San Francisco real estate

[jp1]

Be glad you don't live in San Francisco. There's nothing simple about paying for housing here. We make decent money (good enough to live like kings pretty much anywhere in the country) but not tech worker money, so this article is just a little bit too close to being truth to be truly funny to me...

http://www.thebolditalic.com/articles/4637-parody-photos-of-the-sf-rental-market-are-darkly-funny

[iris lilies]

haha/ Well, ya gotta pay something to live in that beautiful city.

[pinkytoe]

Pretty funny. You can certainly buy my house in Austin for a pittance of what it would cost in SF - but only for a little while longer. Californians are moving here as fast as they can but the "bargains" are disappearing.

[JaneV2.0]

Hilarious--well done!

I always tell my partner "I pay extra to live in this gorgeous place," and I'm sure that's even more true in the Bay Area.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I remember when I was in SF in 1996, after having left Portland and being on my way back to living in Arizona again, I saw a listing on Russian Hill for a two bedroom, one bath apartment - even then it was going for $1,800. This really jaded me on the whole SF experience as I looked at that rent and realized forget about saving money and life would be all about being on the hamster wheel with no hope for most people of ever getting off unless they left SF, and it takes money to leave, so how can you leave if you can't save money?

I spent two weeks there in various hostels and it's a beautiful place and I liked the climate but the cost of housing bites and due to this, I've never seen SF as a very practical place to live. Even as a gay man I don't consider it practical - it's just too expensive in an economy where lots of people are making less money than they used to these days. Like my screen name says, gimmethesimplelife lol. Good thing it takes all kinds to make the world go round as I'd take Omaha over SF any day - simply due to economic reasons. Rob

I came back to give an example of what I consider practical housing. As I posted I was in Nogales, Mexico recently. I also spent a little bit of time in Nogales, Arizona, which is right next door and cleaner and more first world and also has a very low crime rate due to all the Border Patrol agents around town. Turns out you can buy a three bedroom two bath house in walking distance to a lot of your errands including groceries for less than $80K, and not right on the border but a little bit into town, and in great shape. I look at this listing and I look across the border to Mexico where affordable and quality medical and dental can be easily found and I see what I consider a very practical living situation. OTOH, this would be better for older people who can pay cash for that house (especially since there is no property tax in the city of Nogales, Arizona) as the local job market is horrendous. Great place to retire and live simply though and a nice climate too as it's at 4,000 feet in altitude.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Californians are moving here as fast as they can but the "bargains" are disappearing.

Austin is a great place to visit when it cools down a bit I'm sure, and Californians may be sick of California for many reasons, but it's over 100 degrees in Austin every day for the next 10 days!! You would think that would make a Californian reconsider moving there (and it's not like it's not hot here except right by the beach, but everyday over 100 ... maybe it's a dryer heat?). And while climate change might improve the climate somewhere cold, the reverse for somewhere that's already quite hot - it will only get worse. And California has no water (actually it has a lot of hard legal claims to a certain amount of water sources as long as they continue to exist (don't know how long that will be), fair or not, just not enough for the lifestyle and maybe population), but does Austin? Does it rain in Austin anymore than here? Have they somehow escaped the drought that's gripped most of the west? So moving from somewhere with no water to ..... somewhere with no water? And if it's all mcmansions - the cost to cool such things, I mean at over 100 everyday in summer, unless you have the best designed to keep cool house in creation, A/C is gonna happen probably ... but easier to cool a more reasonably sized house, I'd figure.

[pinkytoe]

it's over 100 degrees in Austin every day for the next 10 days!!
It will more likely be 100 or over through the end of September. If you can stomach three months of miserable, the other nine are pretty nice. But as you say, everything is changing weather-wise. My gut tells me it will be nothing but extremes in various parts of the country so who knows anymore. Apparently, money trumps everything for most people in deciding where to live. I would choose SF over Austin any day if I could afford it.

[ApatheticNoMore]

3 months of miserable for 9 months of good isn't a bad deal, if it wasn't for the fear the heat would just keep getting worse and worse ... climate change ... heatwaves have gotten worse here (although it hasn't gotten really really hot this summer yet - knock on wood - it's been consistently rather hot, but not much extremely hot), just it's not starting here from a temp of over 100 degrees as the baseline. If that's the starting point from which thing can get worse from ...

[iris lilies]

I would choose SF over Austin any day if I could afford it.

oh god yes! Much to my surprise, SF trumped my favorite city, London, when I finally visited it. have only been to SF twice but it is fab.. If I was sorta rich, my home base might be there. if I was super rich I'd definitely have a place thee. Unfortunately it's in California.

[gimmethesimplelife]

LOL. I'm one of the few people I know that doesn't really care very much for SF. Or most other large and very expensive cities either, when you get right down to it, though I do like Austin very much. The price tags there scare me off, too, but it's a nice place to visit - I only see it getting more expensive as time goes on though. Rob