Join Early Retirement Today
View Poll Results: How much of your net worth does your home represent?
Less than 5%. 16 5.48%
Equal to or more than 5%, but less than 10%. 66 22.60%
Equal to or more than 10% but less than 20%. 104 35.62%
Equal to or more than 20% but less than 30%. 55 18.84%
Equal to or more than 30% but less than 40% 18 6.16%
Equal to or more than 40% but less than 50%. 9 3.08%
Equal to or more than 50%. 6 2.05%
"Other" - - I don't have a main home, I rent, or I just need an "other" category for whatever reasons. 18 6.16%
Voters: 292. You may not vote on this poll

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-07-2014, 02:26 PM   #41
Moderator Emeritus
aja8888's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Conroe, Texas
Posts: 18,642
Quote:
Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort View Post
So I'm guessing you'd rather live where you don't have to pay $1.8M for a former hoarder house?

Hoarder House In Palo Alto Is On the Market for $1.8 Million
Wow! I would guess the contents go with the house, therefore pushing the price up a bit. Crazy.

We used to live in Thousand Oaks (Ventura County) back in the mid-1980s. Loved the place (back then). Very crowded now that it's the home of Amgen.
__________________
*********Go Astros!*********
aja8888 is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 11-07-2014, 02:28 PM   #42
Administrator
MichaelB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 40,582
Our primary residence is somewhere between 10-15% of our net worth, not including pension or social security. If we include the NPV of those cash flows it's between 10-15%. The assessed value is between 7-10%, but I don't think the assessed value has much relevance to anything but hedonics.
MichaelB is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 02:41 PM   #43
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
NW-Bound's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 35,712
Quote:
Originally Posted by ProspectiveBum View Post
... Our house is a fairly standard tract home (not a McMansion) ... In 10-15 years, when the kids have grown and moved out on their own, we'll sell it and use the proceeds to buy a much smaller place ...
Is the new place still in CA? If so, it will be even smaller.
__________________
"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)

"Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities Can Make You Commit Atrocities" - Voltaire (1694-1778)
NW-Bound is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 02:44 PM   #44
Full time employment: Posting here.
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 616
5.8%.
luckydude is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 02:46 PM   #45
Full time employment: Posting here.
ProspectiveBum's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 927
Quote:
Originally Posted by NW-Bound View Post
Is the new place still in CA? If so, it will be even smaller.

For sure. A nice 1200sf place in Temecula or the Coachella Valley would be perfectly agreeable, and would free up 500k.
__________________
I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.
- Joe Walsh
ProspectiveBum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 02:46 PM   #46
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
NW-Bound's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 35,712
Quote:
Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort View Post
So I'm guessing you'd rather live where you don't have to pay $1.8M for a former hoarder house?

Hoarder House In Palo Alto Is On the Market for $1.8 Million
Wow! "... cracked-on-the-outside, hoarder-on-the-inside". Nice!

Listing said "Property is not habitable. Property is located in a flood zone. Prospective buyers to drive or walk around property only."

Hurry up. Deal like this at $1.8M would not last long. Here's the curb appeal. Don't you feel love at first sight?

__________________
"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)

"Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities Can Make You Commit Atrocities" - Voltaire (1694-1778)
NW-Bound is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 02:46 PM   #47
Moderator
rodi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: San Diego
Posts: 14,169
Quote:
Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort View Post
So I'm guessing you'd rather live where you don't have to pay $1.8M for a former hoarder house?

Hoarder House In Palo Alto Is On the Market for $1.8 Million
It's possible to get a nicer house for 1.8M in Palo Alto. I have good friends that recently did. They were able to buy an Eichler house (mid century modern) in Palo Alto for 1.8. Fortunately, they're used to living small - it's only 1600sf... but the layout works for them.

Their rental they lived in prior to purchase sounds more like the hoarder house - small rooms, not a lot of light, etc.. But the rent was still super pricey.

