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Just bought a condo.

Z

zoiks

Lifer
First purchase for us and am happy that we could find something here that we were able to find that was to our liking. Yay for me and the wife. It's been a struggle for us for a long time/

The housing market is incredibly tough here right now in the bay area for a buyer. We have been searching and bidding on houses for over a year and lost every one of them to higher bidders. We've bid 150k over on some houses but some guy decided to pay a higher cash offer with no contingencies. In fact every place is going without contingencies only right now since sellers have the luxury to choose the best offer. Last house we bid on (900k), had over 8 offers and went over 1.2mill.

We're in contract and escrow right now and hopefully everything will go fine. Wish we could afford a house but you have to be able to afford 1.2-1.5 mill for a good place. But you have to be lucky to get one too even if you have the money. A surgeon friend of ours lost out when someone overbid by 500k on a 2.8million house in Palo Alto.
God damn you Google, Facebook, Apple and the likes.
 
You just contracted to buy a condo 😛

I wish you good luck in your adventure to obtain your keys. :thumbsup:
 
Atomic Playboy said:
Real estate in the Bay Area is insane. Hope you aren't hit by a massive market correction.
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he'll be fine. even if there's a pull back in the market, the values will go right back up quickly. Desirable areas in CA barely went down during the housing crash, and have long since recovered.
 
Atomic Playboy said:
Real estate in the Bay Area is insane. Hope you aren't hit by a massive market correction.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping as well. But the thing is that the current situation is not at all similar to what it was before. Right now, you have to have a great credit score, have a lot of cash on hand, be able to prove your worthiness before anybody will give you a loan. Previously, people were putting down 5% or so to buy expensive homes which ultimately ended up in foreclosure.

The condo we've bought is expensive but it hasn't gone up the same way the home prices have here.
 
DesiPower said:
Move to Texas man, you can buy a mansion for you paid for a condo...
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Funny. A few years ago, my entire team at Computer Associates was laid off and I was offered to relocate to Plano, TX. I didn't want to go to TX so I quit and found another job within a month that paid a lot more than CA.
 
zoiks said:
Thanks! But you have to live here if you want to get the decent salary. 🙂
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The decent salary is a wash if the cost of living is substantially higher. You might only get a third as much in Texas, but if a house costs 1/5th as much, you'd be better off (excepting of course that you'd be stuck in Texas). I personally don't get the appeal. My sister-in-law and her boyfriend each clear six figures and they have to live in a tiny condo in Oakland because home prices in the Bay Area are so out of control. Doing the exact same jobs in Oregon/Washington would effectively double their purchasing power even though the paycheck is technically less.
 
Atomic Playboy said:
The decent salary is a wash if the cost of living is substantially higher. You might only get a third as much in Texas, but if a house costs 1/5th as much, you'd be better off (excepting of course that you'd be stuck in Texas). I personally don't get the appeal. My sister-in-law and her boyfriend each clear six figures and they have to live in a tiny condo in Oakland because home prices in the Bay Area are so out of control. Doing the exact same jobs in Oregon/Washington would effectively double their purchasing power even though the paycheck is technically less.
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Agreed. But if I were to change jobs, it's not that easy to find something in my specialty there whereas here I can hop from company to another without moving or relocating. Also if I were to move from there, it would probably be a pain to sell my house since that's likely why the house prices are affordable (since there is less demand).
If I were able to work from home then I wouldn't have an issue.
 
Congrats, and get ready to spend an inordinate amount of time at Home Depot, Lowes or your local hardware stores.
 
Dang, 5 years ago a 3 bed 1bath house in south San Francisco I bid on went for 535,000, only 26,000 over asking. I can't imagine 150k over asking but I guess when you hit 1 mil homes what's another 100k?
 
The threat really is if (when) interest rates go back up to relatively normal levels - Will people be able to afford these 900k condos? 'Course if they are paying straight cash (homie!) that wouldn't matter.

Maybe the Big One will hit SV?
 
Atomic Playboy said:
The decent salary is a wash if the cost of living is substantially higher. You might only get a third as much in Texas, but if a house costs 1/5th as much, you'd be better off (excepting of course that you'd be stuck in Texas). I personally don't get the appeal. My sister-in-law and her boyfriend each clear six figures and they have to live in a tiny condo in Oakland because home prices in the Bay Area are so out of control. Doing the exact same jobs in Oregon/Washington would effectively double their purchasing power even though the paycheck is technically less.
Click to expand...

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

this link better explains what you are trying to say.

Personally when I moved to Texas I got a pay raise. So it not always necessary to take a pay cut.
 
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