That's the problem, isn't it Plus higher interest rate.
Wonder why my dad still stays in his (then) 200k house in Sunset ?

 

Me...no house. Not til I'm married. I just don't feel like it's settle down buy a house time. Especially in this freaking town. If I am gonna be settling down some place right now I'd do it back in santa cruz.

I am saving though. I have about $25k saved up in my 401k and I am going to start another fund that I put into monthly on the side that's more for a house. I guess I'm more worried about retirement and kids college education than a house at this point. not to mention the costs of getting married alone.

 

Well I rather have a house than pay rent. You put all this money into rent and after the lease is up what do you get? Nothing. With a house you can at least sell it and hopefully make a profit and while you have the house at least you have a place to work on and store your car.

Jason

 

dude I was with my GF for 8+yrs, and things still went down the ****ter.

get an atty, get a prenup, and buy teh house solo!

take care of YOURSELF!

 

"Profit" on a house in the bay area is meaningless, unless you're leaving CA with the money.

Let's say you bought a 300k house 3 years ago, and it's worth 600k now. Great, profit right? Well once you move out of the house, where are you going to live? In another 300k place (which is MUCH ****tier than your previous place)? No, you have to spend that dough on the next house.

Buying a house for the sake of owning something is not all it's cracked up to be anymore.

But I still maintain that $15k ain't going to change anything about buying a house. If you don't believe me go punch things into ditech.com or eloan.com.

 

haha yup, my parents bought a $150K house in vacaville in 97, sold it in 03 for $275K, they took the $125K + another $15K and bought a $700K house in orinda with a 20% downpayment...so yea, profit doesn't mean much if you are buying another house in the bay area.

I guess it would mean something if you bought in the bay area, sold for a profit then settled in like sac or modesto or something, but who would do that

 

Forget about buying a house now in case you and your gf get married and divorce or something. Buy a house now to start making (and saving) money now. You don't need a big, or any down. We only paid our closing costs on this home (so about $4k or something) and got 100% financing. We did our loans as 80%/20% so that we don't pay PMI and we got a really great rate. You'd be surprised how much you can afford, and also at how low your payment is for a given amount spent.

Look at it like this - my gf and I were going to move in to an apartment two years ago. It was a 2 bed, 2 bath 1400 sq ft place. We had no garage - only a car port space and we would have been the first tenants. Rent was like $1480/mo. So we started looking around at housing and ended up buying a brand new house for $235k (when all was said and done). Our mortgage was $1578/mo, only $100 or so more than the apartment, we got a 3 bed, 2 bath place, 1600 sq ft, a back yard and a 2 car garage. In addition, pretty much everything you do around the house can be turned in to a tax acvantage. Every month the interest you pay is a write off at the end of the year. We needed landscaping in our back yard so we did it on a home equity line and now I can write off any interest I pay on that. I think I might also get to write off a portion of it because technically it was a "home improvement", but I really don't know - gotta look up the law on that I guess

And on top of all the tax breaks, the fact that you're not pissing your money away helping someone else get paid (rent), your house should appreciate. Like I said, we paid $235k two years ago - house is worth $360k now

 

If I lived in Sac, I would totally agree with SS. But $360k doesn't buy a 2bd condo here.

My buddy is paying ~$2900/month for his $400k mortgage on a 1300sqft ****hole in San Jose. They spend mad bank fixing up that place. He also drives further to be able to live there. I pay $1700 for my 3bd/2ba 1300sqft brand new apartment, wired for ethernet, brand new carpets, everything.

Don't forget property taxes, and the fact that YOU have to fix crap that breaks.

F*** buying a house around here!







i really want a house so bad but we definitely can't afford anything remotely close to our apartment that's near both our jobs, so i basically have convinced myself that renting is awesome lol

 

Ugh. This thread is nauseating. But I have to comment. I'd say f*** buying a house in this area or in California at all? Do you have any clue what a mere 250k can get you in other parts of the country? You could live in a small mansion! I do not kid you! Search on realtor.com.

j

 

8+ years of not being married; regardless on whether you bought a house with or without her, if you lived together for more than 7 years it's considered common law marriage. that "marriage" entitles the both of you to half of each others entities, and debt.

i say, enjoy the car. just don't spend money on aftermarket parts that would go towards a down payment of a home.

the only drawback at this point is that interest rates are expected to rise so unfortunately you won't have too much time if you'd like to purchase your new home at a reasonable interest rate. on a positive note, one thing you can look into, especially if you're still single and really just out to make a profit (to put towards your "dream" house) is to purchase your home with the interest rate adjustable. adjustable interest rates are generally lower than those of 15% or 30% years (dependent on credit ofcourse). to keep your payments down and affordable you can also make payments on just the interest. these "interest only" payments are usually for approximately 7 years (going up each year by $100 or so). with these considerations a home in California is much more affordable. just a piece of advice, when you have bought your home and are finally ready to make a profit...so long as it has not gone up more than $500k and you've lived in the home for 2 of the last five years you won't have to pay a tax called "Propery Gains Tax." so consider that before you buy a home too far into the boonies.

Whatever your decision, home ownership is definitley better than renting.

sorry for the run-ons, and rambling...just my .02 on this topic.

 

Every time I do, I get sick. $80k in San Antonio, TX buys the equivalent of a $500k house here. $300-400 out there buys LITERALLY a mansion.

Crazy ****.

 

Check this out...I just HAD to do it:

San Antonio TX, $300,000: FIVE bedroom, FOUR bath, 3,700 sq feet.
http://realtor.com/Prop/1035045071?lnksrc=00045

San Antonio TX, $309,000: FIVE bedroom, FOUR bath, 3,500 sq feet.
http://realtor.com/Prop/1038928521?lnksrc=00045


San Antonio TX, $550,000: FIVE bedroom, 5.5 bath, 5,100 sq feet.
http://realtor.com/Prop/1032137006?lnksrc=00045

 

i do sympathize with all of us (including myself) about the high cost of housing around here, but i still feel that buying a house (vs renting/car ownership/pissing $ away) is still the most logical and sound thing to do.

eric is right in that the appreciation in value doesn't mean jack b/c the market appreciation goes up so fast, but you can't look at it that way. at worst, your money grows as fast as the RE market growth...meaning that when you cash out or trade up for a new home, your original $ will benefit from the capital appreciation (taxes or not). at best, you've hit a hot spot and your house appreciates faster than the market growth OR you move out of CA to a place where $350K will buy you a small mansion.

there is a lot of RE market pessimism with the high cost of living, unreasonable pricing, economic uncertainty, election year, etc....but the opposite of home ownership (buying a car, renting, spending, etc) is far more dangerous than investing your money in a house.

think of it this way....you pay $1500/month for rent. if you buy a house, let's say you pay $2k/month for mortgage. in 15-20 years, you will have nothing towards a house if you were renting. if you did the whole property ownership thing, however, you sell the house, pay off whatever you owe the bank, and you easily have $150-200k of money towards a home/car/beer/etc.

 

Are home prices rising as quickly there as they are here? That's the best part of getting a place out here right now. As the values continue to climb very quickly, you could turn around and sell in 5 or so years and make almost double what you originally paid for your house. I'm hoping this place hits $500k in the next couple years so we can sell it, buy a house cash somewhere else in the country and work wherever I want doing whatever I want since I don't have this $1500 bill each month.

And as for property taxes, get an impound account so you don't have to pay one lump sum for your taxes, you can pay it over the course of the year.