What would be a comfortable salary in bay area? (housing, required)

[StandingRoomOnly]

Originally Posted by kathleenssal

Move-
I recently bought a house out of state because I just can not afford to buy in this area. I don't think that $200K is enough to live on, especially if you have not yet bought a home.
You may want to rethink this area. I am still here because I am making a decent wage and contributing to my retirement fund with this wage. But I am looking at jobs in New Mexico where I recently bought my house.

Good luck to you.

You've got to be kidding. 200k a year not enough to live on and buy a house? The Bay Area is a big place with a good variety of house prices...if you want to live in a posh or upper class neighborhood then sure, 200k and buying a house is probably not doable. But for many cities in the Bay Area, you can definitely buy a house on 200k a year income.

There must be some hefty spenders (or poor managers of their money) in here to think you can't live on 200k a year in the Bay Area. Are you guys who think this just under loads of debt or don't make anywhere near this amount?

Be careful getting advice from people who obviously don't make 200k a year and think you can't live on this amount :P

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by Ulysses61

$150,000 would not offer you a lavish lifestyle

Emmm...maybe not everybody seeks this "lavish lifestyle" you speak of. Some people just might want to live simply, that others may simply live, but we wouldn't want to steal slogans from hippie bumper stickers, would we?

There are plenty of people who are doing just fine on $25K-$35k in this area. And you can find good 2BR/1BA houses (not just apartments...houses) for less than $1400/mo. Are people just getting so damned lazy and unresourceful around here that they are actually buying into this moneylust crap?

[OrangeSunset]

Are you working in the south bay? If not, I would take a look at the east bay. In comparison the prices are much better, even in Fremont. The bay area is quite large so don't limit your search to the south bay only. The south bay (San Jose, Santa Clara, Los Gatos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park) is a very expensive places to live. I would stay away from them and focus else where, even if you need to commute a bit. You can live a comfortable life (with a 200k salary) in the bay area, if you look carefully around. Check out Morgan Hill, Fremont, Milpitas...I think even Campbell might be very doable. Depending of where you'll be working check out some places in the peninsula too, such as San Carlos. Keep looking & asking questions and I am sure you'll find a great place for you and your family. GL!

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by OrangeSunset

Are you working in the south bay? If not, I would take a look at the east bay. In comparison the prices are much better, even in Fremont. The bay area is quite large so don't limit your search to the south bay only. The south bay (San Jose, Santa Clara, Los Gatos, Palo Alto, Menlo Park) is a very expensive places to live. I would stay away from them and focus else where, even if you need to commute a bit. You can live a comfortable life (with a 200k salary) in the bay area, if you look carefully around. Check out Morgan Hill, Fremont, Milpitas...I think even Campbell might be very doable. Depending of where you'll be working check out some places in the peninsula too, such as San Carlos. Keep looking & asking questions and I am sure you'll find a great place for you and your family. GL!

Not to split hairs, but Palo Alto & Menlo Park are considered the Peninsula, not the South Bay. Although you are right, the East Bay is cheaper than both the South Bay & the Peninsula.

[SportyandMisty]

Cupertino California Homes for Sale & Cupertino Real Estate - Zillow

Life is good if you have a large down-payment saved up.

[daluu]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Emmm...maybe not everybody seeks this "lavish lifestyle" you speak of. Some people just might want to live simply, that others may simply live, but we wouldn't want to steal slogans from hippie bumper stickers, would we?

There are plenty of people who are doing just fine on $25K-$35k in this area. And you can find good 2BR/1BA houses (not just apartments...houses) for less than $1400/mo. Are people just getting so damned lazy and unresourceful around here that they are actually buying into this moneylust crap?

Too bad, for some people, like me, 2BR/1BA is something we'd like to avoid, a tad too small. I've seen properties with 3BR/1BA, would to see 2BR/1BA, especially 3BR/1.5BA. Don't see why it should be 1BA when there's 3BRs. Unfortunately, these are the cheaper places, that less people want.

[daluu]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Occupancy rules generally only apply to rentals. The old rule of thumb used by HUD is 2 people per bedroom plus 1 more.

A three bedroom house with 7 adults is within the standard.

That's fine from housing perspective as you state. I don't know how having many people in a house brings down quality of neighborhood, but one big reason outside the housing standard is cars & parking.

