[an]

[quote=bearishgurl]AN, you tend you get yourself into an “argumentative loop” on here but if all your personal decisions were based on their financial impact to you and your family, you may have made very different decisions. Acc to your posts, the decisions you made to stay here were lifestyle decisions. I’m in the same boat but wish I could have left years ago. I still have a kid in HS.

OK, we’ll start with one of my FAV towns. Here’s a couple of “urban” listings in the middle of SM (listed at MM prices). One is a “moderate fixer.” Their lots are the same size or bigger than the avg lot in MM but both have so much more upside potential than MM (or ChulaV, for that matter) will EVER have:

1300 sf SM fixer REO – asking $455K.
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Mateo/317-S-Grant-St-94401/unit-S/home/2021409

1200 sf SM traditional sale – asking $499K.
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Mateo/227-N-Grant-St-94401/home/1451998

In my “cursory research” of current SM listings, I’m also noticing that 2012 flippers are asking $270-$300K more than they purchased the properties (fmr REOs) for! I haven’t even checked recent sales comps yet.

If these flippers are actually getting anywhere near their asking prices, they are really making bank on these fixers (barring any unforeseen structural problems) :=][/quote]
Financial is all about data. No personal info involved. I’ve provided to disprove this statement:
[quote=bearishgurl]I also feel it is entirely worth it for a young San Diegan college grad to relocate there for work, even one with a family. Most of the public schools there are better than here, as well.[/quote]
No personal feeling involved, just pure data.

You providing data just reiterate my point. The San Mateo area have WORSE school than MM’s school. So, thanks for disproving your own statement about school. Similar properties in MM would go for low $300k. So, that’s ~50-60% higher. So, where’s the 0-25% higher you’re talking about?

Talking about getting myself in “argumentative loop”, what loop are you referring to? You on the other hand love to use outdated info/data or lots and lots of straw man. When you do provide current data, it disprove your own argument. You’re hilarious.

[an]

[quote=spdrun]What have y’all got against seasonal variations in temperature?[/quote]
I hate it with a vengeance. If I like it, I probably won’t be living in SD.

[an]

[quote=bearishgurl]You must admit that the reasons you didn’t want to take a position in SV were all personal. Your choice to stay in SD “2-3 yrs ago” instead of pursue those SV positions and possibly buy a residence there did NOT cause your family to be “better off financially.” It allowed you to live the life you wanted to lead, i.e. you and/or your spouse to work less and be near family.

That’s the bottom line.[/quote]
Of course everything is personal. Else, everyone would be moving here instead of living there. It’s all about financial. That’s my point and that’s the point you tried to dispute. YOU state income is 40% higher while housing is 0-25% higher. I call BS on both. I provided data. Now, the ball is on your court. All I got is, MM is cheap because of x,y,z, but yet, you haven’t provided a single example of houses in the bay area that’s 0-25% more expensive. BTW, your x, y, z is ridiculous and a complete missinformation.

Leave out the personal information, and lets just focus on the data. Show me housing examples that show 0-25% more expensive and show me average income of various professions that make 40% more. I showed my data.

Just for fun, lets see what $2.2M get you in SD vs bay area near high tech jobs.
SD: http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Diego/5109-Meadows-Del-Mar-92130/home/4524790
Palo Alto: http://www.redfin.com/CA/Palo-Alto/4151-Amaranta-Ave-94306/home/1196999

So, does these look like 0-25% higher to you? That house in Palo Alto sold for $720k in 1990. I assume its 2000 price would be around $720k. Is $2.2M 400-600% higher than $720k?

BTW, this is the weather average for Palo Alto: http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/achesandpains/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/94306
92126: http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/achesandpains/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/92126
92130: http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/achesandpains/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/92130

So, tell me, which area gets hotter in the Summer and colder in the Winter?

[an]

BG, thanks for a good laugh. Your knowledge of MM is hilarious at best and outrageously wrong at worse. Check out salary.com, weather.com, google map, zillow.com, do your research. Then come back with counter data if you have any. But right now, all I see is missinformations and/or extremely outdated information that’s no longer relevant. I’m not going to spend time debunking your silly missinformation. The appreciation in value between 2000 and now does not interest me or anyone who’s comparing the two cities today. Do you expect those same house in the bay to increase 400-600% in the next 12 years? If not, what’s the point of bringing that up? All I have to say is, data is proved you wrong. Accept and move on. Data in the mid 90s doesn’t count in this debate BTW.

[an]

[quote=no_such_reality]LOL, so you’re saying Government jobs pay 40% more in the bay area than here.[/quote]
Not only that but her numbers came from the mid 90s.

[an]

[quote=UCGal]My employer puts San Diego workers on the “national” pay scale and workers in the bay area (including SF, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, etc.) on a geographical offset.
That offset is 17% higher in pay.

My company is cheap. So 17% is the bare minimum they can get away with. Salaries are higher in the bay area… At least at tech companies. (Even admins and shipping clerks have a 17% pay differential at my company though.)

