Tech is BACK!….Housing downfall might be limited in San Diego afterall.

[kewp]

Hey, once I cash out the options from my gig at Google San Diego, I’ll buy a sweet pad in the ghetto for a half-mil. So will my other 10k co-workers. No housing crash here!

What a bunch of bull!

[surveyor]

anecdotal data

I will have to say this is just another urban legend unless you have data to prove it?

The fact that my wife told me the information can be construed as anecdotal data. I do not claim it as prevalent, but it’s out there.

Anyways, the point is that maybe a number of engineers are frugal, but maybe their spouses do not feel the same way.

Me, I’m the spendthrift. My wife is the frugal one. Fortunately my vice is cash flowing real estate properties.

🙂

[Anonymous]

Looks like a socialist paradise. 9 of the top 10 employers here in SD make payroll either directly with your tax dollars or indirectly through government subsidies and insurance. Also note that only one of the top ten employers actually produces anything other than services.

I can’t tell if your joking or not, but recall that jacobs was a faculty member at UCSD when he developed the ‘service’ that became qualcomm’s first ‘product’. Indeed, much of the basic research, innovation, and intellectual property that initially drives start-ups in both the biotech and tech sectors is a direct result of this sort of “socialism”. In any case, socialist or not, the health of the housing market is not likely to be tied to that of qualcomm.

[blahblahblah]

Point taken whybuy, but it looks like the government’s return on investment is pretty poor in this case. The top ten employers in SD provide almost 500K jobs from those stats (489K to be exact), yet only Qualcomm (6K jobs) actually produces anything (1.2% of the total). Incredible!

[SHILOH]

“Submitted by forsale_2007 on April 25, 2007 – 9:56pm.
“I didn’t say housing was going to rebound. But a amagadon housing slump would have been nicely accelerated if you had an employer(s) like QC dump. It hasn’t, and will probably take some time for this to happen.”

Based on what I have read on Piggington’s – the run up in employment that also fed into the house price run up —was a combined influence of the home building & lending market. Construction of homes and related industries were the big employers making $$ from 2000-2006. Now several major builders are over-extended and in trouble -as well as lenders going belly up.

There is not enough $ at QComm to prop up the fall-out of companies like New Century or Countrywide’s financial mess and the escalating foreclosures in SD.

But it would be interesting to know exactly how many millionaires there are in SD and how exactly they earn their millions (if you can call it “earning.”) Even if they can keep prices high in some markets –overall, there is nowhere to turn for job growth in SD except maybe hospitality or education. But hospitality doesn’t pay.

I spoke with a woman from SD at a conference- whe works at UCSD in an administrative job—she told me her home on Paseo Del Rey (east of 805/around H Street) was offered 1M to sell, but she refused since she and her husband are so comfortable where she is….they bought the home about 10 years ago for around $200K

My parents live in CV down around Telegraph Canyon. The home right next to theirs was flipped then sold to a poor sucker who lost it to the bank. The bank fixed it up a bit and is now sitting on it (over a year). It saddens me, my parents are very responsible decent people…but the neighborhood was hit by flippers just like everywhere.

[Critter]

“she told me her home on Paseo Del Rey (east of 805/around H Street) was offered 1M to sell, but she refused…”

My parents sold their house in LA in November. They, too, got several over-the-top offers…. but when it came time to sign contracts, the potential buyers started mumbling about contigency sales, not being able to pull money out of the stock market, waiting until spring, etc.

My parents did sell to a committed buyer, but the “fluff” offers were annoying. Same as when people tell me their house could sell for XXX since their neighbor’s house just sold for XXY, “and they don’t even have granite countertops.”

Strange how you never hear “I’ll have to knock $50K off the asking price for that botched kitchen remodel I started last year.” Instead, they want to charge more for the “opportunity to put in your own touches!”

[The-Shoveler]

Nor_LA-Temcu-SD-Guy

Well I guess there maybe really good news in Tech after all,

Anyone see msft’s earnings WOW !!

