[quote=sreeb]So can I. But I can also seeing them not doing so well or just having a significant cut back on their way to a bright future.[/quote]
Sure, but when and by how much? If you can’t answer that, then why even make it a variable in determining whether it’s good to buy or rent?
[quote=sreeb]There is plenty of empty buildings today. There are lots more buildings with nearly empty parking lots. I’m not witnessing a stampede of companies moving in.[/quote]
We did experiencing a “great recession”. What did you expect? I don’t know where the start ups are in SD, but I know the city planners (if they get their way), will make Sorrento Valley/UTC area. Especially as SD get more dense, they have to have more defined areas. They’re expecting 1M+ people to move to SD over the next 30 years. They don’t want to sprawl like LA. So, in the short term, QCOM will carry SV and the many banks/financial and biotech will carry UTC. Even if QCOM goes away and SD will no longer have tech jobs, do you think all jobs will be gone from SD?
[quote=sreeb]I don’t see new businesses popping up like mushrooms these days. I remember when they did. Hopefully they will again.[/quote]
Again, we just experience a pretty pad recession. I hope you were not expecting SD to be immune.
[quote=sreeb]While I expect good engineers will always be in demand, it may be optimistic to expect that demand to always show up at your doorstep.[/quote]Like I said above, engineering are not the only job in SD. So, even taking worse case scenario about QCOM and it going away, unless you expect SD job market to become like Detroit where that 10k+ people will stay unemployed for a very long time, I don’t see how QCOM’s success or failure will affect RE price over the long term.
[quote=sreeb]If you think it is a good idea to get a job at Qualcomm, buy their stock, hold onto all your stock options, and buy real estate whose value is mostly dependent on demand from other Qualcomm employees, go for it. It will probably work out fine. But if it goes bad, it will be very very bad.[/quote]
RE value mostly dependent on demand from QCOM employees? Do you have proof of that? Again, do you expect SD’s job market to be desolate if QCOM goes away? Are you saying the city’s planners who expect 1M+ people to move here over the next 30 years and have them all be unemployed?
I never suggest you hold all of your eggs in one basket (RE is not one of those egg). If you have all of your retirement and investments in QCOM, all I can say is you might want to diversify. That’s a whole different topic all together though. However, if you make buy/rent argument based on one company’s success is pretty ludicrous to me too. Before QCOM, there were other employers, and after QCOM, there will be other employers. Unless you’re betting against SD’s job market as a whole, I don’t see how one company’s future will affect housing price of a whole region. Also keep in mind that it’s currently cheaper (monthly payment) to buy than to rent in Mira Mesa. I can’t speak for Carmel Valley, but they have other factors that give them the premium (they always did, even before QCOM). So, unless you can say QCOM’s demise will be sharp and imminent, I don’t see how you can use QCOM’s future as a variable to determine buy vs rent.
