The San Diego Housing Market Monitor

[an]

[quote=UCGal]I can add my anectdotal, personal data.
I work for a large employer as an engineer and have for quite a while. I graduated well before 2000 – so my salary has plateaued. The days of 4.5% increases each year haven’t been seen since the early 2000’s at my employer. Even with promotions my coworkers and I are falling behind.

2009 increase 0% (corporation wide frozen salary)
2008 increase 2%
2007 increase 3%
2006 increase 2%
2005 increase 0% (changed a policy that slammed the California based workers)
2005 increase 2%
2003 increase 4.5%
2002 increase 4.6%
2001 increase 3.5%

I get very good performance reviews, before someone snarks that I must be a slacker.

If you factor in how much our bonuses have been hit – it’s even worse. We (my coworkers and I) are falling behind.

Then factor in the fact that they cut our 401k match to zero earlier this year… That’s a 3% paycut this year.

Wage deflation is real. But it could be worse. My husband is an architect and he’s only working part time due to lack of work. That’s REAL wage deflation. (He’s part of that mythical U6 number- underemployed.)[/quote]
I think many of us who graduated in the last 10 years will have drastically different experience than you. We both seems to agree that salary tend to plateau after a certain point. I think that’s around 10 years experience or so. So, to the older people, wage deflation is real. But to a lot of us who just entered the work force in the last 10 years, drastic wage inflation is also real. It is also very relative to the industry you’re in.

[UCGal]

[quote=AN]
I think many of us who graduated in the last 10 years will have drastically different experience than you. We both seems to agree that salary tend to plateau after a certain point. I think that’s around 10 years experience or so. So, to the older people, wage deflation is real. But to a lot of us who just entered the work force in the last 10 years, drastic wage inflation is also real. It is also very relative to the industry you’re in.[/quote]

I don’t disagree with that. I had my biggest wage increases early in my career.

That said, my coworkers with less experience were also hit with frozen salaries (even if you get a promotion!), eliminated 401k match, bonuses at half of previous years. So the folks in the first 10 years of their career also saw a hit this year.

[UCGal]

[quote=AN]
I think many of us who graduated in the last 10 years will have drastically different experience than you. We both seems to agree that salary tend to plateau after a certain point. I think that’s around 10 years experience or so. So, to the older people, wage deflation is real. But to a lot of us who just entered the work force in the last 10 years, drastic wage inflation is also real. It is also very relative to the industry you’re in.[/quote]

I don’t disagree with that. I had my biggest wage increases early in my career.

That said, my coworkers with less experience were also hit with frozen salaries (even if you get a promotion!), eliminated 401k match, bonuses at half of previous years. So the folks in the first 10 years of their career also saw a hit this year.

[UCGal]

[quote=AN]
I think many of us who graduated in the last 10 years will have drastically different experience than you. We both seems to agree that salary tend to plateau after a certain point. I think that’s around 10 years experience or so. So, to the older people, wage deflation is real. But to a lot of us who just entered the work force in the last 10 years, drastic wage inflation is also real. It is also very relative to the industry you’re in.[/quote]

I don’t disagree with that. I had my biggest wage increases early in my career.

That said, my coworkers with less experience were also hit with frozen salaries (even if you get a promotion!), eliminated 401k match, bonuses at half of previous years. So the folks in the first 10 years of their career also saw a hit this year.

[UCGal]

[quote=AN]
I think many of us who graduated in the last 10 years will have drastically different experience than you. We both seems to agree that salary tend to plateau after a certain point. I think that’s around 10 years experience or so. So, to the older people, wage deflation is real. But to a lot of us who just entered the work force in the last 10 years, drastic wage inflation is also real. It is also very relative to the industry you’re in.[/quote]

I don’t disagree with that. I had my biggest wage increases early in my career.

That said, my coworkers with less experience were also hit with frozen salaries (even if you get a promotion!), eliminated 401k match, bonuses at half of previous years. So the folks in the first 10 years of their career also saw a hit this year.

[UCGal]

[quote=AN]
I think many of us who graduated in the last 10 years will have drastically different experience than you. We both seems to agree that salary tend to plateau after a certain point. I think that’s around 10 years experience or so. So, to the older people, wage deflation is real. But to a lot of us who just entered the work force in the last 10 years, drastic wage inflation is also real. It is also very relative to the industry you’re in.[/quote]

I don’t disagree with that. I had my biggest wage increases early in my career.

