amideislas

Minimum wage actually means little. Until recently {changed only for political reasons), Germany had none at all, and there's no shortage of prosperity there. Average wages are higher than Spain (especially for skilled labour). And unemployment is a mere fraction.

It's worth pointing out that Catalonia (including Barcelona) is Spain's wealthiest region, and generates Spain's highest GDP. And in terms of cost of living, no comparison to London (or San Francisco).

username.exe

If you're working in an admin job in London, then you probably live out in zone 5 and spend an hour sitting on the tube. For SF you probably live in Oakland and use the BART. It's all relative.

dc koop

I pay around $2,300 dollars a year in property taxes. I'm protected as are other home owners who lived in their homes prior to 1977 by the Howard Jarvis tax initiative which limits increases on property taxes to one percent yearly. My neighbors who bought into the neighbourhood after the 1970s pay twice that amount for the same size house as mine. If we sold and moved to another town or county except San Bernardino county we would still be protected under the Jarvis initiative.

It would be hard for me to live anywhere else but southern California. Being retired I don't have to cope with freeway commutes anymore and there is a mass transit system in development even if it is somewhat overdue.

50 miles to the east I can spend time in the mountain resorts when the weather get hot in the valleys. 8,000 feet above sea level average temps by day 75-80F, boating on the lakes or hiking .

To the west 30 miles away plenty of beaches which are as good or better than anything I've seen in Spain or France, not jam packed with people sitting in folding chairs either, loads of room to stretch out

The Pacific coast highway goes all the way up to Washington and the scenery only gets better and better as one drives further north, some spectacular scenery on the Oregon coast and empty beaches !

We paid $95,000 for our house in 1974 and it's now worth $750,000 current market price

When I see all the bad weather that people are going through in other parts of America I feel a bit guilty when I look out of our windows on a calm, sunny, cool, dry morning in December

We get quakes of course and they keep warning us about the Big One but it's a fair exchange for all the other enjoyment of living here

Moses2013

Of course there are worse places to live and as you say, your house is now worth seven times more than what you paid. Just think that prices are now insane and I can't see the benefits for the working population, especially highly qualified people who can barely afford a home. People want decent living space and want to be able to save a good chunk of their salary, but it seems to be impossible, so eventually companies will struggle to find staff. Most people work in high paid positions for a reason (money) and companies need to be able to compete, so I don't see this going on much longer. There's a reason why more people are picking Portland. We have offices in Palo Alto and it's a bit strange that colleagues earning 3 x more than I do struggle. I know people keep saying that London is so much pricier etc. but people probably live in a capital with millions of people for a reason.

FlyingDutchman6666

When I do a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, dc koop's real house value has hardly moved in those 40-odd years ?

2015: house $750.000, 25 year fixed interest 4% = $48.000/year mortgage.
Median US household income in 2015 = $52.000.
Yearly mortgage payment and median household income are approx. equal.

1974: house $95.000, 25 year fixed interest 12% = $11.000/year mortgage.
Median US household income in 1974 = $11.197.
Yearly mortgage payment and median household income are approx. equal.

So as a proportion of income, the house has not noticeably appreciated in value ?

Of course you could say that interest rates now have no other way to go but up, which would make 2015 buyers worse off. But back in 1974, interest rates went up until they hit a staggering 20% in 1981/82.

scrubbedexpat099

95k back then was a LOT.

dc koop

[QUOTE=Boiler;11825140]95k back then was a LOT.[/QUOTE

Yes it was. A three bedder, 2 bath 2 car garage single family in a decent area ran around 65,000 back then.

I put a large down payment on mine took a 30 year but later got a better deal on the interest and took out a new 15 year mortgage. Still there were times during the first 5 years when the budget was tight

dc koop

Up to two years ago there was a lot of open land in my town but since then just about every square foot of land has been or is in process of being built on. Mixed residential, single family, condos, town houses and a 280 apartment building which is now in process of leasing.

There still seems to be a lot of money around as these new homes are selling pretty quickly and the apartment building where rents start at $2,300 a month already 2/3 rented.

When Hong Kong went back to China in 1997 a lot of wealthy Chinese bought up properties around town and at a time when prices were skyrocketing also

malch

Bay Area governments have been raking in windfall property taxes as a result of sky high housing prices. It's a killer.

I live in the East Bay with a 2500 sq ft 4 bed single family home and currently pay $12,000/year in property taxes.

A new buyer should expect to pay around $1.6 million for such a home and something around $20,000/yr in property taxes.

bewildering

While the owner of the property next door pays $938/year ands rents out the house for $5000/month.

malch

Not in my neighborhood. The homes were built in around 1990 so even those who bought at that time are paying something north of $5000/yr.

markonline1

I don't think it's just San Francisco. I applied for a job up in San Jose that doubled my wages. I couldn't bear the drive from Monterey though so we had a little look at properties that way. We weren't even close to being able to afford something suitable for a 4 person family. Even where we are now, it's virtually impossible for us to move up the property ladder. Our place now is worth around $450k (which frankly is ridiculous). We have just sold a place on the edges of Charlotte, same size house, much better condition, $135k! I love where I live, but how anyone affords to live on he California coast is beyond me!!!

N1cky

Having sold our house in the UK, we'd like to buy here, but the prices are insane. This is the cheapest single family house currently for sale

1796 Elsie Avenue, Mountain View, CA For Sale | Trulia.com

And is way too small for us, and ugly, and not worth that... Taxes on this are just short of $10k. On average everything costs $1,000 per sq ft.

Moses2013

That's what I mean. I know there are nice areas and the climate is great for most, but now I realise how great Northern Europe actually is. We have problems too and there are plenty of expensive areas, but the work life balance is great and you don't have to be a millionaire to have a decent lifestyle, if you pick the right areas. Of course it's the same in other parts of the US, that you get more for your money. I don't see the point of working long hours in Bay Area as a so called professional, if you're worse off. When you're working long hours, you also don't really have the time to enjoy the scenery (apart from weekends). For the property taxes alone, you could afford a 2nd home like that in Spain/Portugal that would be easy to get to for long weekends.

malch

You're right but keep in mind there are many extremely interesting jobs and career opportunities. And some folks do come here hoping to make some money and then move or retire early to someplace else with a lower cost of living (whether or not those plans work out in reality).