The other day someone argued to me that the Bay Area is not very children friendly because to live here, a family with children would need both spouses to work.

On the other hand, I believe that the Bay Area is exceptionally great for children because it impresses on them at an early age, the value of work. No slackers here!

But then I thought about it and I realized that I had been “framed”.

Not everyone’s spouse works right? Sure in some parts of the Bay Area, like Daly City, it is common to have 4 working adults to support a household (Husband, wife, grandma, grandpa). But what about the Real Bay Area?

So, survey time:

1. How many working adults are in your family?

2. Does your spouse work?

3. How are you getting by?

4. Do you consider the Bay Area to be children friendly?

NAHB: Indianapolis Maintains Title of Nation’s Most Affordable Housing Market
Other major metros at the bottom of the housing affordability chart included New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J.; San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif.; Miami-Miami Beach- Kendall, Fla.; and Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif., in that order.

Among metro areas smaller than 500,000 people, the five markets at the bottom of the affordability chart were all located in California, starting with Salinas as the least affordable and followed by San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, Napa, Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta and Santa Cruz-Watsonville, respectively.

<sigh>

New York continues to beat us. How depressing. Come on guys, can’t we rally and finally push our way to #1? Surely we can beat New York in terms of being unaffordable!

ACTION ITEM: Please ask all your European and Asian friends/family members to buy real estate here ASAP.

Together, we can win!

(Thanks to Burbed reader Pralay for this find…)

This quote really stood out the other day, and I thought I’d bubble it up:

What personality do you need to succeed in Silicon Valley [Burbed.com]

madhaus aka guitar hero Says:
May 29th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

buckborden, yes, your parents are living upper-middle class with those vacations every year. But given their jobs it reminds me of something I heard about Palo Alto back in the late 1980s:

- If you bought here 40 years ago, you’re a teacher
- If you bought here 30 years ago, you’re an engineer
- If you bought here 20 years ago, you’re a doctor
- If you bought here 10 years ago, you’re a lawyer
- If you’re buying here now, you’re a CEO

There is no way that teachers can lead the life your parents have now. Wages depressed in the 1970s due to stagflation, and led to the two-income family becoming the norm; it’s not really clear which one came before the other. I’d bet many of us (who grew up in the US) had better standards of living on one income then many can find in the RBA, or any of the expensive metro areas, on two.

Further proof that Palo Alto is where you want to be. And that was in the late 80′s. Now it’s probably “VMWarer, 2004 Noogler, FaceBooker”.

Success breeds success. So if you want to be successful, better live in the Real Bay Area like Palo Alto.

I wonder what a pithy saying for that would be for Mountain View or Sunnyvale.

Any takers?