His google salary doesn't go as far as his qualcomm salary did when you look at home values.
__________________
Retired June 2014. No longer an enginerd - now I'm just a nerd.
micro pensions 6%, rental income 20%
rodi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 02:58 PM   #48
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
photoguy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 2,301
Quote:
Originally Posted by rodi View Post
It's possible to get a nicer house for 1.8M in Palo Alto. I have good friends that recently did. They were able to buy an Eichler house (mid century modern) in Palo Alto for 1.8. Fortunately, they're used to living small - it's only 1600sf... but the layout works for them.
There's almost nothing listed in zillow for under 1.8M in palo alto now -- I'm very curious as to what the final sale price may be (it's listed pending). It maybe that the market moved somewhat (it can jump quite quickly even in a few months).

The listed house is on Middlefield road between embarcadero and university. This is an awesome spot. I have no doubt that a developer is going to buy this and put a $4M house there instead.

When we were selling our house in San Jose, a developer bought a 6000 sq ft lot (with a free house) for 800k just a few blocks from us. Although we were in a pretty nice area (willow glen), it's certainly no palo alto.
photoguy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:01 PM   #49
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
NW-Bound's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 35,712
A $4M house in a flood zone? I dunno.
__________________
"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)

"Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities Can Make You Commit Atrocities" - Voltaire (1694-1778)
NW-Bound is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:03 PM   #50
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
photoguy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 2,301
In regards to the poll, we're at 0% right now (renting). When we were in San Jose (8 months ago) we were at 35%. If we buy a new place, we'll be targeting 15%.
photoguy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:07 PM   #51
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Ally's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: West Tx
Posts: 1,392
Ours is also about 7%, but I hardly think of it as part of our net worth, because we would have to have somewhere to live, even if we sold it.
Ally is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:09 PM   #52
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
photoguy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 2,301
I'm not sure what would flood in Palo Alto. There's nothing there unless the entire bay overflows.

Ok. Here's what the city website shows:
Quote:
Yes. The entire city of Palo Alto is in a flood zone of one kind or another. But most of the city is in an "X" zone, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) describes as an area either lying outside the so-called 100year flood limit and inside the 500year flood limit, or as lying within the 100year flood limit but shallow enough to not represent a special hazard. The remainder of the city lies within Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA), which, roughly speaking, means the area of special hazard from a so-called "100year flood". (The Foothills area is a special case. It has not been studied and is Zone X by default.)
photoguy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:12 PM   #53
gone traveling
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,248
Quote:
Originally Posted by rodi View Post
It's possible to get a nicer house for 1.8M in Palo Alto. I have good friends that recently did. They were able to buy an Eichler house (mid century modern) in Palo Alto for 1.8. Fortunately, they're used to living small - it's only 1600sf... but the layout works for them.

Their rental they lived in prior to purchase sounds more like the hoarder house - small rooms, not a lot of light, etc.. But the rent was still super pricey.

His google salary doesn't go as far as his qualcomm salary did when you look at home values.
I really don't understand why people want to live over there. The salaries are at best 10-15% higher then in for example Route 128 but one needs at least 35% more to adjust for cost of living and sky high taxes.

Now I do not argue that places like San Luis Obispo are nice in CA....but that is much different from Palo Alto in quality of life and prices.
eta2020 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:21 PM   #54
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
NW-Bound's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 35,712
A well-known corp whose name starts with a G wanted my brother back, and offered a stock grant worth $1/2M. I do not know about the salary, but my brother said "NO". There was no way he could afford a 4,000-sq.ft. McMansion like the one he lives in now. Heck, he couldn't even afford that $1.8M derelict shack.
__________________
"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)

"Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities Can Make You Commit Atrocities" - Voltaire (1694-1778)
NW-Bound is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:21 PM   #55
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 1,468
Quote:
Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort View Post
So I'm guessing you'd rather live where you don't have to pay $1.8M for a former hoarder house?

Hoarder House In Palo Alto Is On the Market for $1.8 Million
That's cheap. Article in the local paper a week or so ago highlighted a 900 sq ft house in Palo Alto that sold for $3M :face palm:. It's all about location, location, location and I'm still kicking myself for not buying the tiny house in Cupertino 17 years ago, although we did pretty well.

