Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised no one as questioned this "family circumstance" that will yield money for you.
If this circumstance, as you describe it, doesn't happen, will you still be ok financially?
I would be concerned with overbuying before the money is in my bank account

Also, the commute thing would kill me if I miscalculated the commute time after I bought. It happened to us once, and it was really difficult to reconcile that a supposed 45 minute commute was actually typically 1 1/2 hours. Just driving it a couple times was not enough.

Did that happen in San Francisco or someplace else?

She's tying to be tactful but grandmas about to kick it.

That was my read on it also!!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised no one as questioned this "family circumstance" that will yield money for you.
If this circumstance, as you describe it, doesn't happen, will you still be ok financially?
I would be concerned with overbuying before the money is in my bank account

Also, the commute thing would kill me if I miscalculated the commute time after I bought. It happened to us once, and it was really difficult to reconcile that a supposed 45 minute commute was actually typically 1 1/2 hours. Just driving it a couple times was not enough.

Did that happen in San Francisco or someplace else?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knowing the history of the SF Housing Market and inventory (or lack thereof) is why people are saying it won't go down. Their has been an upward progression for many year prior to the "tech" industry and it has been difficult to buy a nice house at a bargain price in SF city limits since before many of the techies were born.

Prices plunged after the 1989 earthquake. If another one of those happens, you'll see that again.

It still wasn't so low that they were virtually giving away houses. And that was primarily in the areas hardest hit by the earthquake like North Beach. SF Natives were not swayed by an earthquake (excuse the pun). If anything the housing prices were higher than ever when they did go up again.

Anonymous wrote:I would buy for all the reasons 9:02 and your DH suggest, at least if you intend to be there for at least 5+ years. In a lot of cities getting a better idea of neighborhoods is a good idea, but for as crazy as the housing market is in SF, just look at the rental market. Your rent for a comparable place will be much larger than your mortgage, with 1 bedroom apartments (and even some studios in trendy neighborhoods near transit) renting for 3K and all. People say one of these days the housing market is going to crash, but it keeps going up every year. I think it's unlikely to go down--it just might stop going up at the obscene rate it has been for the past couple decades. The combination of weather, access to natural beauty, the job market, and geography (you can't exactly build out into the sea) all lend itself towards always being a desirable place to be with limited supply.

Expect the housing search to be horrendous, and to have a nasty bidding war on each house, especially since you are in a competitive price range. You might get lucky, but you might decided buying in SF is not for you after several rounds of this craziness, and look at some of the suburbs (although the bidding war craziness is bad in desirable suburban areas as well). It will definitely go above the list price. Honestly, Berkeley/Oakland commuting via BART is just as convenient, if not more than many neighborhoods in SF for access to downtown and there are some great neighborhoods where you can get much more for 1 million. If you are your DH are in tech, seriously consider looking in the pennisula, since there is a lot of job hopping in that sector and it allows access to job centers in both SF and SV (I have some friends who work in tech who bought in Berkeley and have mixed feelings about it, because they love the community and hated the suburban feel of the pennisula, but it severely restricts their employment prospects if they want to not have a six hour commute daily).

Whether or not you can get anything to your standards for ~1 million really depends on your expectations. Houses are much smaller in the city in terms of square footage (as tends to be the case in all urban neighborhoods, for the most part), and you may need to settle for only 2 bedrooms/a neighborhood that isn't trendy/ a house that needs significant work. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised no one as questioned this "family circumstance" that will yield money for you.
If this circumstance, as you describe it, doesn't happen, will you still be ok financially?
I would be concerned with overbuying before the money is in my bank account

Also, the commute thing would kill me if I miscalculated the commute time after I bought. It happened to us once, and it was really difficult to reconcile that a supposed 45 minute commute was actually typically 1 1/2 hours. Just driving it a couple times was not enough.

Did that happen in San Francisco or someplace else?

She's tying to be tactful but grandmas about to kick it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised no one as questioned this "family circumstance" that will yield money for you.
If this circumstance, as you describe it, doesn't happen, will you still be ok financially?
I would be concerned with overbuying before the money is in my bank account

Also, the commute thing would kill me if I miscalculated the commute time after I bought. It happened to us once, and it was really difficult to reconcile that a supposed 45 minute commute was actually typically 1 1/2 hours. Just driving it a couple times was not enough.

Did that happen in San Francisco or someplace else?

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised no one as questioned this "family circumstance" that will yield money for you.
If this circumstance, as you describe it, doesn't happen, will you still be ok financially?
I would be concerned with overbuying before the money is in my bank account

Also, the commute thing would kill me if I miscalculated the commute time after I bought. It happened to us once, and it was really difficult to reconcile that a supposed 45 minute commute was actually typically 1 1/2 hours. Just driving it a couple times was not enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knowing the history of the SF Housing Market and inventory (or lack thereof) is why people are saying it won't go down. Their has been an upward progression for many year prior to the "tech" industry and it has been difficult to buy a nice house at a bargain price in SF city limits since before many of the techies were born.

Prices plunged after the 1989 earthquake. If another one of those happens, you'll see that again.

Anonymous wrote:Knowing the history of the SF Housing Market and inventory (or lack thereof) is why people are saying it won't go down. Their has been an upward progression for many year prior to the "tech" industry and it has been difficult to buy a nice house at a bargain price in SF city limits since before many of the techies were born.

Anonymous wrote:A PP here. We've had three long distance moves -- one from here to Boston, one back here from CA and one within the DC area. The only bad house purchase we made was when we bought before moving to an area (when we moved back here during market peak). Had to wait a year to buy in Boston because inventory was so tight, and just moved for the second time in this area, we really knew the market and were able to move quickly when a well placed house came up. That's very difficult to do long distance or on a week long look for housing trip. Will the company pay for a few months of temporary housing?

Anonymous wrote:Knowing the history of the SF Housing Market and inventory (or lack thereof) is why people are saying it won't go down. Their has been an upward progression for many year prior to the "tech" industry and it has been difficult to buy a nice house at a bargain price in SF city limits since before many of the techies were born.