$100K+ elitists can't afford living costs

[louis redfoot]

i'll let you in on a secret: suburbs of l.a. are the best. best weather, accessible to everything, there's a price point for everyone (even if it's a trailor in a neighborhood of massage parlors).

in 2001 i was a consultant on a long term project in sf. i had a $2000/month allowance for housing, got a studio in north beach for $1000/month, walked to work every day, pocketed the rest. nothing special, wouldn't do it again.

rent kills.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That may depend on your source/destination:

Ohhh man that looks like it would be fun as hell to tobaggon down. Or roller blade.

 

[Sonikku]

I want to live in San Fran but I don't make a million a year. I'm basically an ATOT peasant.

 

[Fardringle]

all talk until its time to do that 5 days a week twice a day in shitty weather.

Weather does make a difference, of course, but I'd just do the same as I do now: Ride on good days, and drive when the weather demands it...

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Median 1br apt rent in SF is $3600/mo. Chicago is $1600/mo.

Jeez, and I'm already bitching about $850/month for a furnished 1br apt with everything included (cable, net, sat, first ~$60 of utilities).

 

[rh71]

If your job is in the peninsula or SF proper you're probably talking about a 2 hour commute, each way, to get to something substantially more affordable. They don't exactly have the LIRR out there.

Why is that? Earthquakes?

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Why is that? Earthquakes?

Our public transit is a joke.

NIMBY's decided that they did not want the hoodlums from Oakland/Richmond on the BART line going to nice neighborhoods so it did not get fully built out in the 70's. BART is also incredibly expensive, there is no flat rate, there is no unlimited pass, and the Unions control it with insane pay scales and large raises. Now 40 years later BART is crumbling as they never put money into the infrastructure, just more raises for the Unions. Not enough cars, not enough parking, no expansion.

There is an enormous amount of land to build homes on but it's all open space preserves. SF does not like housing greater than 6-stories for fear it will not fit the neighborhood. Everything in CA just costs more due to all the environmental analysis that must be performed and they will keep you in court for years. Our infrastructure is terrible.

Governor needs to suspends EPA review and get us new highways built, more parking structures, 2 new dams, more bridges/tunnels.

 

[rh71]

I always thought there was no subway in LA for earthquake reasons, then I saw on the show "24" a few years ago that they went into the subway. I was shocked to see it.

Aging infrastructure here and NY unions' pay/benefits are just as ludicrous. I know how it feels. But at least you have proposition 13 to keep your property taxes low. We pay $15k/year. Maybe that's why your state is dead broke.

 

[Ns1]

The LA subway/light rail system has expanded dramatically since 1990 and will only continue to grow. LA is putting very real money into public transit.

 

[OutHouse]

The average people who's paying $3,600 a month for 1 bd apartment in SF do not have 2 1/2 hour one way commute. That's complete horseshit and you're stupid if you believe that.

what the fuck does that have to do what what I posted? all i did was comment on riding a bike 22 miles twice a day to work. and your dumb ass pops off with that horseshit? piss off buddy.

 

[MrSquished]

San Fran is definitely more expensive than the NYC Metro area.

Here in a city in Jersey right across from the river you can get a real nice 2BR apt for $3,600. Close to transportation that will have you in Manhattan in 7 minutes. If you are willing to have more of a 30 min commute into Manhattan you will pay far less. This is not including the time it takes you got get from in Manhattan to your job.

San Francisco prices are insane.

 

[zerocool84]

The options in SF seem to be:

1) Pay a lot, live in a shoe box, walk / Uber / BART to work
2) Pay a lot, live in a suburb, suffer in traffic

I moved from Orange County, CA to SF Bay Area last year for work. I'm not poor but because it's so much more expensive up here I had to move much further away from work because I didn't want to pay ~$2,000 for a 1bdrm. It's crazy how expensive even compared to the LA area it is up here.

 

[RichieZ]

160K for a family is tight in SF. But the 1MM can't buy a house thing has to be a joke.

I live in and own in SF and have a base salary that isn't that high as I take most of it in equity and I do just fine off my base salary.

 

[K1052]

Why is that? Earthquakes?

The region developed differently/later and doesn't have the amount of formerly private and public built infrastructure (although built long ago) that dense eastern cites are still benefiting from to this day. The fractured political nature of the Bay Area municipalities and counties, not entirely dissimilar from NJ/NY issues, make modern expansion expensive and extremely difficult.

 

[Cappuccino]

how much rent do i need to pay if i live in cape town?

 

[TwiceOver]

LOL. Crazy. But, that's the price you pay to live there. You don't "have to" live there. There's a whole lot of other areas of the country.