It’s good to be in Tech again !!,

In 2002 when I was buying my place in Temecula, the Sales rep looked at me and rolled her eye’s when I said I was a Software engineer (like OK this guy will probably not make it to closing) (that was just before the days of 100% no Doc’s).

[tech_junkie]

Hey, once I cash out the options from my gig at Google San Diego, I'll buy a sweet pad in the ghetto for a half-mil. So will my other 10k co-workers. No housing crash here!

What a bunch of bull!

 

 

Funny you should mention this. Google pretty much lets you work anywhere provided they want you. There's also an office in orange county. 4 of my buddies live here and work from home here.

 

[tech_junkie]

Yea I was just talking to an engineering colleague yesterday who bought a house in 2002 about the same time I did, he paid 400K I paid about 300K, we both agreed that (even though we could not even buy a condo for that now) it seemed so expensive at the time (Maybe it was).

 

 

Actually I find the following pretty amusing about two ex-coworkers. 1) I had this single coworker in his 40ies. Everyday, he would bitch about how expensive real estate is. He would bitch about how it's so unfair. Bitch about it's so stupid to ever own. And apparently he has been bitching for the past 11 years. He's been in San Diego for about about 6 years and 5 years before that in Bay Area. He never bought, because every year he said it was just "too expensive". He could never "justify" the expense, too expensive etc. Now the guy was a tech worker paid fairly well, so I couldn't understand why he would be complaining about this for the past 11 years. As the story unwound, he basically had the criteria that he "needed " a 4 bedroom place, and rented over the past 11 years for about $2000 /month. Hence, we wasn't going to settle for anything less on his first home purchase.

Now, I couldn't understand this (1) why did he rent that long (2) why the hell, being single, did he "need" such a big place. I asked why he couldn't have just purchased something like a 1-2 bedroom condo initially that's somewhat more affordable, and gradually move up. It's not ideal, but at least you're not throwing away $200k to a landlord with nothing to show for in the end. He basically "couldn't" live in a smaller place, because he "needed" one room just to house his CD/DVD collection. I kid you not. This guy bragged he spent over $50,000 on CD/DVDs etc. And judging by his other purchases he made, he had a lot of other crap he needed to cram into that 4 bedroom house…Of course, he also complains about he hasn't been able to "save" enough for a downpayment because he isn't paid enough.

2) This other coworker (young guy) mentioned about how he's going to wait to buy a house because it's too expensive. He and his wife is going to "save" and wait for house prices to fall in 3-4 years to purchase their first home. Honorable. since I can see home prices falling..But the next week, he came into the office and talked to me about getting things for his expecting baby. Over the weekend, the guy and his wife ended up spending close to $3000 on baby furniture, because they felt the must have "the best quality". His wife decided to spend hundreds more buying supplimented breast milk (yuck) because formula isn't good enough. Now for you single people that don't know, there absolutely isn't any reason why a crib,dresser,and craddle should run over $800 for the budget minded folks. And why the hell would someone buy supplimented breast milk (besides it being gross) when there's no medical need for it.

In either case, both ended up pissing away their money on other things and probably won’t have the means to ever purchase.

I’m not saying all renters are like this, because obviously so many of you piggingtons were previously owners and are probably sitting on the sideline from an opportunity perspective.

But I have to say, I’ve seen plenty of #1 and #2’s above who mask their own poor planning and money management in the past in the sheep skin of believing they were “smart” for have rented so long. And I would fathom type #1 and type #2 won’t have the means to afford a place even when things become cheap(er). Because even if they had taken a risk and dumped money into what they thought was a depreciating asset ( I would argue your primary home is a liability, not an asset), it probably would have been better than them leaving the money around and dumping it into other intangible things that have nothing to show for. Folks in my office that are lower rank than me and paid less than me, for example, drive more expensive cars than me. And the common thing I hear is , “well I can’t afford real estate anyway, I might as well buy a nice car”…..I’ve noticed that often, when people have money on the table, they end up spending it on crap they don’t need. They won’t be ready even when houses are affordable again.

