CNN/Money has another one of their Most/Least/Best/Worst/Good/Evil slideshows that could have been presented as a table, but then they'd get ten fewer click-throughs. This time it's one of our favorite regional competitions, for 10 Least Affordable Cities for buying. Actually it's Least Affordable Metros, but it sounds better if they call them cities, even if a couple of them are known locales for multiple Portals to Hell and very few yachts or polo ponies.

10 least affordable cities to buy a home

BY LES CHRISTIE @CNNMONEY – LAST UPDATED NOVEMBER 29 2012 02:02 PM ET

Looking to buy a home? You may want to skip these places. Prices are either so high or incomes so low that many families can't afford to buy homes here, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.

Anyway, we lost to New York City again, which is just so unfair. This isn't even an SF to Manhattan comparison, so we should have kicked serious butt here. However, California totally owns the Least Coast as far as leaderboard spots, and Washington DC didn't even qualify. We present the results in one easy list, so you don't have to click through their annoying one-city-at-a-time-gee-who-could-be-next-and-if-this-was-so-exciting-why-didn't-they-put-it-in-reverse-order-Top-Ten-List-style?

1. New York, where 28.5% of homes are affordible. They seemed impressed by $1100 a square foot, too. But they didn't define the boundaries of any of these metro areas, so of course we can (and will) complain we were cheated on geographical grounds. We doubt this was an apples-to-Big-Apples comparison.
2. San Francisco, 31.4%. The piece laments it's unaffordable all over, because nearby communities are also expensive. Nearby high-priced places such as Sausalito, Berkeley, and… wait for it… Daly City. We swear we are not making this up.
3. Santa Ana, 43.5%. I kid you not. Perhaps the nearby beach towns are pulling up its results. And Disneyland. Because Santa Ana is not what comes to mind when we think “delightful but so unaffordable California real estate.”
4. Los Angeles, 44.1%. Because “bunus” hydrocarbons and ozone raise home prices. Seriously, when did LA rediscover the bubbly?
5. Bridgeport, Connecticut, 44.2%. Look, if you have to tell us what state the metro is in, maybe it isn't really worth mentioning. Just sayin'.
6. San Jose, 46.2%. Above is the lovely photo they used to feature the Capital of Silicon Valley, probably because the Quetzlcoatl statue made the photog drop a perfectly good camera. Not one other metro had a freeway interchange featured. Not even Los Angeles, which loves its freeways so much they get definite articles. We suspect they're also putting their thumb on the scale by adding in San Benito County.
7. Honolulu, 48.8%. Houses cost more because of good weather, expensive shipping, and hotel jobs pay squat. But they get a photo with palm trees.
8. San Diego, 54.6%. Here the filler text spends more time lamenting the glory days of 6% affordability during the last bubble. Well screw you, because we're already on our next one.
9. Newark, 55.3%. No, not that one, in New Jersey. Although Newark itself is cheap. It's la-di-da luxury locales like Hoboken and Jersey City that cost the big bucks. We're sure it's a complete coincidence that NJ made the list even though the feature author's surname is Christie.
10. El Paso, 61.7%.This is an honest case of low overall incomes ($41.7K) as opposed to expensive housing ($141K).

Let us know if you find any of these results surprising, or what you plan to do to ensure we never lose to New York or LA or The OC ever again.. Or mention anything you want, because this is Your Weekend Open Thread.

We lost out to both New York City and Washington DC, this time in the contest for the town with the highest earnings.  Here are the Top Ten, courtesy of CNN/Money, of the places with the highest median family incomes.

People, this is not good. Not only did High Tech lose out to High Finance and High Crimes and Misdemeanors, but there’s Highly-wood right behind us. Also this list is disturbingly full of Least Coasters.

Here’s what they thought of The Specialest Place of Them All (Not Including Mountain View, because for Pete’s Sake, Palo Alto may be Special but it does Not Have Google Anymore).

3. Palo Alto, CA          3 of 25

Population: 65,260
Median family income: $163,661
Median home price: $1,225,000

Nestled in California’s Silicon Valley, Palo Alto has attracted a pile of tech companies — and their CEOs. Not only does tech granddaddy HP have its headquarters here, but so do newbies like Pinterest and Ning. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has a house in Palo Alto, as did Steve Jobs. Stanford University, which falls within its boundaries, adds to the city’s prestige.