That said, my coworkers with less experience were also hit with frozen salaries (even if you get a promotion!), eliminated 401k match, bonuses at half of previous years. So the folks in the first 10 years of their career also saw a hit this year.

[an]

[quote=UCGal]
That said, my coworkers with less experience were also hit with frozen salaries (even if you get a promotion!), eliminated 401k match, bonuses at half of previous years. So the folks in the first 10 years of their career also saw a hit this year.[/quote]
I don’t disagree that even people in the first 10 years of their career got their salaries freezes. But this is one of the worse recession in a long while, so, that should be expected. However, everything seems to get cheaper too, so inflation didn’t really hit over the last year. There is a CNN article recently that state employers are starting to hire back people they lay off.

[an]

[quote=UCGal]
That said, my coworkers with less experience were also hit with frozen salaries (even if you get a promotion!), eliminated 401k match, bonuses at half of previous years. So the folks in the first 10 years of their career also saw a hit this year.[/quote]
I don’t disagree that even people in the first 10 years of their career got their salaries freezes. But this is one of the worse recession in a long while, so, that should be expected. However, everything seems to get cheaper too, so inflation didn’t really hit over the last year. There is a CNN article recently that state employers are starting to hire back people they lay off.

[an]

[quote=UCGal]
That said, my coworkers with less experience were also hit with frozen salaries (even if you get a promotion!), eliminated 401k match, bonuses at half of previous years. So the folks in the first 10 years of their career also saw a hit this year.[/quote]
I don’t disagree that even people in the first 10 years of their career got their salaries freezes. But this is one of the worse recession in a long while, so, that should be expected. However, everything seems to get cheaper too, so inflation didn’t really hit over the last year. There is a CNN article recently that state employers are starting to hire back people they lay off.

[an]

[quote=UCGal]
That said, my coworkers with less experience were also hit with frozen salaries (even if you get a promotion!), eliminated 401k match, bonuses at half of previous years. So the folks in the first 10 years of their career also saw a hit this year.[/quote]
I don’t disagree that even people in the first 10 years of their career got their salaries freezes. But this is one of the worse recession in a long while, so, that should be expected. However, everything seems to get cheaper too, so inflation didn’t really hit over the last year. There is a CNN article recently that state employers are starting to hire back people they lay off.

[an]

[quote=UCGal]
That said, my coworkers with less experience were also hit with frozen salaries (even if you get a promotion!), eliminated 401k match, bonuses at half of previous years. So the folks in the first 10 years of their career also saw a hit this year.[/quote]
I don’t disagree that even people in the first 10 years of their career got their salaries freezes. But this is one of the worse recession in a long while, so, that should be expected. However, everything seems to get cheaper too, so inflation didn’t really hit over the last year. There is a CNN article recently that state employers are starting to hire back people they lay off.

[sdcellar]

[quote=AN]sdcellar, yes, some segment will do worse while others will do better.[/quote]Yes, my point exactly.
[quote=AN]That’s why I took a specific area to see what’s the median house hold income is. Although their two sites disagree with each other on the exact number for 2008, they’re the same for 2000. Adjusting for inflation, it’s only off by ~$1k/~1.5%. Not a big deal in my book.[/quote]But in the very same thread, I showed that the discrepency in another ZIP was $5K and almost 5%. That is significant. As far as the census years are concerned (1990, 2000), they do match, but that appears to be their methodology (census data supplemented with survey and interagency data compilations for the next 10). It’ll be interesting to see what SANDAG will have for 2010 (it should at least be consistent again). Seeems to me that the IRS could nail these numbers.
[quote=AN]Still get my point across that median house hold income in an area is relatively stable adjusted for inflation. In more newer developed areas like CV, it actually went up.[/quote]Actually, as I just mentioned, the data I brought for CV specifically shows in one data series that wages are up 5.4% and in another merely 0.8% (both adjusted for inflation). So, how do can you state that it went up in a meaningful sense? I suppose it did, but maybe barely (and less than in 92126).
[quote=AN]Regarding the class of 2000 comment, yes, it’s the former. Class of 2002 made about $45-50k fresh out of school. Now, those same people are making around $80-100k. The fresh grads now are making between $55k-65k, based on salary.com. So, if you’re comparing fresh grad vs fresh grad, the salary went up between 22%-30%.[/quote]Yes, so decidely less than 35%.

