Mercer Island/Bellevue or Sunnyvale/Los Altos
Household TC: 700k + paper money startup stock Household NW: 4M, only 1.5M liquid stocks rest is 401k, existing SFH etc. Housing Budget: 2.5-3M. Will put 600k-800k down, mortgage on the rest will be covered by ~430k base salary. Both of us have equally good job opportunities in Bay Area or Seattle (BRK). Weather has pros and cons in both places, we like rain and air quality in WA and dislike wildfires so Bay Area is not an obvious choice. Leaning towards buying in Mercer Island (yes we are boring), curious about what opinions and data points come up here.
Where did you meet your wife ? Finding a FAANG woman or a tech woman to marry is hard these days .
If you are fine with the weather and lack of social life then Bellevue or mercer is a great location and you are getting close to having a lake view. I wouldn't recommend Sunnyvale or los Altos as you can afford the peninsula with that budget. Fires are a thing but only risk to you is the smoke, not the actual fire. Don't decide based on blind though. Visit both places and then decide.
Mercer / Bellevue is great. No state income tax and cap gains 7% is being struck down
I just moved to Snoqualmie Valley from the Bay Area (35 years)
What made you move?
I grew up there, lived there my whole life. Mostly in Marin County, I would live in Marin over the South Bay. With that said, quality of life was diminishing, schools failing in CA. I have young kids. I decided to relo with Amazonā¦WA, no income tax. King County is expensive but not nearly as much as Bay Area. I bought/built a brand new house here in WA, would be $3M in Bay Area. Plus WA schools far better than CA. Better quality of life so far.
94087 no brainer. Close to all companies and great schools and amazing weather and great parks. The biggest cost benefit is the prop 13 which caps property taxes
Why did you not add a disclosure that you own property in that zipcode? Please be kind and provide unbiased advice to someone genuinely seeking help, or at the very least declare your biases. I've seen your previous posts battling with San Ramon owners.
I never hide the fact that I own property in sunnyvale. Why would I recommend sunnyvale if I did not already live here and own property here
Sunnyvale and Los Altos are vastly different communities with vastly different price points too.
94087 rapidly approaching Los Altos price points though.