…..I just hope none of you piggingtons fall into either of these categories.

 

[tech_junkie]

Any other engineers care to chime in about stock options? Is your company still granting them? Has the volume of options being granted changed? Have your co-worker's attitude about the company's compensation plan changed? (my co-workers are feeling pretty well f'd over these days – management is receiving stock and options as bonuses and the line-level troops are lucky to get a 3% raise each year) The original poster of this thread is saying that options being granted to engineers are a significant source of income here in San Diego – I don't see that and I'm curious if anyone else does

 

 

My company, a small office of a larger company based in the Valley still does. Actually it does both. stock option grants + stock units. You had to negotiate them as part of your offer. Too many engineers are still way too timid and worried about being outsourced for companies to proactively give you stuff. Companies aren't telling you,that some places there's a shortage of qualified people (though if you don't make the cut, it doesn't matter what you try to negotiate). The dot-bomb converted a lot of would-be geeks into MBA grads, so there's some shortage of qualified people here and there.

 

[mixxalot]

I can attest to what you say about folks who waste money on junk rather than saving and investing. For me, my car is paid off and I have been saving last few years for a home. I have a budget that I stick to and rarely eat out or buy expensive things. My one major expense this year is dental expenses but that is tax deductible and for my health so thats important. I do buy a new laptop computer every 2-3 years but its for work so its more of a necessity than a want.

I plan to buy in 2-3 years once work is all good and more down payment. Looking at 2-3 bedroom condo or small home (1100-2000 sq feet) with garage and small yard. Since I am single I don’t need a huge place. And I dont have a lot of junk to store just a few basics. Lots of books since I work in the I.T. field always have to keep up with new database technology.

As for stock options- not many places hand these out anymore.

[kewp]

“Funny you should mention this. Google pretty much lets you work anywhere provided they want you. There’s also an office in orange county. 4 of my buddies live here and work from home here.”

Bastards! The told me I would have to relocate!

[one_muggle]

Any other engineers care to chime in about stock options? Is your company still granting them? Has the volume of options being granted changed? Have your co-worker’s attitude about the company’s compensation plan changed? (my co-workers are feeling pretty well f’d over these days – management is receiving stock and options as bonuses and the line-level troops are lucky to get a 3% raise each year) The original poster of this thread is saying that options being granted to engineers are a significant source of income here in San Diego – I don’t see that and I’m curious if anyone else does

As an EE at a quasi-government university R&D lab, I don’t get stocks or profit sharing (no profit :^{ ), but we do get ~10% contribution to 403b, with no matching required, and ~15% on ever dollar over the Soc. Sec. limit. Typically, experienced engineers get six figures, but the pay profile is pretty flat (ie, the managers aren’t making multiples of the foot soldier’s salary)

These days, though, even dual-six figure families cannot afford any reasonable housing in this area. Either the price leaves you house-poor and the schools stink (private runs 8000-18000 per kid, per year) OR the prices are about 30% too high for $200-250k per year dual income families in the good districts. Only prior owners, like myself, and $300k+ per year families can get in around here, and most of those folks want more than adequate housing. So, IMHO, even with good jobs, the area has at least exhausted its ability to appreciate, probably for a good part of a decade.

-one muggle

[asragov]

Higher corporate profits do not mean higher wages.

A lot of people make this leap, but it is not so simple.

Just because corporate earnings are up, it does not mean that average workers’ earnings are up.

Offshore outsourcing, shuffling jobs to lower cost / tax states, and deceptive CPI data all mean that pressure on real wages is downwards. One simple example of thousands:

http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/premiums-vs-paychecks/stagnant-earnings.pdf

I don’t know the numbers about “at risk” local employment in the real estate, construction, and mortgage finance-related industries, but I expect that it will have significantly more impact than possibly stable local employment at Qualcomm.

[CardiffBaseball]

No options here. Software Eng. MGR, and I know that some receive them, but they are merit only, and not that great in number to enduce retirement.

[Author]

Posts