Comment by divyekapoor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by divyekapoor | Hacker News Reader

School district homes in SV (3b 2b 1300sqft+) are in the 1.5M range or higher near the top employers in the Peninsula. If you're ok accepting a 40min+ commute, the cost reduces to about 900K Townhome + HOA in a good school district.

A family of 4 in the bay area with household income at $105350 is low income (http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/22/in-costly-bay-area-eve...). At 150K you'll be living in rented accommodations with $3K - $3500 in rent per month.

If you consider that your wife will start working, please be aware that daycare starts at about $1.5K++ per month (it might be advantageous for your wife to be a stay at home mom below a certain salary level).

I would recommend targeting a 200K+ total household income for this to work for you.

I'm not sure you'll find a 3/2 even at that sqft in a decent school district. Redwood City has not great schools and the decent parts of it are around $1.6+ for a starter home from the 50's. Areas with good schools are probably closer to $1.6 or $1.7+. But I'd love to see some recently sold listing links proving me wrong

Source: recent comps from redfin.

These numbers are in the ballpark, but the tweaks I'd make are not in the OP's favor. I don't think you're going to be able to find a 900K townhome in a good school district here unless you mean a 1 bedroom or studio. A year ago I was looking at the market and a 2 bedroom in a good school district was 950K but that was a 40-year-old building. HOA around $300.

Note to OP at the prices divyekapoor mentioned for rentals, you likely won't be in a house in a good school district, you'll be in an apartment. Or in a house or apartment in a bad school district. Alarmingly, even the options that you can't afford will still seem not good enough. Depressing, I know. If your Priuses are the plug-in type and you want to take advantage of that, your selection is further narrowed.

Other than that I agree with the above.. my comments are just tweaks.

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