How do you afford to live in California? (San Diego, San Francisco: how much, houses)

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by jklmnop

Cost of living and affordability is a huge factor for me.

It looks as though housing prices continue to decline, although, as you said, you probably prefer to rent initially.
Home prices in largest U.S. cities fall in October from September - latimes.com

[Twinkle Toes]

Hmmmm .... now I'm wondering .... how DO people in Monaco afford to live???

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by jklmnop

Yes this is a serious post. Like I said, after taxes my 20k/month becomes 14k/month. After student loans (medical school is expensive) 11k/month. 50% of my salary is gone before I know it. Mortgage for 600k home probably another 4k/month? Throw in utilities, car payments, savings/retirement, it goes pretty fast.

I wont be living the high life by any means. I will be driving a toyota tacoma to work, living in a 3bed single family home in who knows where. Hopefully somewhere nice/safe but definitely not beverly hills.

I am not complaining, just want to know how people get by on less in California? The average home in most areas I am looking at is in the 600k-700k price range. What salary do most people in these neighborhoods get by on?

Note that President Obama says you will be rich, and you need to pay your fair share.

OWS says you are a 1 percent-er and you're evil for making that much money.

Note that many people who live in homes from $600K up have smaller salaries, but earn a lot of money through stock options. If you're in Silicon Valley, and worked for Google pre-IPO, well, you have a lot of money. If you work for Facebook, well, once it goes public you will be worth a lot of money.

I semi-retired at 40 and fully retired before I was 50 - most of my compensation was bonus & stock options. My actual salary was only in the 250-275 range.

[Bruin Rick]

Originally Posted by thepinksquid

We live in San Diego on less than 75k with NO debt (no car payment, cc debt or student loans) perfectly fine. We share 1 car (husband works from home, no reason for 2 cars) and we rent. Oh, and we don't have/want kids.

You must live in a very small apartment. Even a studio that is 400 sq ft is going to set you back $1200 or more a month. I don't see how anybody can live very good in Cali on less than $100K a year.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

Note that President Obama says you will be rich, and you need to pay your fair share.

OWS says you are a 1 percent-er and you're evil for making that much money.

Note that many people who live in homes from $600K up have smaller salaries, but earn a lot of money through stock options. If you're in Silicon Valley, and worked for Google pre-IPO, well, you have a lot of money. If you work for Facebook, well, once it goes public you will be worth a lot of money.

I semi-retired at 40 and fully retired before I was 50 - most of my compensation was bonus & stock options. My actual salary was only in the 250-275 range.

Yeah? Well, you need to pay your fair share then. Pony up. See any emoticons that say I'm joking?

[thepinksquid]

Originally Posted by Bruin Rick

You must live in a very small apartment. Even a studio that is 400 sq ft is going to set you back $1200 or more a month. I don't see how anybody can live very good in Cali on less than $100K a year.

Nope, a fairly large SFH with around 1,400 square feet. We do pay a bit more than $1,200 a month though (never said we paid that little ).

Our life is by no means extravagant, but we don't desire that. You certainly don't need at least $100k/yr to live well in California, and that is especially true if you don't have children.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by thepinksquid

Nope, a fairly large SFH with around 1,400 square feet. We do pay a bit more than $1,200 a month though (never said we paid that little ).

Our life is by no means extravagant, but we don't desire that. You certainly don't need at least $100k/yr to live well in California, and that is especially true if you don't have children.

Is it a bad area? From what I've heard, a 1400sqft house in San Diego would be extremely expensive

[ibejohn818]

It's all relative.

You wanna live in Bel Air, you gotta make Bel Air money.

You make 50k a year, you ain't living in Bel Air.

And if the original post really makes 600k and is asking if it's enough to live off of, then he probably misread the "$600" on his W2 and equated it to $600 Thousand.

Of course you can live good on 600K. Anyone who needs to ask that, doesn't make that, because if he did, that means he has to have a shred of intelligence, and nobody with a shred of intelligence needs to ask that with that type of cash flow.
His financial advisor would let him know.

IF you're pulling in over a QM a year, you're not letting it be known, unless you are a total douchebag.

[jklmnop]

[quote=stockwiz;22329385]biggest mistake I see people make is thinking they MUST own a house and that renting is a waste of money. With the cost of utilities, property taxes, and realtor fees/bank fees from repeated buying/selling it's only cost effective if you plan to live there 10 years. In many wealthy areas or areas with housing shortages it's much more cost effective to rent. May want to consider that. Giving your money to your landlord is relative to the total cost of purchasing.. remember the landlord pays for all maintenance issues as well. However there are other areas where places can be picked up dirt cheap due to a surplus of houses... every area is different.

I think I will likely be renting the first year since 1) I wont know the area that well and 2) I have to be sure my job ends up being a long term situation worthy of investing into. It just stinks to be always renting and not building any equity.

[larhondas]

As long as you keep your priorities in order, live where you can comfortably afford to live (and if that means renting instead of buying, rent if it makes more sense), ignore what the Joneses are doing, and are financially responsible, you should be fine.

I live on Caifornia's central coast. Not an inexpensive area to live in, but not outrageously expensive either (or maybe I'm just used to the cost of living here). There are plenty of other places I could live for a lot less, but I love it here, so I make the adjustments I need to make to be able to stay here.

I do not have debt outside of my mortgage, I do not have credit cards, student loans are all paid off, and I do not have a new car. I live on a fixed income (retirement) that I supplement with part-time work. Overall, I'm satisfied with my situation, especially considering the fact that I was a single parent (kid now all grown up). The job market has never been great in this area, but I have always managed to earn what I need.