How do people in the Bay Area LIVE?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Living in the Bay Area now on a $500k hhi. We don't own. We tried but it's a crazy market. Our rent is $4200 a month in a not so desirable part of the East Bay for a 3-bed. We feel stymied and can only imagine how other families making less must feel. Hopeless comes to mind. Plus, the schools really are a mess here. Even the 10/10s for whatever that's worth. And the homeless camps are a heartbreaking reality. So much poverty, filth, and crime. I've had to call 911 several times as a witness to an assault. Yes, the weather is great and the access to the outdoors is amazing but we'll probably bail this summer after 3 years of trying to make it work. Oh, and traffic sucks!

Where will you go next?

Not totally sure yet!

DP.. we moved from SF Bay Area to DC area. It's cheaper and has better schools. But I really really really miss the CA weather and people, and the food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Living in the Bay Area now on a $500k hhi. We don't own. We tried but it's a crazy market. Our rent is $4200 a month in a not so desirable part of the East Bay for a 3-bed. We feel stymied and can only imagine how other families making less must feel. Hopeless comes to mind. Plus, the schools really are a mess here. Even the 10/10s for whatever that's worth. And the homeless camps are a heartbreaking reality. So much poverty, filth, and crime. I've had to call 911 several times as a witness to an assault. Yes, the weather is great and the access to the outdoors is amazing but we'll probably bail this summer after 3 years of trying to make it work. Oh, and traffic sucks!

Where do you live, PP? My BIL bought a 4 bedroom SFH in Hercules for $425k about 4 years ago on a HHI of $120k. It was four years ago, but still... much lower HHI than you. A friend bought a 4 bedroom SFH with pool in Walnut Creek last year for $1.2m. Both places have good schools. Walnut Creek offers easy BART ride into the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Living in the Bay Area now on a $500k hhi. We don't own. We tried but it's a crazy market. Our rent is $4200 a month in a not so desirable part of the East Bay for a 3-bed. We feel stymied and can only imagine how other families making less must feel. Hopeless comes to mind. Plus, the schools really are a mess here. Even the 10/10s for whatever that's worth. And the homeless camps are a heartbreaking reality. So much poverty, filth, and crime. I've had to call 911 several times as a witness to an assault. Yes, the weather is great and the access to the outdoors is amazing but we'll probably bail this summer after 3 years of trying to make it work. Oh, and traffic sucks!

,

San Ramon, Danville, Dublin, Pleasanton are all well within your range. Houses are 900k - 1.5 which shouldn't be a problem on 500k. All have excellent schools. The commute can be awful depending on where you're going.

[Anonymous]

You mean to tell me that the Chinese are causing the real estate values in SF to skyrocket? Does anyone see the irony in this??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Living in the Bay Area now on a $500k hhi. We don't own. We tried but it's a crazy market. Our rent is $4200 a month in a not so desirable part of the East Bay for a 3-bed. We feel stymied and can only imagine how other families making less must feel. Hopeless comes to mind. Plus, the schools really are a mess here. Even the 10/10s for whatever that's worth. And the homeless camps are a heartbreaking reality. So much poverty, filth, and crime. I've had to call 911 several times as a witness to an assault. Yes, the weather is great and the access to the outdoors is amazing but we'll probably bail this summer after 3 years of trying to make it work. Oh, and traffic sucks!

,

San Ramon, Danville, Dublin, Pleasanton are all well within your range. Houses are 900k - 1.5 which shouldn't be a problem on 500k. All have excellent schools. The commute can be awful depending on where you're going.

Yep. Many people I work with make much less. They live in Walnut Creek, Clayton, Pleasant Hill, San Ramon, Danville, etc. There are plenty of places to live on that salary. It won't be a mansion, but you can get something very nice for $1.5 (Lafayette, Orinda, Berkeley, etc.).

On the peninsula or in the city, I agree, it will be harder, but I know plenty of people who make it happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Living in the Bay Area now on a $500k hhi. We don't own. We tried but it's a crazy market. Our rent is $4200 a month in a not so desirable part of the East Bay for a 3-bed. We feel stymied and can only imagine how other families making less must feel. Hopeless comes to mind. Plus, the schools really are a mess here. Even the 10/10s for whatever that's worth. And the homeless camps are a heartbreaking reality. So much poverty, filth, and crime. I've had to call 911 several times as a witness to an assault. Yes, the weather is great and the access to the outdoors is amazing but we'll probably bail this summer after 3 years of trying to make it work. Oh, and traffic sucks!