Palo Alto nurtures startups and the money that results from their successes. Its residents reap the rewards. Area schools are exceptional, while the city has 35 parks and a Mediterranean climate that varies by only 20 degrees year-round.

See complete data and interactive map for Palo Alto

Did you know that Palo Alto’s climate was More Special than that of any of the surrounding Not As Special cities?  Perhaps Redwood City (Motto: Climate Best by Government Test) is going to have to come over and punch them out for getting airs.

Oh yeah, and Mark Zuckerberg is mostly hanging out in San Francisco these days.  Could he have picked up this little pied-a-terre?  Just kidding, that place was sold to a school, which is now awash in neighborhood NIMBY lawsuits.  But have a look at this SocketSite discussion and see if you can figure out where Mark bought.  Two possibilities: 366 Liberty or 376 Hill.

We’re going to have to do something about Manhattan.  They’ve outdone us again in the rental department!

New Yorker pays $800 a month for 78-square-foot apartment

There was a young architect who lived in a shoe(box)

By Anika Anand, msnbc.com contributor
updated 8/4/2011 1:19:20 PM ET2011-08-04T17:19:20

NEW YORK — It may be small, but it’s no bargain.

New York architect Luke Clark Tyler rents a 78-square foot studio apartment for $800 a month in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, where studios usually average $1,900 per month. But in a neighborhood where the average rental price per square foot in a studio is $72, Tyler is paying almost twice as much at $123.07 per square foot, according to Mark Menendez, the director of rentals at Prudential Douglas Elliman.

"I think it’s too high," Menendez said. He added that, especially with New York real estate, the price per square foot can increase as the square footage decreases, and vice-versa.

"But again it’s all relative. Where can you find something for $800 in Manhattan?," he said. "Location trumps value."

This place is adorable, provided you’re an architect who can build your own custom furniture and doesn’t mind having to share a bathroom with three other people.  The only reason he has a closet is because he built a door over a small shelving unit.  There isn’t even a sink in this “studio.”

"A sink is really great," he said. "My last [96 square foot] apartment had a sink, it was just awesome."

Come on RBA landlords!  Why are you renting huge 3 BR/2 BA places for $3400 a month when you could subdivide them into cute little storage compartments like this for $800?  2 bathrooms, that means there should be room for at least 8 people, at $800 $1000 each.  Can you say Ka-ching?

Now we know how Google feels about rent versus buy!

Google Among Bidders for $2 Billion Building

By ANTON TROIANOVSKI

Google Inc. is a front runner to buy the massive building it occupies as its New York City headquarters in a deal that could be worth nearly $2 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Other buyers from around the world are also chasing the block-long, 2.9-million-square-foot building in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, the person said. If the deal is done near $2 billion, the building’s sale would make it one of the largest acquisitions of a single property in New York.

Google, if it completes the deal, would be jumping into a real-estate market in which sales of well-located office buildings occupied by financially strong tenants—like Google—have been sparking bidding wars. Most recently, Boston’s tallest skyscraper, the John Hancock Tower, drew a flood of bids and a $930 million sale price.

The building, known as both 111 Eighth Avenue and 76 Ninth Avenue, was a Port Authority of NY and NJ property, and is filled with backup generators, huge electrical power capacity, fiber optic cabling, and internet-ready offices.  Google is leasing half a million square feet of office space, including inside the building they hope to purchase.

At a $2 billion selling price, the deal works out to $690 a square foot for the 2.9 million sf, 18-story building in the fashionable Chelsea district.  The market for New York City office space has been selling for $400-500/sf, but $1500/sf was not uncommon during the bubble in 2007.

I hope Google is really determined to stay there, because, like several Manhattan office buildings, bedbugs have been discovered at Google-NYC.

“Like several other businesses in New York City, we’ve discovered bedbugs in a small area of our office,” the spokeswoman said. “We have notified employees and are taking steps to treat the affected area.”

I think they should get a vermin discount.  What do you think is fair?

No matter what anyone says about buying in the Real Bay Area, at least Mountain View office buildings are bedbug-free.  Are you listening, Google?

NY-area rents are not as high as one might think

Grumble, if you will, about high rents and warren-like apartments. Just be glad you don’t live in San Jose.

It may be little comfort, but the New York metropolitan area is not home—as a renter might think—to the highest rents in the country. That distinction goes to the San Jose metro area in northern California, where gross median rents cost $1,414, making it the most expensive in the country. San Francisco came in second, followed by the Washington, D.C., area, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2009 American Community Survey released Tuesday.