As to the shared bathroom thing. Hubster is one of 6 kids – so 8 people in his row house growing up. 1 bathroom. Do the math. He figured out the shower hot water valve thing when his youngest brother started taking 45 minute showers… 15 minutes in he’d start slowly turning the valve in the basement. Brother never caught on – just thought he’d run out of hot water. This is basic survival in a house with a lot of people.[/quote]
17% is in line with salary.com’s number. S/W Engineer 1 and 5 peg bay area at 16% offset while s/w engineer 3 is at 26%. RN and MD are also seeing 16% offset too, so 17% offset for your admins and shipping clerks is in line with other professions.

As to shared bathroom, don’t get me wrong, I grew up with 7 people and 2 bathrooms. So I know how it feels personally. Which is why, if I can affording, I don’t want to put my kids through that. That’s unnecessary stress and confrontation.

[an]

dup.

[an]

Now, this is the kind of BF stories I like to hear. http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/12/pf/black-friday-shoppers/index.html?iid=HP_River. Black Friday can be a great thing if you do it like this.

[an]

[quote=SK in CV]Yeah, it isn’t that big of a deal. Someone threw out an income of $286K a year for a husband and wife (I think it was AN?). Those people aren’t likely to be affected much. If they put only 5% of their income into a 401K, that reduces their taxable income by $14K. Another $20K in mortgage interest and $6K a year in property taxes and their taxable income is under $250K. Even if their taxable income is $286K, that’s an increase in income taxes of $300 a month. I gotta say, if you’re making almost $300K a year and a hit of $300 a month serious affects your lifestyle, you’re doing something very wrong.[/quote]
That $286k was me. That’s also a base salary for 2 S/W Engineer 5. If you count in RSU, ESPP, cash bonuses, I’m pretty sure it’s easily over $300k. But that’s not really my point. My point is, that same position in SD won’t have to deal with that problem, since our cost of living is lower and our salary is lower. So, again, my point is, Bay area higher paying engineers will have to deal with this “problem” while the same Engineers here in SD will not. Whether the $300/month affect your life style is irrelevant.

[an]

[quote=spdrun]Yep, screw the environment for cheap. WOOOOHOOO, America! Think of it this way — your 45 min shower is equivalent to driving 10-15 mi on the freeway. Yeah, solar is a good answer.

Doesn’t change the fact that I’d rather have a 3/1 in an area which I enjoy to a 4/3 in a subpar wasteland. Not a huge fan of the Bay Area though I think it’s pretty, but I can see the attraction.[/quote]
Good for your. Which is why you’re there and I’m here. You can’t pay me enough to live in the NE. I rather live in a 3/1 in SD than a 5/5 in NYC. I would hate myself every Winter and Summer.

BTW, screw the environment for cheap fits really well with my new mantra. I’m gettin’ some for myself. It’s a FFA now.

[an]

1 Therm = 100k BTU. 1 Therm is also around $0.80. So, are we arguing about $0.30/hr? Really? You can conserve or me while I enjoy my long hot showers. Thanks. But if you want to go green, you can always go solar hot water. We get plenty of sun here in SD.

[an]

[quote=spdrun]Again: standard of living is more than the ability to take 45 min showers. Super wasteful anyway, considering that heating shower water uses about 10-20kW of power as long as the shower is running.

Besides, even if you buy a 3/1, how hard is it to add a 2nd water closet and shower somewhere down the line? It never really gets super cold, so you could even put an extra shower outside, which is great if you’re coming home from hiking or whatever.[/quote]
While you think of ways to add a 2nd bathroom, I can have 3 to choose from. Not to mention space. Hot water DOES NOT use 10-20kW if you have a Nat. Gas heater. Haven’t you heard, there’s a big NG boom and NG’s price is dirt cheap? Using electricity to heat water is definitely not the most efficient vehicle for that function.

[an]

[quote=spdrun](turns water heater valve). *oops* no more hot water.[/quote]
Would you call that same standard of living when you have to resort to that? Really? I rest my case.

[an]

[quote=spdrun]AN —
(1) I’ve been in the situation of sharing a bathroom with my older sister — she learned not to hog when I learned to pop the lock and pee anyway if she was spending 45 min in the shower.
(2) My point is that SF has an entire half of a state that’s sparsely populated to the north. You can essentially be out of the “city” in 5 min if you drive across the Golden Gate.[/quote]
You’re going to try and pop the lock on your teenage daughter? It’s a totally different ball game when you’re a teenage brother vs a dad. I can easily see them telling their friends and it gets over heard by a teacher. Next thing you know, you’ll have “sex offender” tie to your name.

[an]

[quote=flyer]Keeping politics completely out of it, all that will really matter going forward–will be how well each of us and our families are doing financially in years to come–and that was the point of my OP–Good luck to all![/quote]
Very well said flyer and I totally agree with you. Financially smart people will find way to growth their wealth and take care of their own regardless of who’s elected. I’ve also adopted flu and your stance in I don’t give a rats a$$ anymore and I’m out to take care of my own family. I no longer care/try to say one candidate is better than another. I just want to know how to take advantage of the current situation, regardless of who’s in charge.

[Author]

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