If you can’t make it on half a million dollars a year, you’re doing something wrong. Plenty of people are comfortable with much less.

[Anonymous]

I lived in Pacifica for years and loved it. It's a sleepy little green enclave on the coast. Easy drive to anywhere in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in SF recently and was shocked by how dirty it seemed versus what I remembered. Everything looked rundown and sad and there were homeless people everywhere. They don't seem to be putting that tech money to good use.

I live here and agree. You'd never be able to tell how much money is in this area because it's not invested into anything. Everything is utterly filthy, old, decrepit and dirty. Even areas with $1M houses are down the street or next door to dumps and near homeless hangouts. It's disheartening.

Maybe it's because I'm from NY before it got cleaned up, but I think SF is very clean for the most part. There are not homeless people "everywhere." All over downtown? Yes. In any neighborhood that's an offshoot from Market Street? Yes. I also find it very, very clean. Every once in a while there's filth and needles and such, but this is a major city!

what?

You mean for an american city or compared to global competition? I found Sf to be very dingy.

I moved from NY too and found SF just not worth it with lots of homeless/tents, indequate and dirty muni and way too expensive for the quality of life. Its also a much smaller city compared to NYC smaller than brooklyn. I did enjoy living in SF while renting but it was not for the long term. As PPs noted, the only people who can afford to live/buy are the chinese investors, rent controlled apartment or moved before housing boom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep. I'm from there and can't afford to move back, even leveraging the property my parents own there. I miss it but, as someone said on a similar thread, the culture has changed for the worse and the Bay Area I remember probably doesn't exist. The only childhood friend who is still there, lives in her moms house (family of 4 plus grandma).

My BILs family owned a beautiful house in San Francisco, one of those large victorians. They are actually a wealthy family by most people's standards.

They ended up selling it because the taxes were just astronomical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved here from D.C. A few years ago and hate it. The area sucks (filthy, so many homeless people, terrible public transportation), the housing is so expensive (and were also lawyers). I don't understand the mentality of spending so much to get so little. It's really left a bad taste in my mouth. i hope to move in the next year.

The past ten years it has really gone down hill in California.

I can't believe that regular job holding bill paying citizens of many parts that state haven't openly revolted yet.

We lived there twice. Once in the late 90s/2000 and later around 10-12. The difference in squalor vs cleanliness in those two time periods was significant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Living in the Bay Area now on a $500k hhi. We don't own. We tried but it's a crazy market. Our rent is $4200 a month in a not so desirable part of the East Bay for a 3-bed. We feel stymied and can only imagine how other families making less must feel. Hopeless comes to mind. Plus, the schools really are a mess here. Even the 10/10s for whatever that's worth. And the homeless camps are a heartbreaking reality. So much poverty, filth, and crime. I've had to call 911 several times as a witness to an assault. Yes, the weather is great and the access to the outdoors is amazing but we'll probably bail this summer after 3 years of trying to make it work. Oh, and traffic sucks!

Where will you go next?

Not totally sure yet!

NP. Do you feel like listing your shortlist options? We love SFBA for the people (tech, highly educated, farmers market lovers), the food, the weather and tons of indoor and outdoor things to do. Hate it for traffic, homeless explosion, filth. We were strongly considering DMV (hence how I found this forum) but honestly after spending several months on here, I'm not convinced that we'd like it or fit in. They seem to have a real disrespect for tech people, they don't understand nutrition, can't get fresh awesome produce year round because I guess there isn't the demand for it (and that's literally the bulk of what we usually eat, including the kids), some of the people seem really snobby about things that I personally wouldn't be proud to even admit, and the weather.... ugh. I know that there are always some nice people everywhere, but I wanted to increase the odds a bit. I feel like we look at a map of the US all the time and still have no idea where to go... any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Living in the Bay Area now on a $500k hhi. We don't own. We tried but it's a crazy market. Our rent is $4200 a month in a not so desirable part of the East Bay for a 3-bed. We feel stymied and can only imagine how other families making less must feel. Hopeless comes to mind. Plus, the schools really are a mess here. Even the 10/10s for whatever that's worth. And the homeless camps are a heartbreaking reality. So much poverty, filth, and crime. I've had to call 911 several times as a witness to an assault. Yes, the weather is great and the access to the outdoors is amazing but we'll probably bail this summer after 3 years of trying to make it work. Oh, and traffic sucks!