The New York metro area, which includes northern New Jersey and Long Island, was sixth. Median gross rent was $1,125 a month. The median rent in the city alone was $1,086.

America’s 15 Safest States

15. New York

Assault: 25
Burglary: 47
Murder: 26
Motor Vehicle Theft: 45
Rape: 49
Robbery: 9

Ha ha! Look at that! New York is all the way at the bottom of the list of America’s 15 Safest States!

Let’s see where California ranks!

15 Most Dangerous U.S. States

#15: California

Assault: 18
Burglary: 25
Murder: 16
Motor Vehicle Theft: 3
Rape: 41
Robbery: 5

Booyah baby! #15 on the list of Most Dangerous States!

Further proof that if you can make it here in California, you can make it anywhere!

And while we’re at it….

25 Craziest Cities in America

2. San Francisco

Psychiatrists per capita: 1
Stress: 57
Eccentricity: 2
Drinking: 11 (tie)
Local Character: Samir “Sammy” Keishk spent 18 months and $12,000 working on a 2,260-pound rubber-band ball in a quest to set a Guinness world record.

 

7. New York City

Psychiatrists per capita: 4
Stress: 19
Eccentricity: 4
Drinking: 49 (tie)
Colorful Character: Robert John Burck, better known as the Naked Cowboy to anyone who’s ever walked through (or heard of) Times Square, stuns and entertains passersby with his outfit: cowboy boots, a hat, and briefs that he hides with a guitar. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

Take that again New York!

Man… we are just rockin’ it out!

Top 29 Cities to live in

1: New York City

10: San Francisco

I think this is a case of good news/bad news. The good news is that San Francisco scored 9.2/10 for cost of living, while our mortal enemy New York scored a mere 8.9/10. WOOHOO!

That said, it’s clear the methodology of this report was wrong. They should’ve been comparing Silicon Valley!

It’s search engine Thursday!

Usually an actual search query is featured.However, lately there has so many “cupertino union school district lottery date” and “cusd lottery” (what’s that all about?) in the logs that it wasn’t particularly interesting. So, let’s examine a different potential query: is new york too expensive compared to california

The answer is a resounding yes. New York is absolutely too expensive compared to California… the Bay Area should definitely be more expensive. We’ve got sushi, world class universities, El Camino Real – what do they have? Jersey Shore?

Now let’s give credit where credit is due – we are certainly getting there. Out in the suburbs, we’re beating them soundly. Take this for example:

1.47 acre house – with access to Wheatley Schools

versus this:

Duc & Elliot built good houses in Cupertino

Oh yeah. Beaten.

More importantly, I think we’re even making progress against Doomedhattan with its Doomed Bankers.

For example, some of you may recall that the “smallest apartment in the city” at 175 sqft sold for an astounding $150,000. At the time, it made all the headlines!

Do the math people. Is it any wonder why all those Bankers failed and our VC succeeded? $150,000/175 is a mere $857 per square foot. Palo Alto… even Cupertino can beat that on most days!

Great work everyone! Don’t worry… 2010 is the year we’ll beat Manhattan and take the reign of “most expensive”! It’s our destiny!

It’s Saturday! That means it’s time for Burbed’s book of the week!

Amazon.com: Real Estate Investing in New York City: A Handbook for the Small Investor (9780595277421): Robert Lewis: Books
Real Estate Investing in New York City: A Handbook for the Small Investor (Paperback)
~ Robert Lewis (Author)
Key Phrases: amortization portion, leasehold mortgage, store tenant, Real Estate Investing, New York City, Brooklyn Heights

Learn Advantages of real estate investing over other investments, like leverage, inflation hedging and tax benefits

Understand the New York City area real estate market like an expert

Pick which real estate investment suits you –
Strategies from conservative to aggressive, lots of time or little time, plenty of funds or almost no funds

Discover what areas of the city offer the best prospects for success

Did this week’s features of New York real estate make you salivate at how cheap it is?

Well, with this book, you can have no money or some money. You can have passive, aggressive, or passive aggressive. no matter what your situation in life is, this book will help you invest and make money in New York real estate.

Sure you probably won’t be as successful if you bought in… say… Redwood City… and you may need to deal with the horrors of buying in a co-op (just ask Madonna how well that went) – but hey you never know.

Just remember though, before you leave the Bay Area, be sure to help this site out! Click this link to learn more!