MercuryNews.com | 10/03/2006 | ‘Burdened’: Area owners pay a big chunk of their income for housing
Lenders and other home buying experts said they’re not surprised by the numbers, which they said reflect a long-running trend in the Bay Area. And some questioned whether the 30 percent figure was outdated, saying many people can afford to pay more.

[snip]

Lenders and real estate experts said home buyers in the Bay Area are used to paying more for housing than home buyers elsewhere, and that many, like Singer, use their homes as a savings plan. Most have figured out how to manage the extra debt, they said. In some cases, borrowers are making smaller down payments than previous generations of home buyers.

“(They) are going to make the lifestyle change necessary to own a home, which may mean that 50 percent of their income goes to their mortgage. . . . (They) don’t go out to dinner, they don’t go shopping anymore. It’s about changing their lifestyle,” said Andrea Lanier, a mortgage broker with the San Mateo office of Bankers Preferred Real Estate Loans.

The rules have changed! Everything is worth sacrificing to own a house!

Vacations, who needs those? Most offices have free sodas and ping pong tables! And, there’s always Great America!

Fortuantely, there’s a lot of Asian supermarkets in the Bay Area, so that the price of ramen is very competitively priced.

My prediction for 2020? When you get a new job, your pay check will be direct deposit to your mortgage payment. Safeway will be out of business – but that’s ok because you will be shopping at the local food bank.

And it’ll be cool – just like how bragging about working 100 hours a week used to be cool.

“Are you going to FoodMax?”
“No way… I’m going to Mountain View Community Center”
“Dude you so rock – that must be a killer condo.”
“Yeah, it’s really special and it’s only going to go up. I love it here – it’s paradise.”