 

[rh71]

San Fran is definitely more expensive than the NYC Metro area.

Here in a city in Jersey right across from the river you can get a real nice 2BR apt for $3,600. Close to transportation that will have you in Manhattan in 7 minutes. If you are willing to have more of a 30 min commute into Manhattan you will pay far less. This is not including the time it takes you got get from in Manhattan to your job.

San Francisco prices are insane.

Interesting because http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/ says housing is 43% more in Manhattan than SF. I suppose what you mention has a lot to do with availability of the area outside of the city itself... NYC has more to offer there.

 

[spacejamz]

if they can legislate minimum wage requirements in the name of being able to afford a decent living, why can't they do same to limit rent/housing prices?

 

[TridenT]

Was sent a similar article earlier. It's pretty grim here. Unless you're in the $200k+ club, it's not easy to get a decent place here. Even then, you better be getting a 1-bedroom or something. Ain't no way you're getting a decent house on anything less than $300k/yr. Even then, you'll be blowing about 40-50% of your net income on housing.

Homes just don't really exist under $1,000,000 here. I'm not even talking about SF. I just know places like Santa Clara are all the $1 million range... and these places don't even have AC, lol. You'll still need to remodel for a lot of modern conveniences and safety (such as making sure your place will withstand an earthquake).

 

[ponyo]

Interesting because http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/ says housing is 43% more in Manhattan than SF. I suppose what you mention has a lot to do with availability of the area outside of the city itself... NYC has more to offer there.

That calculator is stupid because it just applies the same fixed percentage to all salary ranges. It's different for someone making $50k to someone who's making $500k a year. After certain point, the fixed cost like housing is covered and you only have to worry about small cost items like grocery, utilities, etc. Yet that calculator just scales up everything with the salary the same percentage. For example, for someone making $500k a year in Atlanta, it says that's comparable salary to someone making $870k in SF. So if someone rents $1,500 one bedroom apartment in Atlanta vs $3,500 one bedroom apartment in SF, somehow that $24,000 year difference is housing equal to $370k difference in cost of living?

 

[ponyo]

Was sent a similar article earlier. It's pretty grim here. Unless you're in the $200k+ club, it's not easy to get a decent place here. Even then, you better be getting a 1-bedroom or something. Ain't no way you're getting a decent house on anything less than $300k/yr. Even then, you'll be blowing about 40-50% of your net income on housing.

Homes just don't really exist under $1,000,000 here. I'm not even talking about SF. I just know places like Santa Clara are all the $1 million range... and these places don't even have AC, lol. You'll still need to remodel for a lot of modern conveniences and safety (such as making sure your place will withstand an earthquake).

So make your money and then move. Sounds simple enough to me. Do you hear from illegals complaining about COL in the USA? They moved to the US and crap here is multiple times more expensive than their home country. Yet they're making more here so it's better for them here. They can make their money and save and move to lower COL areas or back home to their country.

 

[TridenT]

So make your money and then move. Sounds simple enough to me. Do you hear from illegals complaining about COL in the USA? They moved to the US and crap here is multiple times more expensive than their home country. Yet they're making more here so it's better for them here. They can make their money and save and move to lower COL areas or back home to their country.

Yeah, that doesn't really work the way you'd wish unless you're making bank here. (Which many do but many don't too) If you're making $150k or less, you're not going to be rolling in it. Even at slightly higher incomes, it's not ideal. You'll want a nicer place to live once you can actually afford it because living in a shit hole is only bearable for so long. You'll be living in much less favorable conditions for years of your life. It's not worth it to most people unless you're pulling down $300k+/yr.

And many of us don't really want to live in super rural areas either. (Or we can't because there are no jobs there)

The only reason I'm here is because there's so many fucking jobs. It's literally the only place in the country I could get a job.

 

[zerocool84]

If you can't afford in inside the city then commute, that's how us poor people that don't make $200k are able to work in those cities just fine.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you can't afford in inside the city then commute, that's how us poor people that don't make $200k are able to work in those cities just fine.

Or you can live in a place where you can own a house AND be 5 minutes from work, and not pay an arm and a leg for it. What sucks though is that companies keep centralizing all the jobs in the super busy expensive places.

 

[zerocool84]

Or you can live in a place where you can own a house AND be 5 minutes from work, and not pay an arm and a leg for it. What sucks though is that companies keep centralizing all the jobs in the super busy expensive places.

That'd the thing though, most places where it's cheap, like you said, the jobs aren't there so for many jobs, you have to live in an area with a higher coat of living and take that into consideration while negotiating for a your salary.