therealist
Member
what's stopping you?
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Sunnyvale 4 bed/2 bath 1988 sqft house sells for $782,000 over asking price
- Thread starter Marty Chinn
- Start date
what's stopping you?
apieceofstrange
Member
Yea, the entire valley has been a shit show for housing for years now. Looking at listings is just depressing. Even the most shit tier fixer uppers start at $1M+, and even if I could afford that, I don't think I'd be able to justify it. Then again, paying $3k/month for rent isn't a much better alternative.
Hippopuncher12
Member
I need to sell my house before this bubble bursts.
hipbabboom
Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
Lol! The amount paid over is more than the value of my entire home and my home is objectively bigger and nicer. I guess the location more than anything else, on a whole other magnitude, determines value of a home.
Synless
Member
So why do organizations all bunker down in one area? Like what stops tech people from being successful in South Carolina, Florida, Georgia? Why is everything in the west to cause these crazy inflated house prices? I would work for some of these organizations, but because I know the shitty state of housing in those areas I would never consider it.
Flying Toaster
Member
Weather. It all comes down to where people want to live.
that amount is more than my wife and i spent on 5 acres and a 4000 sq ft home with a 4 car garage and the pool we just built.
Nastrodamous
Member
condo life baby
R10Neymarfan
Member
That's why a tiny house revolution is happening
Synless
Member
It's not like the weather I listed in those areas is bad... it's damn near the same with some humidity.
I don't think millennial are fucked at all from buying a house... just don't move there. I don't know too many people who don't own houses and are all millennial generation. Anecdotal I know, but I'm saying pricing like this is not accurate around the U.S.
Marty Chinn
Member
I've been to Florida and Georgia, and you're downplaying the weather there, especially the humidity factor. Plus the current hurricane situation doesn't help your argument either. The weather is significantly better here and we have a lot of micro climates so you can go from 100 degree weather down to 60 or 70 degrees within a hour drive. So if you're too hot or too cold, you can easily go to some place that fits your tastes. Not to mention we have the coast line and beaches, wine country, vast scenic hills to hike in, and if you choose to, you can drive up, spend the day skiing or snowboarding and come back within the same day. The weather is near perfect almost year round and our peaks and lows are typically nowhere close to what they are elsewhere. So I really think you're downplaying the vast difference in Bay Area weather and the places you listed.
That's kind of the point. It's a average house at best going for probably 20 times what it would sell elsewhere. Heck, how much it went over alone probably could buy 5 houses in another place. A 20% down payment could probably buy 3 or 4 houses outright.
The backyard is the one thing it has going for it. Actually it's not in the back but unusually on the side. Most lot sizes are around 6000 to 8000 sqft, but this one is 13,000 sqft so the lot space is a lot larger than most houses around here.
Don't worry, you've got time.
You know I'm really jealous of the space you have to work with and the things you can do with it right? =) I consider it lucky that I was able to find a place and to actually win the bid that had that room I'm planning to use. I actually passed up some places because I felt if I didn't even have the option to do a dedicated setup, it would haunt me. Although my wife reminds me that we should have just bought one of those houses in Sunnyvale that was smaller and wasn't ideal 6 years ago because we could have flipped it for so much more by now. I saw one house that we passed up on that was listed for a million in 2012 and now is estimated to be just over 2 million. That's double in the last 5 years. Heck, the house we did end up buying has gone up about 25% in value in just the last two years.
Not the weather, LOL.
There are a few reasons:
- Silicon Valley has by far the highest concentration of tech venture capital firms, so it is much easier to get funding for a startup there than anywhere else.
- Huge tech workforce in the area.
- Close to both UCB and Stanford, two of the best universities in the world.
Yeah everyone should be able to get a 500k per year job to pay for an average house like this one
steve9842016
Neo Member
Is there ever going to be a real "burst" around here again though?
I'm now in the market for a place and....listings are just depressing. I've been watching listings for a few years and with prices now I'm limited to south/east San Jose or Milpitas/Fremont/Union City/Hayward areas for a house.
I work in high-tech and grew up here/wouldn't leave the area. Housing supply getting scarcer and scarcer, people wanting to move here for tech; it really just seems never-ending.
It isn't, it's more a sign of poor urban planning and excessive industry concentration into one area.
Funny that the tech sector, with all its sexy software, can't figure out how to set up a decent city. There shouldn't BE any houses in the Bay Area anymore. It should all be European-style midrises and subway systems.
Marty Chinn
Member
The worst part is if you try to save up more, the price of houses outpace what you likely can save so it's not buying you anything and in fact might make things worse. So the only real solution is you get pushed outward and you need to jump on that before the prices there start catching up since everywhere else has gone up dramatically. That's what happened to us when we got pushed from Sunnyvale, to Campbell, and then eventually San Jose. Pretty soon all of that is going to be out of reach and your next bet is Morgan Hill.
Why would they pay for that when they don't have to?
What kind of pay do these tech people make to afford a house like that anyway?
My field pays about 40-50% more in CA, but I would need a 400% increase to maintain the same standard of living. As beautiful as that state is, I can't justify it. CA will just be a vacation spot for me.
My field pays about 40-50% more in CA, but I would need a 400% increase to maintain the same standard of living. As beautiful as that state is, I can't justify it. CA will just be a vacation spot for me.
titiklabingapat
Member
Or this is a sign that we aren't building enough.
In many of these communities, these are literally the only option as midrises and other types of denser developments are outright banned and/or restricted. So even if you wanted to you literally cannot buy anything else and by virtue of supply and demand, the ones that are left get more expensive. Way more expensive.
