Thanks. I take that as a compliment. If I start thinking like you, please warn me in advance.

I think you’ve answered your own question. BA is not for people who cannot afford it.

That might well be the case. However, nothing has changned since 2002 to make the Bay Area more high growth or land-locked. Those two factors have always been present and have always been factored into the price of BA real estate. However, many parts of the Bay Area, the Peninsula in particular, are still selling 25-35% above their historical, pre-bubble prices. That is why most believe that buying in the “RBA” is not a wise investment right now. Sure, the RBA has things going for it, but it always has. The only difference between now and pre-bubble is the unwarranted and unsustainable bubble premium caused by funny money and irrational exuberance.

You are right on this one. I felt priced out here. I could never understand
1. why a crappy shack costs so much
2. why should I compromise my financial security for the great weather of BA which I could not enjoy because I was always at work.
3. why somebody like me taking 250 grands as annual household income feels poor in BA ? If the answer is rest of the populace in BA is richer then how come the median salary is so low ?
4. why the roads here are so damn f*cked up and shcools so bad ?

And the when I started asking these question to myself, I could not justify wasting my life on this area.

The way you think is like a southern country boy who’s seen a big city for the first time.

The reason for BA to be at this price level is because it’s a high growth area in a land-locked situation. Even without the industries and all that, BA is still a highly desirable place with great weather.

But the bottom line is that the BA simply doesn’t make concessions or changes that enable more logical growth and infrastructural improvements to better manage future residents. So naturally that makes anything with a roof increasingly rare and hence more valuable. This has had a multi-generational effect on the overall social strata of the area, with each new round of housing bubbles forcing another class of people from the area. The working class long ago lost their ability to pay for a house.This generation saw the middle class lose theirs. As it is now, what is actually lower middle class housing is being sold to upper middle and lower upper level wage earners. This site illustrates this perfectly.This is also why the article I placed above has truth to it. Cities like the BA and others have inadvertently created new cities where those who wanted what they couldn’t have in larger cities could get it. If history serves as a lesson, then these new cities will become the new growth centers of culture, ingenuity, and originality. No society has survived long without a middle class. So it’ll be interesting to see how the BA works out without theirs.

This leads to one of my most prominent points and reasons for making the decision to move several years ago. If leading a pedestrian middle class lifestyle in the BA means having to make an upper level income, then is the act of living here worth it when a ordinary middle class wage would afford the same and more elsewhere? Sort of like asking if a Dime is worth the same whether its in SF or Austin.I myself am not middle class. But I tend to think that areas that attract middle class people has the most promise, thus I see more opportunities in those areas.

Lastly, It depends on what your point of view and opinions are. For me, I’m less concerned about where I live and more about how I live. For others, where they live is extremely important, sort of like how some people are really concerned that their purse is a Gucci or their watch is a Rolex.To say that you live somewhere that has “diversity” is about the same. But I look at the way in which I live my life day to day and at least for me, what I do isn’t tied to place. That isn’t to say that I’m right and everybody else is wrong. So how about we just leave it at that. I’ve said my peace, and you all have said yours. Perhaps I don’t think the same as others. But that’s alright ain’t it?

That’s a great post. Couldn’t have said it any better!

OK, sorry I can’t let this go. Austindweller wrote this, but it has bob all over it also.

You bay area naysayers are trying to cover a very simple emotion that is ENVY and camouflage it with all these other made up “higher consciousness” BS. Yes your logic is superior to the rest of us people that area happy living here

The fact is that to most people that look at the bay area from afar, it seems like the bay area should be just another burb, like every other burb, around Austin or wherever. The REALITY is that the bay area, due to its geography and demographics (basically, constrained land and a VC capital) we have a location that is PRICED like some of the top locales in the world- Manhattan, London, Singapore, etc., places like that.

People who come here from some burb off of a US city have no concept they are entering a Manhattan-esque real estate arena price-wise. They are shocked to see million dollar shacks and constantly whine that the area can’t withstand these prices, but really, their complaints are mostly that they can’t afford these prices. The problem is that the bay area LOOKS too much like Austin and not enough like Hong Kong or Manhattan. They think that since the bay area isn’t priced like Austin, something must be wrong with everybody but them.