I got priced out of my hometown of Seattle. So I moved to a small town in rural Oregon and I couldn't be happier. The combination of spending comparatively little on housing + a tech salary is hard to beat. I have my own shop!
It feels like freedom, even if it comes at the cost of being near my extended family.
Idk. I grew up in rural Oregon. And I hate Seattle with a passion. But I don’t know if having meth heads for neighbors is really the way I’d go.
Going for more rural/less-expensive regions might be beneficial for some but there are some serious downsides and costs for people with children, people who like to be around educated people, for those who care about diversity, and for those who aren’t aligned with “conservative” or religious people.
It’s not really the same at all and it’s why I don’t move out to BFE. I hate dealing with meth heads and I think it’s one of the worst regions to raise children. But that’s my experience - native rural Oregonian having lived in Seattle and now living in SV.
Would not recommend. Simplest way to put it - it’s like regressing back in time 30 years culturally. Also total shit opportunities for those who aren’t working remotely. (This means opportunities for children too - the schools are real bad because they’re so culturally behind)
Why do you hate Seattle? I've never been there, but just had a friend move there and she's telling me how great it is.
Speak for yourself. That sounds more desirable to me, not less
I think some people moving away from the urbs are going to get a shock when they see what incentives will arise because of global warming. Rising energy costs may force you back to a city in the next decade or two.
That said, I'm jealous. I can't wait to leave the Bay Area in another year or two.
I'm not sure that energy costs are necessarily higher in the country, but I suppose it depends on the climate and the house itself. In my case, I'm going down the solar/hydro route and plan to be off-grid at some point.
Climate change is a huge issue, though. Drought and wildfire are existential threats to my current way of life.
The main reason this is likely to be bad financially is that your house won’t appreciate like a house in Seattle. I’ve been doing tech for a long time at this point, and have seen people make both choices and how it plays out over the long run. Those that stayed in the big city are basically financially independent at this point, and those that moved are not. The difference in net worth after 20 years is very significant.
Only works if you want to make 20% down instead of 3%[0]
[0] https://www.knowyouroptions.com/buy-overview/affordable-mort...
I mean, I get the point of saying that (funding from F&F doesn’t disqualify the applicant), but man does it feel like a quasi-government agency is suggesting needy borrowers should just ask their parents for money.
I went into a place that was selling for around 300k. I was going to offer as much as 325. I was also willing to go 5k above what the place would appraise for. This matters because you can't get a loan for above a place is worth.
The place sold for nearly 375k.
If it appraised for 325, the buyer is on the hook for an *additional* 50k that they have to pay in cash at time of signing.
You can't just not have lots of spare money in this market.
And you've said in several places how engineers make 200k+ after 5 years. Maybe in total compensation and only in FAANG; but there are a loooot of engineering companies in Washington and the Seattle area that aren't getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock that's increased 5-10 fold in the last 2 years.
But if you're single, your annual after-tax take-home is ~95k, assuming you max out your 401k contribution, and ~110k, assuming you don't contribute at all. Saving 50% of that does not even require living particularly frugally. That gets you to the top-end of the required down payment in 2 years.
Even with saving, though, I should probably save at least one more year to have an emergency fund again, so it's probably more like 3 years, but your point still stands.
Forgive me, but I think you need to check your privilege when you speak about regular matters for people like millenials trying to buy houses.
And I can't imagine a place on the planet where 800 thousand dollars is a reasonable price for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath. In the Work-From-Home days, 2 bed, 2 bath is decidedly a 1-person household (the other room is an office), *maybe* a married couple that get along well.
edit: typo
Privilege? I grew up very poor, no one in my immediate family has finished high school, let alone college. I enlisted in the army and did a tour in a war to pay for my college. I was in a similar boat to you and the others complaining when I was early in my career and I’m trying to help with some perspective and experience.
You can complain about the cost of housing, complain about whatever privilege you think I have, but it won’t help you get to a better place. I’m offering advice to help get you all to a better place because I faced the same challenges and overcame them.
And I can afford a 500k place. I cannot afford the down payment and the surprise assessment tax, etc.
It’s also clear that you don’t really want to be helped, and that you want to find every excuse to play the victim. I wish you luck.
In retrospect, the best thing I could have done with my money would have been to buy the most expensive house in the best neighborhood I could possibly manage. Put it all on the table.
But I didn't want to play that game, and neither did my partner (We have bad memories of the 2009 recession and both hate the idea of debt). So I suppose I traded the future riches for present flexibility.
Usually the best thing to do is to buy the worst house in the best neighbourhood. That way you are in for less cash, but are anchored to the higher prices around you.
So the only solution then is endless appreciation of house prices and salaries?
There actually are several silver bullets to use like - efficient use of land, better zoning regulations and including more use of land to build more homes etc. but they are all non-starters because of greedy land and home owners.