With say 7 wage earners, it is highly likely most or quite a few have their own car rather than carpool or take public transportation. Say 1-2 people per car, 7 people = 4 - 7 cars. That fills up the driveway + 2-car garage of a single family home, and in half the instances (whether garage used for parking or not), additional cars parked along the street. This whole mess ends up bloating the streets with cars and the neighborhood looks less appealing. It's worse with condos and townhomes where you get less parking at the property carport/driveway/garage.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by daluu

That's fine from housing perspective as you state. I don't know how having many people in a house brings down quality of neighborhood, but one big reason outside the housing standard is cars & parking.

With say 7 wage earners, it is highly likely most or quite a few have their own car rather than carpool or take public transportation. Say 1-2 people per car, 7 people = 4 - 7 cars. That fills up the driveway + 2-car garage of a single family home, and in half the instances (whether garage used for parking or not), additional cars parked along the street. This whole mess ends up bloating the streets with cars and the neighborhood looks less appealing. It's worse with condos and townhomes where you get less parking at the property carport/driveway/garage.

I used to live in a neighborhood like this and I totally agree. The other problem you have is people pave over their front yards to park all their cars, turning the neighborhood into an ugly, hot, concrete slum, but i'm not holding my breath on either one happening.

Decent mass transit as well as promoting the development of more housing stock would go a long way toward solving this problem.

[Wintermomma]

Originally Posted by move

I have been looking at house prices in the bay area. Is a salary of $200K what it takes to be comfortable in this area? Even if both husband and wife work full time, it looks to me that one salary will be spent towards mortgage alone...How do you bay areaites do it?

Not well is my first thought. We are new transplants and everything costs so much more than I expected. Not just the housing and gasoline, but any "service" seems to be more. Of course those are usually extras and we are having to learn to go without.

I feel like we'd need at least that if not more to be truly "comfortable" as in not stressing about finances and actually vacationing once in a while. Of course we want to live in a nicer area, kids go to private school, have bigger house that is not a dump, save for the future...so it is all what your priorities are I guess!

Now if you want to live in a 2 bedroom condo or perhaps a house waay far out, no kids or they go to public school, your life will be financially easier!

There must be some hefty spenders (or poor managers of their money) in here to think you can't live on 200k a year in the Bay Area. Are you guys who think this just under loads of debt or don't make anywhere near this amount?

Be careful getting advice from people who obviously don't make 200k a year and think you can't live on this amount :P

I think living here is requiring us to get to be less "hefty" spenders and be better managers of our money. Neither I think is a bad thing, just a bit painful at first. The second sentence does not apply to us, so that is not where I am coming from. I think $200K for a DINK couple who doesn't necessarily need to live in the heart of the Peninsula is doable. But don't expect to be living "lavishly" like you would in many other areas of the country. However I cannot say if you could buy something. It's been a mental adjustment to come here and barely even dream of buying a home I'd like where I'd like. As in I cannot fathom it ever happening. But I will hope. I feel if we were to scrimp and save or I were to go back to work (SAHM) and somehow earn even half of what my husband does, we could buy a nondescript ranch home in a tract neighborhood probably not in our preferred cities. If we were just starting out this would have been fine. At a later point in our lives it definitely feels like taking a step backwards, so for us we have to decide if living here and owning a home is worth taking a step back? I would imagine everyone's personal decisions vary.

[jbunniii]

You can live quite comfortably on $200k: the key is to rent instead of buying. I rent a 4-bedroom house in the best school district in San Jose and have plenty of cash left over for savings without having to live all that frugally. Just don't make big-ticket mistakes like buying expensive cars, etc. Also avoid the extremely overpriced rental markets such as Palo Alto. Again, the key is to rent: if I bought a comparable place, it would be very tight. Within a few more years I'll have enough saved to buy a pretty nice house for cash in a cheaper area (looking at Seattle and Denver) and then it will be much harder to justify staying here.

P.S. Notice that this thread originated in 2007, when it would have been tough on a $200k income - not to mention, in retrospect, very foolish - to buy even in very remote parts of the Bay Area. (Actually, it was all too easy to buy, but foreclosure a few years down the line was practically guaranteed.) These days, it's much more feasible to buy, say, in parts of the east bay if you can stomach the commute. Whether prices have stopped falling is anyone's guess, but my money says they haven't.