Where will you go next?

Not totally sure yet!

NP. Do you feel like listing your shortlist options? We love SFBA for the people (tech, highly educated, farmers market lovers), the food, the weather and tons of indoor and outdoor things to do. Hate it for traffic, homeless explosion, filth. We were strongly considering DMV (hence how I found this forum) but honestly after spending several months on here, I'm not convinced that we'd like it or fit in. They seem to have a real disrespect for tech people, they don't understand nutrition, can't get fresh awesome produce year round because I guess there isn't the demand for it (and that's literally the bulk of what we usually eat, including the kids), some of the people seem really snobby about things that I personally wouldn't be proud to even admit, and the weather.... ugh. I know that there are always some nice people everywhere, but I wanted to increase the odds a bit. I feel like we look at a map of the US all the time and still have no idea where to go... any ideas?

^ oops... how did I forget the #1 reason to hate living in SFBA - the IN$ANE cost of living?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved here from D.C. A few years ago and hate it. The area sucks (filthy, so many homeless people, terrible public transportation), the housing is so expensive (and were also lawyers). I don't understand the mentality of spending so much to get so little. It's really left a bad taste in my mouth. i hope to move in the next year.

The past ten years it has really gone down hill in California.

I can't believe that regular job holding bill paying citizens of many parts that state haven't openly revolted yet.

We lived there twice. Once in the late 90s/2000 and later around 10-12. The difference in squalor vs cleanliness in those two time periods was significant.

Revolt? Nobody cares. Those who care leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved here from D.C. A few years ago and hate it. The area sucks (filthy, so many homeless people, terrible public transportation), the housing is so expensive (and were also lawyers). I don't understand the mentality of spending so much to get so little. It's really left a bad taste in my mouth. i hope to move in the next year.

The past ten years it has really gone down hill in California.

I can't believe that regular job holding bill paying citizens of many parts that state haven't openly revolted yet.

We lived there twice. Once in the late 90s/2000 and later around 10-12. The difference in squalor vs cleanliness in those two time periods was significant.

Revolt? Nobody cares. Those who care leave.

+1
While I agree that SF is filthy, California is still a gorgeous and stunning place to live. I feel blessed to be here. Friendly people, sunshine, nature.
Lots of anti-California messaging is happening lately. I'm suspicious of it. After all, if people truly want to target high tax states, then why not target NJ or CT? If people want to target states with high Latino populations, then why not TX, NM or AZ? If people want to target states with poor schools, why not all the states in the south?

California is a beacon of opportunity, a wonderful place to live, and unfortunately expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved here from D.C. A few years ago and hate it. The area sucks (filthy, so many homeless people, terrible public transportation), the housing is so expensive (and were also lawyers). I don't understand the mentality of spending so much to get so little. It's really left a bad taste in my mouth. i hope to move in the next year.

The past ten years it has really gone down hill in California.

I can't believe that regular job holding bill paying citizens of many parts that state haven't openly revolted yet.

We lived there twice. Once in the late 90s/2000 and later around 10-12. The difference in squalor vs cleanliness in those two time periods was significant.

Revolt? Nobody cares. Those who care leave.

+1
While I agree that SF is filthy, California is still a gorgeous and stunning place to live. I feel blessed to be here. Friendly people, sunshine, nature.
Lots of anti-California messaging is happening lately. I'm suspicious of it. After all, if people truly want to target high tax states, then why not target NJ or CT? If people want to target states with high Latino populations, then why not TX, NM or AZ? If people want to target states with poor schools, why not all the states in the south?

California is a beacon of opportunity, a wonderful place to live, and unfortunately expensive.

It's not anti-California messaging. It's a sad reality. It's not unfortunately expensive, it's completely unaffordable.