He’s pretty good still. I liked this comment I saw there:
I work in tech and my co-workers who moved to CA and now rent an apartment in CA are:
1) New college grads who were offered an enormous salary out of college.
2) Not married so they rent a one bedroom apartment.
3) They didn’t even have enough stuff to rent a Uhaul. I saw pictures of new hire who had packed his entire worldly possessions into his Toyota for the move.
The enormous salary is not enough to buy a house yet, but it comfortably rents a one bedroom apartment near the beach. You are only young once.
If they stay, gain experience, and job hop for higher salaries, then they may at least qualify to buy a house.
To buy a house in CA since the late 1980’s, a buyer has had to stretch and live frugally. This is not a new thing but it seems to me that more stretching is going on today than ever before.
Historically, if you stretched and purchased a house in the 1990’s and lived very frugally for 15 years, you are likely OK now. Actually, you are probably a millionaire with all of your equity tied up in the house. If you still live there, it would be hard to move to a cold/hot strange place that isn’t close to the beach.
If you rented for the entire time, you are likely poor and have to move due to rising rents.
I went to high school in S. CA in the 1980s. All of my classmate’s parents who purchased a house in the 70’s and 80’s are still there and aging in-place. The parents who rented in the 80’s have long moved away to cheaper places.
If I was just married, in my 30’s, wanted kids, and had no college education and flipped burgers for a living, I would leave also to somewhere where I could qualify for a house.
