How do people afford a house in the bay?

Pfizer
cqOD23

Go to company page Pfizer

cqOD23
Nov 10, 2019 70 Comments

Let's say I want to buy a starter home in Sunnyvale for $1.4m, how do people pay for this??

Even with a 300k downpayment, the mortgage would be almost 8k a month, that's several thousand more than my take home pay a month after taxes..

I've always heard that housing shouldn't be more than 30% of your income, does that mean that everyone who owns a house here makes 25k a month?

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TOP 70 Comments
  • Microsoft
    muleking

    Go to company page Microsoft

    PRE
    Taco Bell, Campbell Soup, Jack in the Box
    muleking
    It’s really easy. Just have two incomes three side businesses and driver Uber in the nights.
    Nov 10, 2019 3
  • Veritas
    dogyear

    Go to company page Veritas

    dogyear
    I don’t know how u get a monthly cost of 8k lmao
    Nov 10, 2019 1
  • New / Eng
    gncaiye

    New Eng

    gncaiye
    That's BS.
    Average tech salary for Eng and Managers are around 150k which means your take home will be 101k which is $8400 / month.

    So it's not possible unless the wife would have a take home salary of 5k in which case then it would be barely possible.
    Nov 10, 2019 7
    • Twitch
      gadgetry

      Go to company page Twitch

      gadgetry
      You aren’t smart enough if you don’t make at least a million as new grad
      Nov 10, 2019
    • You could argue that sure but money isn't what every new grad is after and even for the some that are they don't all have side hustles that will net the other 700k. So again don't exaggerate, this is rare, not the norm.
      Nov 10, 2019
  • How tf did you come up with $8k? It should be closer to $5.5k, which is a big difference.
    Nov 10, 2019 3
    • Your math is wrong, principal and interest alone for 1.4M w/ 300k down, 4.1% 30 year fixed is $5,315.
      Nov 10, 2019
    • New / Eng
      annon1234

      New Eng

      BIO
      Hvac engineer.
      annon1234
      You’re right. 7.1k includes escrow. Tax, insurance
      Nov 10, 2019
  • Apple
    aleG37

    Go to company page Apple

    aleG37
    Back in the days, we started with a starter home. For example, my spouse and I started in East Bay. When we accumulate enough equity, we rented our house and bought our first 1M+ house in a prime property. When we accumulate more, we upgrade some more.

    These days, I am not sure. People seem to think that if they work in tech, they have to own a house in prime property and stretch themselves thin. You work your way up.
    Nov 10, 2019 1
    • ForRent / Eng
      🌀⛈️

      ForRent Eng

      🌀⛈️
      This seems like a good idea.
      Nov 10, 2019