Comments on: Redwood City house prices compared to Levittown – which is more expensive

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:47:55 +0000

Wikipedia says San Jose has a median income of $83K. That means all the ticky-tacky-houses-that-all-look-the-same have got to be worth at least… um… $249K!

By: burbed

burbed — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:52:35 +0000

They’re mandatory voluntary in that they’re voluntary, but everyone will frown at you if you don’t do it. Peer pressure.

Finally, I still don’t understand where you come up with a median income of $30k for the NYC Metro area, or $50k for the The Real Bay Area. Those are just ridiculous.

By: gfw

gfw — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:46:17 +0000

Levittown is also in NJ and PA.

By: ex-sunnyvale-renter

ex-sunnyvale-renter — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:44:14 +0000

Those Levittown houses sound overpriced to me. As always, a house should cost 3X the median income for the area. That means $150k for the BA, and maybe $90k for Levittown.

WTF is a “mandatory voluntary cash donation” – isn’t that a bribe and extremely illegal?

By: burbed

burbed — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:30:58 +0000

>>From what I can remember of schools in New York, the extra money tended not to make the school district better.

Hm, I’ll have to follow up on that.

You have an interesting point about the school districting hiking up taxes – but you do have to remember that those things are voted on in NY, just like they are here.

Also, as for your point about parental involvement – so true. But I’m pretty sure that in Long Island, parents aren’t requested to bring a mandatory voluntary cash donation of $2000 per student like at Palo Alto High. Though I suppose Libertarians and Retired people would prefer that system.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:24:44 +0000

And for anyone considering leaving the Bay Area, moving to Long Island, and buying that second gem:

No garage, no basement, unfinished attic. (Mmm… chipping ice off the windshield before work!) The hosue is inexpensive for the town, though. Average price in 11756 zip code is a princely $411K. Do those realtors think we’re made of money?

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:20:50 +0000

Oh, come on — for a fair comparison, we ought to use one of the cuter post-war houses of the same style in Belmont or San Carlos. Of course, they probably cost $800K at a minimum at this point, but housing prices only go up, right?

Note those taxes — taxes of $8200 and $10000/year? The Redwood City house’s taxes would only be 1% plus some, or under $6000/year. For the more expensive house, that means another $400 or so a month in taxes, which would mean the equivalent of affording another $80K on the mortgage if you got a 30 year mortgage, and another $100K of house if you got one of those nifty interest-only loans.

And thanks to the wonders of prop 13, when you buy that beautiful house in Redwood City, you know those taxes won’t go up. When the school board on Long Island decides they want another $2K/year for the schools, your taxes go up another $2k. Hope you can afford it. The retired couple who lived next door to us couldn’t. (From what I can remember of schools in New York, the extra money tended not to make the school district better. Just like the Bay Area and Cupertino, the best schools tended to correlate with the high income areas and involved parents, not with taxes. The Bedford school district and its Wall Street types always scored better than the Yorktown Heights schools, even though Yorktown charged a bunch more in taxes. I’d make jokes about hiring the mayor’s brother to drive the snowplow, but I’d prefer to forget winter.)

I love Prop 13. I hate Prop 13. I love Prop 13. I hate Prop 13.