[sdcellar]

[quote=AN]sdcellar, yes, some segment will do worse while others will do better.[/quote]Yes, my point exactly.
[quote=AN]That’s why I took a specific area to see what’s the median house hold income is. Although their two sites disagree with each other on the exact number for 2008, they’re the same for 2000. Adjusting for inflation, it’s only off by ~$1k/~1.5%. Not a big deal in my book.[/quote]But in the very same thread, I showed that the discrepency in another ZIP was $5K and almost 5%. That is significant. As far as the census years are concerned (1990, 2000), they do match, but that appears to be their methodology (census data supplemented with survey and interagency data compilations for the next 10). It’ll be interesting to see what SANDAG will have for 2010 (it should at least be consistent again). Seeems to me that the IRS could nail these numbers.
[quote=AN]Still get my point across that median house hold income in an area is relatively stable adjusted for inflation. In more newer developed areas like CV, it actually went up.[/quote]Actually, as I just mentioned, the data I brought for CV specifically shows in one data series that wages are up 5.4% and in another merely 0.8% (both adjusted for inflation). So, how do can you state that it went up in a meaningful sense? I suppose it did, but maybe barely (and less than in 92126).
[quote=AN]Regarding the class of 2000 comment, yes, it’s the former. Class of 2002 made about $45-50k fresh out of school. Now, those same people are making around $80-100k. The fresh grads now are making between $55k-65k, based on salary.com. So, if you’re comparing fresh grad vs fresh grad, the salary went up between 22%-30%.[/quote]Yes, so decidely less than 35%.

[sdcellar]

[quote=AN]sdcellar, yes, some segment will do worse while others will do better.[/quote]Yes, my point exactly.
[quote=AN]That’s why I took a specific area to see what’s the median house hold income is. Although their two sites disagree with each other on the exact number for 2008, they’re the same for 2000. Adjusting for inflation, it’s only off by ~$1k/~1.5%. Not a big deal in my book.[/quote]But in the very same thread, I showed that the discrepency in another ZIP was $5K and almost 5%. That is significant. As far as the census years are concerned (1990, 2000), they do match, but that appears to be their methodology (census data supplemented with survey and interagency data compilations for the next 10). It’ll be interesting to see what SANDAG will have for 2010 (it should at least be consistent again). Seeems to me that the IRS could nail these numbers.
[quote=AN]Still get my point across that median house hold income in an area is relatively stable adjusted for inflation. In more newer developed areas like CV, it actually went up.[/quote]Actually, as I just mentioned, the data I brought for CV specifically shows in one data series that wages are up 5.4% and in another merely 0.8% (both adjusted for inflation). So, how do can you state that it went up in a meaningful sense? I suppose it did, but maybe barely (and less than in 92126).
[quote=AN]Regarding the class of 2000 comment, yes, it’s the former. Class of 2002 made about $45-50k fresh out of school. Now, those same people are making around $80-100k. The fresh grads now are making between $55k-65k, based on salary.com. So, if you’re comparing fresh grad vs fresh grad, the salary went up between 22%-30%.[/quote]Yes, so decidely less than 35%.

[sdcellar]

[quote=AN]sdcellar, yes, some segment will do worse while others will do better.[/quote]Yes, my point exactly.
[quote=AN]That’s why I took a specific area to see what’s the median house hold income is. Although their two sites disagree with each other on the exact number for 2008, they’re the same for 2000. Adjusting for inflation, it’s only off by ~$1k/~1.5%. Not a big deal in my book.[/quote]But in the very same thread, I showed that the discrepency in another ZIP was $5K and almost 5%. That is significant. As far as the census years are concerned (1990, 2000), they do match, but that appears to be their methodology (census data supplemented with survey and interagency data compilations for the next 10). It’ll be interesting to see what SANDAG will have for 2010 (it should at least be consistent again). Seeems to me that the IRS could nail these numbers.
[quote=AN]Still get my point across that median house hold income in an area is relatively stable adjusted for inflation. In more newer developed areas like CV, it actually went up.[/quote]Actually, as I just mentioned, the data I brought for CV specifically shows in one data series that wages are up 5.4% and in another merely 0.8% (both adjusted for inflation). So, how do can you state that it went up in a meaningful sense? I suppose it did, but maybe barely (and less than in 92126).
[quote=AN]Regarding the class of 2000 comment, yes, it’s the former. Class of 2002 made about $45-50k fresh out of school. Now, those same people are making around $80-100k. The fresh grads now are making between $55k-65k, based on salary.com. So, if you’re comparing fresh grad vs fresh grad, the salary went up between 22%-30%.[/quote]Yes, so decidely less than 35%.

[Author]

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