This is not just a problem in the Bay area but the whole of California. It's just really acute up north.
Marty Chinn
Member
Tech salaries are between $120k to $200k before bonuses and perks like stock options.
Yeah, that makes sense. I'm in that salary range and the idea of any house >$300k makes me feel nauseated.
itwasTuesday
He wasn't alone.
Remember, always pay your photographers.
Marty Chinn
Member
Well ideally, you'd have a dual income family and that $150k would be double as both people are making something like that. A $2.5 million dollar house with 20% down is about $12,500 a month for mortgage and property tax. Still a lot, but a dual income can tackle that.
apieceofstrange
Member
That is pretty much where I'm at salary wise. I could maybe throw down literally all my savings for a down payment, but then I'd be living paycheck to paycheck with a $5K/month payment for either a crappy house that needs lots of work or a condo that's not much different from the apartment I'm already living in. Doesn't really seem like a smart move. Probably going to look to relocate after this year, though other parts of the bay area aren't really a whole lot better.
Marty Chinn
Member
Eh, the house I got two years ago has gone up in value by at least 25%. There's actually a lot to be gained if you can find something and then flip it in a couple years or even better, find something that needs to be fixed up so it's a tad cheaper, do some interior renovation and flip it for a big hike in the short term since a lot of people want something that's move in ready. It's potentially better than sinking money into rent that doesn't give you any return at all.
Yeah, but why would the tech industry pay for it?
Yea even with a dual income that's a crazy amount to pay after taxes. It's not worth it to live check to check unless you really really love that city and feel like long term that's where you wanna be. To be honest, lately I've been driving down south and despite traffic sucking and all of that at least there are some cities like Long Beach and even San Diego that seem really nice and affordable next to places in the Bay.
CadetMahoney
Member
I like the story of the google employee who lived in a truck in the parking lot of google to save money.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1127219&page=1
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Holy shit, that's a ridonculous amount.
Me and the wife are finalizing a place in Reston, arguably one of the most expensive places in NOVA and at the same (give or take) size and same number of rooms/baths, we're coming up to less than 1/6th of that price.
Me and the wife are finalizing a place in Reston, arguably one of the most expensive places in NOVA and at the same (give or take) size and same number of rooms/baths, we're coming up to less than 1/6th of that price.
Eppy Thatcher
God's had his chance.
That's barely even as big as my fuckin house... good lord.
TrojanBlade
Member
welcome to bay area where affordable housing is getting worse and worse...
Just yesterday I met with some friends and we were discussing 'oh the housing market is not going up any more...'
yeah right .. this is insanity
Just yesterday I met with some friends and we were discussing 'oh the housing market is not going up any more...'
yeah right .. this is insanity
Yeah and they aren't paying $2.7M for those houses is the point. It doesn't stop at real estate either. Everything is more expensive. The point is the ridiculous cost of living eats up a good portion of those hundreds of thousands. Your average Google drone isn't retiring at 50 and sending their kids to a Swiss boarding school either.
These cities could create more affordable housing if they wanted. But the people that already own homes there have a very good incentive to not do that since it makes their homes more valuable. I'm not sure how to fix that. Maybe make zoning a state thing instead of local?
Make RHNA accurately reflect the housing need in an area and take away local discretion if they dont meet their RHNA goals
facetheslayer92
Member
The two universities Stanford and Berkeley bring in young talent from all over the world and dumps them in the sunny paradise known as California. There's no reason to leave the Bay Area as all the tech companies have resided in the Valley for decades. HP, Intel, Apple, etc will attract people till the end of time. Not to mention the food scene is amazing and it's culturally rich compared to other parts of the country.
The tech industry is indirectly paying for the high cost-of-living in these areas, in that they need to pay higher salaries there. High cost-of-living drives higher cost-of-labor.
I work for a Midwest satellite office of one of these companies headquartered in SV. The salary they pay for people doing the same job in high cost-of-living areas like SV and NYC is roughly $15K higher than it is here. On top of that, figure that they need to pay more for the commercial real estate, more for health care subsidies, more for contractors and support staff. Some of the bigger tech companies actually own their own apartment buildings in SV that they use to house out-of-town employees and interns who are going to be in the area for more than a few days because it's too expensive to get a short-term lease in the rental market.
Squall5042
Member
Are they not building high rise condos/apts in the San Fran area?
Phobophile
A scientist and gentleman in the manner of Batman.
If they were, it's not like they'd be affordable. Developers generally only build luxury apartments to get a faster ROI.
Goro Majima
Kitty Genovese Member
So the housing costs won't become an issue for another decade or so when a larger and larger portion of the tech industry matures a bit and their stock prices settle down? This is assuming the Bay Area does nothing to address the lack of housing.
It just seems like something will give at one point or another. How high does real estate like this have to go before companies pull out of the area?
Gully State
Member
It isn't. Bay Area will always be a desireable location
Sunnyvale isnt San Francisco, and dear god no, anything taller than 4 stories is verboten, some areas of Sunnyvale have a 1 story height restriction even.
Up here, you could literally buy 2 private islands, and the facilities on them make this house look like a shed. No joke.
CherryWoodFuton
Member
This
What some gaffers don't get is that some of these people put up with the high cost of living because their quality of life is to them way better than staying in some midwest town
Of course I'm not speaking about Sunnyvale though that place is boring af (I lived there for about 6 months)
Yeah you need secret money for the down payment. Salary is not enough
I've been looking for a house for a long time but it's borderline impossible due to overbidders. And the time it takes to save is lower than the rate the homes increase in price. So seems futile unless willing to settle for a crappy home