Guy makes $160,000 and barely making it month to month...

Well mate, that is what the rest of the world does, lol. Welcome to life. You work and sleep 5 days a week and enjoy the other 2 days off. 12 hours work, 3 hours commute. Leaves you with 9 hours left. More than most people get in big cities outside the US. I respect your choice but it is just one out of many.

Yeah, so door to door we are talking an hour and a half. If you are averaging 11-12 hour workdays, it's pretty detrimental.
 
Totally incorrect. Extensive research has shown that demand in certain housing price pockets hardly bleeds into other pockets. Just because million dollar homes are bid up does not trickle all the way down to, let's say 300k homes unless it is for more fundamental reasons.

Also a drop in transactions doesn't necessarily translate into a drop in prices.it can but does not have to and price changes can lag by a long time span.

What you are proposing are not logical economic arguments but to fuxx over foreigners, at least name the child by its name.

What is driving the real estate up is those foreigners buying up all those million dollar mansions. It's ridiculous that somebody who has a six-figure income can't even buy a house. What you need to do is levy a foreign buyer's tax on real estate in the entire state of California so that way any foreigners are deterred in buying up real estate.

In our Canadian city of Vancouver, we had the same problem. There were couples who were BOTH doctors making six-figure income and couldn't even afford to rent and had to live with the husband's parents and meanwhile there were empty houses everywhere in the neighbourhood that were owned but never lived in. The provincial government just had it and levied a 15% foreigner buyer's tax on real estate. Any buyers who are not citizens of Canada and who have not lived in Canada for 5 years for full time have to pay 15% tax when buying a real estate. It worked like a charm!! The market cooled down instantly. Real estate sales dropped by 30%!! For us Canada, 15% did the trick. For California, you guys might need to levy like 25% to see any effect.

The only thing is the foreign buying will just migrate elsewhere. Now we are seeing the same problem in other metropolitan cities in other provinces and those provinces are contemplating levying the same tax as well. And that is good, if you can have all the wealthy states to levy the taxes together then eventually all the foreigners will be pushed to buy up properties in less popular cities in America and that way spread a bit of real estate boom balanced throughout United States and people will at least be able to own a piece of land. Once everybody's owned a piece of land then you just drop the foreign buyer's tax and then when the foreigners come back, you just sell the real estate back to them and make a nice capital gain! :)
 
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Well mate, that is what the rest of the world does, lol. Welcome to life. You work and sleep 5 days a week and enjoy the other 2 days off. 12 hours work, 3 hours commute. Leaves you with 9 hours left. More than most people get in big cities outside the US. I respect your choice but it is just one out of many.
I feel like to live in Manhattan and feel comfortable, you need to make over 500k pre-tax (not spend, but make). If my base was all I was making, I'd make different choices. Actually, I am pretty sure this guy would be making different choices too, since he's probably getting a nice stock award at the end of each year.

PS. I'd venture to say that 150k would not go too far in Princeton either. Once you add the mortgage, taxes, car payments and commuting costs, you still burning through most of your post-tax income. You could get some savings over living in the city, but it's not like you cut your expenses in half.
 
I venture to say anyone who earns 150k or more base and has to pay a mortgage and cannot afford to pay cash for a 600k or 700k house has done things wrong in life. And ignoring mortgage costs, all else unchanged, you do have plenty left each month paying an annual 2 or 3 percent property tax and a few hundred dollars commuting cost.

I feel like to live in Manhattan and feel comfortable, you need to make over 500k pre-tax (not spend, but make). If my base was all I was making, I'd make different choices. Actually, I am pretty sure this guy would be making different choices too, since he's probably getting a nice stock award at the end of each year.

PS. I'd venture to say that 150k would not go too far in Princeton either. Once you add the mortgage, taxes, car payments and commuting costs, you still burning through most of your post-tax income. You could get some savings over living in the city, but it's not like you cut your expenses in half.
 
I venture to say anyone who earns 150k or more base and has to pay a mortgage and cannot afford to pay cash for a 600k or 700k house has done things wrong in life.
Wait, what? Let's ignore yours truly and everyone else who works in finance. An average human that makes 150k in base salary would probably be taking home 160-175 total per year. How do you propose that person pay for a 600k house in cash? This, of course, assumes that they are buying said house before they hit 50.

Unless you implying that they have no business buying an expensive house like that? Probably true, but living around here that's kinda the going price for a house, I think.
 
I venture to say anyone who earns 150k or more base and has to pay a mortgage and cannot afford to pay cash for a 600k or 700k house has done things wrong in life.
Back of envelope calcs say that's approx 10 years to buy in cash.

Now that you've stated your opinion, are you going to lecture us on your stance on abortion and/or gay marriage?

Seriously, your opinions are valid but you have to take a moral bent on everything.
 
What is driving the real estate up is those foreigners buying up all those million dollar mansions. It's ridiculous that somebody who has a six-figure income can't even buy a house. What you need to do is levy a foreign buyer's tax on real estate in the entire state of California so that way any foreigners are deterred in buying up real estate.

In our Canadian city of Vancouver, we had the same problem. There were couples who were BOTH doctors making six-figure income and couldn't even afford to rent and had to live with the husband's parents and meanwhile there were empty houses everywhere in the neighbourhood that were owned but never lived in. The provincial government just had it and levied a 15% foreigner buyer's tax on real estate. Any buyers who are not citizens of Canada and who have not lived in Canada for 5 years for full time have to pay 15% tax when buying a real estate. It worked like a charm!! The market cooled down instantly. Real estate sales dropped by 30%!! For us Canada, 15% did the trick. For California, you guys might need to levy like 25% to see any effect.
Shelter is a right. Home ownership is not. Home ownership is a privilege.
 
Totally incorrect. Extensive research has shown that demand in certain housing price pockets hardly bleeds into other pockets. Just because million dollar homes are bid up does not trickle all the way down to, let's say 300k homes unless it is for more fundamental reasons.

Also a drop in transactions doesn't necessarily translate into a drop in prices.it can but does not have to and price changes can lag by a long time span.

This is not a "bleed" effect; it's an issue of drying up existing real estate supply in a place where there is just simply no place to build more inventories so the increased buying just drives up the price of the overall real estate market of all the "pockets" all together in two ways:

1) Once real estate in one area is all bought up, the buyers just spread to other areas to try to buy more real estate in another area and hence drive up the price in that area as well and then

2) When the neighbouring areas see that the adjacent area's real estate price had been sold quickly and at increased price, the existing asking price of properties get adjusted up immediately so you get a bidding war and the price of the real estate that used to be within the budget range of the local buyer all of sudden becomes out of range and you have what that professional was describing in the article: when he just went to an open house and the property gets sold in 24 hours with higher price.

Price is driven by demand & supply. Less demand --> drop in price. Problem solved! :)

What you are proposing are not logical economic arguments but to fuxx over foreigners, at least name the child by its name.

And speaking of f'king over foreigners, do you know that foreigners are completely forbidden to buy real estate properties in major cities in China like Shanghai? If you are an American, WHY do you care more about foreigners than your own people especially when other foreign countries fuxx over you? LOL

And in reality this is NOT fuxx over foreigners, this is more like fuxxing over greedy real estate agents who want to protect their fat commissions. At least you call the child by its name.
 
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Paying $1,400 to live in a closet is NOT shelter; it's abuse.
LOLLOLOLOLOL, you think that's abuse? Go check out how big apartments are in Shanghai or the chicken coops in HK.

Your hyperbole and moral stance is laughable.
 
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