San Diego, anywhere that I'd be able to bike to my work (or any other major hub in my field) is up 25% YOY. Utterly terrible houses on mediocre lots are >700K USD. I'd certainly love to get a beater and slowly but surely improve it, but the market demand here is stupid -- largely due to folks like myself.
Bill,
There is a joke about three Texans bragging about their wealth. The first says “My ranch is 250,000 acres.” The second says “A good start but mine is 390,000 acres.” The third says “Mine is only 192,000 acres, but I call it Dallas.”
I went for an internal company job interview Sunnyvale (didn’t get it, luckily 😉 ) about 7 yrs ago. The rents were shocking. Another guy I worked with who was based on the east coast went for another job there and ultimately declined it because he’d have had to have lived a 2 hour drive from the office. I lived in central Tokyo for 5yrs and the apartment was $7k a month and wasn’t considered exorbitant. Luckily for me and my wife it was fully covered.
A bit like London - you don’t get much for your money. Where will it end?
I prefer the one about the Texan rancher on holiday in England. He stops to talk to a farmer.
Tx: 'This your land'
Farmer: 'aye'
Tx:' Where I come from I can drive all day and not leave my land. I can camp the night, and drive all the next day and still not leave my land'
Farmer: 'Yeah, I had a car like that once'
Tx: 'This your land'
Farmer: 'aye'
Tx:' Where I come from I can drive all day and not leave my land. I can camp the night, and drive all the next day and still not leave my land'
Farmer: 'Yeah, I had a car like that once'
It's a fair question: process scientist/engineer/jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none for a small biotech firm. More on the hardware/consumables side if we're being specific than on the bio-side (but those guys are my closest colleagues)
Until the covid mess I used to travel to the Cali Bay Area about twice a month. After 10 years of doing that, I still don't understand how people can survive there. Last time I've checked, I have seen no money trees on the streets, and it doesn't look like everybody is a successful venture capitalist.
There's a reason FB (ahem, Meta) basically made a bunch of upscale dormitories for their employees in Menlo Park.
Also why there's been a bunch of companies that have said, "the rent is too damned high" and moved elsewhere. Wonder if that's the fate here as well.
Also why there's been a bunch of companies that have said, "the rent is too damned high" and moved elsewhere. Wonder if that's the fate here as well.
$3000/month rent for a 1bdrm apartment that qualifies as decent, at best. $400/night for a room in an average Marriott hotel. $100/night in a motor lodge with a high probability of bed bugs company.
Having always lived in the bay area I have watched the real estate here just climb. The "its too expensive" is not new. I have heard those cries in the 1980's. Things are 10X that now but still lots of demand. Basically either you got in early or you are a lawyer/financial engineer or software engineer at the top of the chain.
However if you aren't stupid the real estate is a remarkably good investment, just don't buy at the peak (as if you could know).
As the cost of housing is around one third of income and the other expenses are not ten times other areas you would only need less than ten times the income. The San Francisco Bay Area does have double the U.S. average income.
As to the cost of housing actually being ten times the average, in the Bay Area the number is $1,400,000 against the U.S. average around $400,000. Still at first glance not quite compensated by the increased income, but that may be an illusion. I.E. if normal income were $45,000 per year (actual average is around $55,000) and normal would be housing $15,000 and the rest $30,000, then for the Bay Area you would expect to spend $52,500 for housing bringing the total to $82,500. If the income was doubled that would have increased to in this hypothetical case $90,000. In reality the other expenses would not have stayed at $20,000. So the result is that non-cost based expenses stay in line with income, pretty much!
The other issue that affects housing prices is the mortgage interest rate. Most folks spend a third of their income or thereabouts on housing. So if interest rates are low that amount of monthly income will buy a higher priced property. As interest rates rise the same amount of monthly income would only purchase a less expensive property. Not surprisingly it can be the same property at different prices depending on timing. So with current low interest rates, due to covid 19 etc., now is a good time to be selling property. Of course you should have bought that property with cash when interest rates were high. But of course at that time with high interest rates there would have been other attractive investments!
Moral of the tale for normal folks, buy when interest rates are high, sell when they are low. (As if you really have a choice based on your life path.)
As to the cost of housing actually being ten times the average, in the Bay Area the number is $1,400,000 against the U.S. average around $400,000. Still at first glance not quite compensated by the increased income, but that may be an illusion. I.E. if normal income were $45,000 per year (actual average is around $55,000) and normal would be housing $15,000 and the rest $30,000, then for the Bay Area you would expect to spend $52,500 for housing bringing the total to $82,500. If the income was doubled that would have increased to in this hypothetical case $90,000. In reality the other expenses would not have stayed at $20,000. So the result is that non-cost based expenses stay in line with income, pretty much!
The other issue that affects housing prices is the mortgage interest rate. Most folks spend a third of their income or thereabouts on housing. So if interest rates are low that amount of monthly income will buy a higher priced property. As interest rates rise the same amount of monthly income would only purchase a less expensive property. Not surprisingly it can be the same property at different prices depending on timing. So with current low interest rates, due to covid 19 etc., now is a good time to be selling property. Of course you should have bought that property with cash when interest rates were high. But of course at that time with high interest rates there would have been other attractive investments!
Moral of the tale for normal folks, buy when interest rates are high, sell when they are low. (As if you really have a choice based on your life path.)
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Another side bit is evaluating city attractiveness rankings! Lower housing costs also result in lower incomes. So wealth, job opportunities and other area measures can be skewed. For example southern U.S. cities usually have lower average incomes and lower housing prices. Also lower taxes. So when you just look at income the locations may not seem attractive for residents, but quite attractive to locate businesses for lower costs.
A better metric to me, for rating locations is average education level and access to services typically hospitals, museums and cultural attractions such as music venues. Negatives are things like crime rates and lack of public institutions.
San Francisco Bay Area crime rate puts the city as safer than 2% of the other cities. Boston rates 19% by comparison. Of course these numbers vary greatly by actual location in a given city.
Then we could talk about traffic and commute time!
A better metric to me, for rating locations is average education level and access to services typically hospitals, museums and cultural attractions such as music venues. Negatives are things like crime rates and lack of public institutions.
San Francisco Bay Area crime rate puts the city as safer than 2% of the other cities. Boston rates 19% by comparison. Of course these numbers vary greatly by actual location in a given city.
Then we could talk about traffic and commute time!
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@as_audio: Not sure the discussion on current drive is ever 'finished', it's just back to sleep for a while.
I don't see the need for a war, just an appreciation of where it 'might' be a useful tool in the box. Don't expect any DIY 100W transconductance amplifiers coming out any time though 🙂
Bill,
That is 7 amps and rails of 80 volts (approximately) to cover 4-16 ohm drivers. Not a difficult amplifier to build.
Of course to make it audiophile grade one should use an obsolete technology such as SIT transistors.
https://www.mouser.in/datasheet/2/523/0405SC-1000M Rev F-837733.pdf
That is 7 amps and rails of 80 volts (approximately) to cover 4-16 ohm drivers. Not a difficult amplifier to build.
Of course to make it audiophile grade one should use an obsolete technology such as SIT transistors.
https://www.mouser.in/datasheet/2/523/0405SC-1000M Rev F-837733.pdf
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