House vs Retirement

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Sometimes it feels like I am overpaying here (Tampa housing is very expensive, though not at SF or Miami or NY or Boston levels). Problem is, I really have nothing to compare it with.

House to house? No doubt I can get the same physical structure elsewhere for much less. But most lack at least some of the amenities I have here.

Location? Yup, I really like it here a lot. Has almost everything I enjoy. Other places may be great too, but ... most are even more expensive and have their own drawbacks.

Geography? Nothing dramatic but I sure love the beaches, the swampy parks, being 10 minutes from a big league airport.

Guess my point is that you can go round and round forever with this type of reasoning, but the residential housing market is very efficient. I'm getting what I'm paying for. We're happy.

And if and when the tradeoff stops working for us, we'll move.

 

[sailor]

I work for a mini-mega corp nowadays (still same job, just after 9 mergers and aquisitions) and can provide an anecdotal comparison for a salary reference:
Atlanta - 94
Boston - 100
Miami - 91
San Diego - 116
San Jose -127
Chicago - 98
Texas - 87 (I think Dallas suburbs)

Meaning if I my position gets 100k per year in Boston, if I move to Miami I'll only get 91k.
Don't ask me where they took the data from.
As you see at least here the pay increase will not cover a huge housing price difference between let's say Atlanta (where you can get a house for let's say 150k) and San Diego or San Jose

 

[Brat]

Meaning if I my position gets 100k per year in Boston, if I move to Miami I'll only get 91k.
Don't ask me where they took the data from.

Compensation managers contribute to salary surveys and they use that data to construct the table sailor posted.

 

[mb]

we bring paint and brushes, a seedling or two. and we do the unspeakable act: we move next to a black family (or your local minority) and we landscape. shutter the thought.

Yup, problem is your do TOO GOOD of a job and then the Yuppy, DINKS discover that it is a "cool" neighborhood and it becomes just another expensive, boring place filled with to many BMWs.

 

[Brat]

This has become an issue with low-income folks for a while.  First Hells Kitchen, then the Lower East Side, now Harlem and Oakland!  Is there no end to this??

I adored the immigrant Italians who lived in Hells Kitchen and looked up at the potential of the Harlem buildings in the 60s.  If the scum had not made the resident's lives so difficult they would have been great neighborhoods to live in.  IMHO at least 90% were good citizens struggling to provide for their families.

 

[free4now]

There is a way to have a house and save for retirement in California: Rent the house. The ratio of PITI payment to rent is much higher in CA than in less affluent areas. Especially now when there seems to be widespread agreement that we're entering a sideways or downward real estate market, I really don't see why people are buying homes.

As ridiculous as CA real estate prices are, my perception is that they aren't growing as much in percentage terms as other areas. Home prices seem to be skyrocketing even more in places like Chicagoland and other heartland cities than in the Bay Area where I live.

There are actually many financial advantages to living in the Bay Area (coastal CA)... I don't need air conditioning, hardly spend anything on heating, and my property taxes are lower in both absolute and relative terms than most other places. Since most folks living here are wealthy, there isn't much crime so my car insurance rates are lower than most places, and I don't have to spend for security systems. Even healthcare premiums are a bit lower here than in less affluent areas. Home and car maintainence are cheaper because the mild weather doesn't destroy things. Not to mention there's no mosquitoes so no need to buy bugzappers and poison yourself with DEET. Because I can exercise outdoors I don't have to belong to a gym like people with real winters do. Because the roads are great I don't have to spend on a rugged vehicle as many in rural areas feel they do. No snow means no snow removal or snow travel costs. Living in an area with fairly high population density means I don't have to drive much to buy things or get services. And of course there are many great places to visit within driving distance, so I don't have to get on an airplane to do fun stuff.