it was 75 degrees and 4) no houses “going to hell.” I guess 1 out of 5, for you isn’t so bad.
But I will make the best of it because the opportunity is good and I will have potential to earn much more. So I will need to learn to have some productive commutes because we are going to be talking up to 2 hours each way!
I spend most of the winter debating whether or not to take this opportunity as I said for years I never wanted to work in NYC. However, I refuse to allow myself to become a victim of the changing economy. I've posted here for years that people should be willing to relocate and go where the jobs are. So I'm basically following my own advice on this one.
I understand not everybody can work at Google, Apple or some other high-tech start-up. But for those with the skill set and ambition, opportunities do abound there and if you get with the right start-up at the right time, you can actually get wealthy should the company have a successful IPO.
For those not inclined for that career track and would rather be working in the outdoors in an exciting new industry, I would highly recommend relocating to the Dakotas and getting into the fracking industry. Apparently they can't hire fast enough and pay very well.
I'm sure there are other hot beds of opportunity in non high-tech areas. You just need to be willing to relocate to where these opportunities are - for they may not be available where you live today.
Please come buy my house.
I’m in the East Bay and I want out of here.
In our little town on the Peninsula, the number of people right off the boat who don’t speak a word of English would amaze you. It’s definitely the Asian money. At least two or three times a month, we get letters from Chinese realtors representing clients who want to buy in our neighborhood. As Sam Adams pointed out, the huge concentration of high-tech HQs here is an enormous driver. Lastly, the Bay Area is largely built-out. The mountains surrounding the Bay are largely off-limits to building. If you want an affordable new home, you have to commute 90 minutes each way. For those who want a short commute, you pay the Bay Area prices.
The bonus is, if you are within 20 miles of the coast, you get an ideal climate where you can live or play outdoors ten months out of the year, have low heating bills, and almost zero AC bills.
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