We're at 23% not counting SS. Recently got approved for a HELOC and I had to pick myself up off the floor when I saw the appraisal valuation.
TrvlBug is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:38 PM   #56
gone traveling
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,248
Quote:
Originally Posted by NW-Bound View Post
A well-known corp whose name starts with a G wanted my brother back, and offered a stock grant worth $1/2M. I do not know about the salary, but my brother said "NO". There was no way he could afford a 4,000-sq.ft. McMansion like the one he lives in now. Heck, he couldn't even afford that $1.8M derelict shack.
And it is not only about cost of living. It is about quality of life, traffic congestion, lot size, long work hours, interaction with neighbours, property taxes etc etc.

But granted if you are Zuckerberg it is nice place to be. On the other side there are 100s of thousand Software Engineers making 120k-180k scraping by.

We had an option to move other there few years ago but 15% higher salary simply made no financial sense.
eta2020 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:41 PM   #57
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
photoguy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 2,301
Quote:
Originally Posted by eta2020 View Post
I really don't understand why people want to live over there.
It's an awesome place to have a career. When I moved there, part of the reasoning was that I would have multiple possible employers in the area. For most other cities, I could work at most for 1 or 2 companies. Many cities in the US would have no viable employers for me. People with the 2-body problem are even more constrained.

For example, if I type in "Data Scientist" into linkedIn job search it returns 8-10 pages with reasonable matches centered on Palo Alto. For Austin Tx I get 1/2 page. Chicago yields 1 page.

Startups are also very attractive to those fresh out of school.

Quote:
The salaries are at best 10-15% higher then in for example Route 128 but one needs at least 35% more to adjust for cost of living and sky high taxes.
I've always wondered about this and have no clue if this is true or not. Also a huge portion of compensation may be through stock options/grants/rsu which can be quite variable. I'd be very interested in seeing quantitative data on this.
photoguy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:42 PM   #58
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 1,581
About 8%, not including SS or pension in the calculations.
RE2Boys is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:51 PM   #59
gone traveling
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,248
Quote:
Originally Posted by photoguy View Post
It's an awesome place to have a career. When I moved there, part of the reasoning was that I would have multiple possible employers in the area. For most other cities, I could work at most for 1 or 2 companies. Many cities in the US would have no viable employers for me. People with the 2-body problem are even more constrained.

For example, if I type in "Data Scientist" into linkedIn job search it returns 8-10 pages with reasonable matches centered on Palo Alto. For Austin Tx I get 1/2 page. Chicago yields 1 page.

Startups are also very attractive to those fresh out of school.



I've always wondered about this and have no clue if this is true or not. Also a huge portion of compensation may be through stock options/grants/rsu which can be quite variable. I'd be very interested in seeing quantitative data on this.
Try monster.com on Boston Massachusetts. 100s and 100s of software jobs just like in Silicon Valley with not much salary/RSU difference.

You can look at glassdoor.com. RSUs and Stock options are here as well.

Now this is also one very very expensive area but it is much cheaper and has lot of European charm and character. We do have wicked Winter storms though
eta2020 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-2014, 03:52 PM   #60
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
NW-Bound's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 35,712
Quote:
Originally Posted by eta2020 View Post
And it is not only about cost of living. It is about quality of life, traffic congestion, lot size, long work hours, interaction with neighbours, property taxes etc etc.

But granted if you are Zuckerberg it is nice place to be...
Umm... On the way back from Nova Scotia, I drove by Boston and took 495 to detour around the city (we had visited Boston twice). Good grief! The traffic was terrible, even though 495 circles a 20-mile radius around Boston. Coming back from a Canadian province with a population of 900K, it's tough!

But you are right that if I were at least a hectomillionaire, I could overlook the problems of living in Silicon Valley. But wait! If I were rich and retired, why would I have to live there again?
__________________
"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man" -- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)

"Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities Can Make You Commit Atrocities" - Voltaire (1694-1778)
NW-Bound is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
How do you represent cash in firecalc? intransition FIRECalc support 0 02-21-2014 09:08 PM
How much do you need in Net Worth to not need Long Term Care Insurance… LARS FIRE and Money 145 02-09-2010 07:38 AM
What do the stars represent under a person's name Alan Forum Admin 9 07-13-2008 08:07 PM

» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:02 AM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.